 The relations between India and Afghanistan are steeped in myth and mystique of shared heritage, shared ideals, and shared dreams of history and prehistory. In ancient times, Afghanistan was known to the world as Bactria, or Ariana, India as Aravrata. It was a world without borders, and there was free flow of caravans to and fro, mixing history and folklore. Afghanistan and India for at least 2,000 years, or longer than that, have had very close ties in different fields, art, culture, and religion, and so going back to 2,000 years ago, and then in the modern time, these two countries have been very friendly and close to each other, and so all those cultural relationships, particularly within the last 1,000 years, have brought these countries very close to each other. Think of those far off times, and there is an echo of Vedic hymns and spiritual songs. The great epic Mahabharat conjures exotic images of godly figures of those days, and Gandhari evokes memories of ancient Gandhar. Zorasta, known as Zarathustra, the prophet of Parsi religion of Persia, was born in Bactria around 600 BC. The great Sanskrit scholar and grammarian, Panini, was a use of saipatan, who settled in India, predating Gautam Buddha. He wrote both in Sanskrit and Pashto languages. Buddhism flourished in Afghanistan, blossoming into a popular creed. Of much far-reaching import was the consolidation of Buddhism in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. Buddhism did not establish itself as a religious cult, and indeed it ushered in revolution of ideas based on 8-fold moral code of conduct for humankind. Buddhist monasteries and stupas stand witness to this day as harbinger of a great civilisation phenomenon in India as in Afghanistan. The significance of this cultural and social intermingling did not lie in making imperial conquests or invasions, but in evolution of a cultural value system through peaceful means and people-to-people interaction. These socio-cultural values helped Afghanistan evolve as a multicultural, multiracial, liberal society for which India too is known as a cradle of civilisation. Islam made its advent both in India and Afghanistan in the 7th century AD. The event was remarkable in its peaceful overtones. In Afghanistan, Islam became a dominant creed with its universal appeal of human equality, justice and peace. The first Pathan dynasty to rule over the Delhi throne began with the Khiljis followed by the Lothi dynasty. There were no strangers to India since Peshawar in those days was part of Afghanistan. India's own rulers as well as the people found much in common. The Mughal King Baba established his own dynasty after defeating Ibrahim Lothi in the Battle of Panipat in 1526. He did not live long and died in 1530 in India. Baba's son Himayu was a tolerant king but his greatest handicap was the repeated revolt by his own brothers against him. It was then that the great Pathan warrior Sher Shah Suri overthrew Himayu, forcing him to flee to Persia. Sher Shah Suri was a great builder. He built a great road linking Peshawar with Calcutta and even beyond. Today, in free India, it is known as Sher Shah Suri Mark, running from Amritsar to Calcutta. Akbar ruled for almost five decades. He expanded his empire far and wide and his policy of religious tolerance won him wide acceptance. Akbar was a great reformer and connoisseur of arts, culture and literature. The ethos of languages, culture and social fusion outlasted the impact of imperial and colonial maneuvers.