You may be right in that....But you have to remember that Taxila was a centre of Brahmanism from the Indic point of view ...There was a certain level of pushback against Buddhism (and various other Shramana philosophies) from the Brahmans of Magadha during the time of Buddha itself...I donot think the Brahmans of Taxila would have taken to this new philosophy kindly since preponderance of Buddhism would have robbed them of state patronage and massive sacrifices...But its not too far out to think that the Dharma of the Buddha established itself in modern day
Taxila region during the time of Buddha itself...Who might have been the vector? Traders...and this is not without reason
Tapussa and Bahlika were traders from Balkh and some other North Western place who became Buddha's disciples during his lifetime...
Buddha had knowledge of the North-West, though vague but authentic knowledge ......Darius I had already transported the Greek population of Cyrenaica, in North Africa to Bactria by then as punishment...Buddha mentions the presence of Greeks in Assalayana Sutta in the North West (Darius I doing this thing somewhere around 520 BCE, traditionally Buddha was born in 563 BCE but modern Scholarship holds it to 480 BCE)
You should get hold of How the Brahmins won: From Alexander to the Guptas by Johannes bronkhorst...That book opened my eyes...The invasion of Alexander was nothing short of End of Days for the Brahmins of the indus Valley....Alexander massacred entire towns and the Greeks named the tribes vanquished along the Indus only by the name of their respective Brahmin clans...Brahmins were the prime instigators against Hellenic rule there...It is Alexander's invasion that forced the Brahmins to look eastward...Yuga Purana alludes to that fact .....later Indo-Scythians were also no less brutal to the Brahmins in the North West...it is this depopulation of Brahmins from the north West that lend bulk of Western punjab conducive to the efforts of Islamic preaching and Buddhism before that
Anyways that book shatter many notions about traditional version of religious History...That book is part of a trilogy by Bronkhorst
Greater Magadha
Buddhism in the shadow of Brahmanism
How the Brahmins won: from Alexander to the Guptas
Bronkhorst combined with Eaton's research on Islamification of Punjab provides the most accurate picture of the history of the North western plains...I have already uploaded Eaton's work...will do regarding Bronkhorst's work after I have read all three books (already finished G.Magadha and then straight skipped to How the Brahmins won) and can present a cogent summary
Regarding second part of your answer I broadly agree with you but will have to assert that band being slightly narrower...east of Ravi is hard Indic world even if you want to dissuade yourself asserting that east of chenab is hard Indic world...but anyways these are minor differences and I agree with the broadstroke...The borders of Partition are around 97-99 percent correct (even without taking Islam into consideration)
The Indian Pakistan border is no fluke...it somehow rides the grooves of destiny and has been doing so close 3,500 years....Mostly due to geography and the limits of military projection capability of different empires ...
Pakistan is inevitable with or without Islam...It is for people like me to convince other Indians that Pakistan has the right to exist even if it were to turn Sikh,Hindu,Buddhist,Zoroastrian,Taoist,Non-Muslim etc
It is for the enlightened people of Pakistan to understand that Pakistan has a glorious claim to nationhood even without resorting to Islamic triumphalism
@padamchen --->discussion has moved to much more friendly,academic environs and I made some comments regarding Zoroastrian military history which may be of interest to you
@Mangus Ortus Novem
@SIPRA
@Indus Pakistan