Taxila was the major city of Gandhara, part of the richest satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. It was visited by Alexander the Great in 326 BC but after his death fell to the expanding Mauryan Empire under Chandragupta Maurya.
Most of the excavated buildings in the 6th-2nd century BC settlement (the Bhir Mound) belong to the Mauryan period (3rd century BC). A pillared hall in one part of the town was probably a temple in Mauryan times. Opposite it was a small shop selling terracotta reliefs of male and female deities that were popular votive offerings.
The Mauryan emperor Ashoka in his youth resided here as viceroy for this important northern Mauryan province. His son Kunala became viceroy here during Ashoka's reign. A commemorative stupa (mound) and monastery were later erected on the spot where Kunala was said to have been blinded on the orders of his wicked stepmother.
