The renowned University of Taxila became the greatest learning centre in the region, and allowed for exchanges between people from various cultures. The University was particularly renowned for science, especially medicine, and the arts, but both religious and secular subjects were taught, and even subject such as archery or astrology. Students come from distant parts of India. Many Jataka of early Buddhist literature mention students attending the University. It is believed that over 10,000 students from China, Babylon, Syria and Greece in addition to Indian students studied there. The Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley made Taxila a part of the Achaemenid Empire. The Persian conquest probably made Taxila University a very cosmopolitan environment in which numerous cultures and ethnicities could exchange their knowledge. The role of Taxila University as a center of knowledge continued under the Maurya Empire and Greek rule in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The destruction of Toramana in the 5th century CE seem to have put an end to the activities of the University.
Followers of the Buddha
Several contemporaries, and close followers, of the Buddha are said to have studied in Achaemenid Taxila: King Pasenadi of Kosala, a close friend of the Buddha, Bandhula, the commander of Pasedani's army, Aṅgulimāla, a close follower of the Buddha, and Jivaka, court doctor at Rajagriha and personal doctor of the Buddha. According to Stephen Batchelor, the Buddha may have been influenced by the experiences and knowledge acquired by some of his closest followers in the foreign capital of Taxila. ;Story of Angulimala as a student in Taxila A Buddhist story about Aṅgulimāla, relates how his parents send him to Taxila to study under a well-known teacher. There he excels in his studies and becomes the teacher's favorite student, enjoying special privileges in his teacher's house. However, the other students grow jealous of Ahiṃsaka's speedy progress and seek to turn his master against him. To that end, they make it seem as though Ahiṃsaka has seduced the master's wife.
Other famous students or professors
Charaka
, the Indian "father of medicine" and one of the leading authorities in Ayurveda, is also said to have studied at Taxila, and practiced there.
The great 5th century BCE grammarian Pāṇini is said to have been born in the northwest, in Shalatula near Attock, in what was then a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire following the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley.
Buddhist literature states that Chandragupta Maurya, the future founder of the Mauryan Empire, though born near Patna in Magadha, was taken by Chanakya for his training and education to Taxila, and had him educated there in "all the sciences and arts" of the period, including military sciences. There he studied for eight years. The Greek and Hindu texts also state that Kautilya was a native of the northwest Indian subcontinent, and Chandragupta was his resident student for eight years. These accounts match Plutarch's assertion that Alexander the Great met with the young Chandragupta while campaigning in the Punjab.
