Pakhli

Pakhli was an ancient sarkar (district) of the Mughal Subah of Punjab, now part of Hazara, Pakistan. It roughly corresponds to the ancient Urasa, the Aρσa or Οΰaρσa which Ptolemy placed between the Bidaspes (Jhelum) and the Indus.

It was part of the Gandhara or Gandharva country of antiquity). It later became part of Chandragupta Maurya's Empire. The archaeological remains found here suggest that this was a place of great Hindu and Buddhist learning.

In the Rajatarangini this place now appeared as a separate kingdom and then again as tributary to the Kashmir valley. The Ain-i-Akbari refers to this entire region as Sarkar Pakhlim, which formed a part of the larger Kashmir province, which in turn was part of Subah Kabul. The area of Pakhli today forms a part of the Hazara Division of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

History

The king of Pakhli at the time of Alexander the Great was Arsakes, during the time of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited the area it was a tributary of Kashmir. The area was named after Sultan Faghal Jahangiri or Sultan Pakhaal the elder brother of Sultan Behram Jahangiri who conquered all the area from Jalalabad to Kashmir from Hindus. His rule didn't last long as he died very young.