Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Ancient Pakistan" in Simple English language version.
Many of the concepts characteristic of Mahayana Buddhism—the form of Buddhism which later spread widely across East Asia—appear to have developed in Gandhara.
...archaeologists often call the whole area the Greater Indus Region or the Greater Indus Valley. Thus, Ancient Pakistan is essentially the Greater Indus Valley; it is more a cultural and geographic unit than a political one.
The Greater Indus region is the easternmost portion of a large cultural and natural area of antiquity, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Thar Desert ...
The "Xi'nanyi liezhuan 西南夷列傳" of Shiji 史記(ch. 116) records that there was a state of Shendu 身毒 to the west of Qiong at a distance of about 2,000 li里. The "Dayuan liezhuan 大宛列傳" of Shiji 史記 (ch.123) records that the state of Shendu 身 毒"lies several thousands of li里 southeast of Daxia 大夏....and the state borders on a large river". The "large river" is a reference to the Indus, and so it seems that Shendu 身毒 specifically refers to the Indus Valley.
During the last six thousand years Indus has, indeed, remained independent of and separate from India for almost 5,500 years. Only the three 'Universal States those of the Mauryans, the Mughals, and the British welded these two regions together in single empires. And the aggregate period of these 'Universal States' was not more than five hundred years.
The founder of Tibetan Buddhism, Padmasambhava was from the Oddiyana region of Pakistan.
The birthplace of Hinduism is Indus River Valley which runs through northwest India into Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization, or "Harappan civilization" originated sometime around 4,500-5,000 B.C.E. and reached its zenith between 2300 to 2000 BC.
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