Plausibility Check: Indian Kingdom ruling Media, Persia, Mesopotamia

The Persian Empire of Cyrus, Darius, et al. managed to do quite a bit of conquering into India. Would it have been possible for an Indian polity to reverse the direction of conquest and make inroads into modern Iran and Iraq in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.? If so, how long could such an empire be maintained, and what cultural effects would a hypothetical Indian ruling class have on Near Eastern civilization?
 
It is certainly possible to do so short-term, as Great Conquerors are plentiful during the classical age, but unlikely to be lasting. Persia is a mountainous plateau with it's own civilisation, culture, etc., and one that is quite durable. The Persians operated in India from their base in the plateau, and nibbled off chunks of India. The Indian conqueror in this case would be facing a harder challenge, operating from the lowlands and attempting to project himself over the Zagros into Mesopotamia. Plus, unless you want a "small Indian kingdom somehow takes over Persia in a time of crisis and becomes Persia in all but name," the conqueror would have plenty of problems in India itself.
However, the ramifications even of a short rule are of course even more contact between the two, and some cultural diffusion perhaps.
 
It is certainly possible to do so short-term, as Great Conquerors are plentiful during the classical age, but unlikely to be lasting. Persia is a mountainous plateau with it's own civilisation, culture, etc., and one that is quite durable. The Persians operated in India from their base in the plateau, and nibbled off chunks of India. The Indian conqueror in this case would be facing a harder challenge, operating from the lowlands and attempting to project himself over the Zagros into Mesopotamia. Plus, unless you want a "small Indian kingdom somehow takes over Persia in a time of crisis and becomes Persia in all but name," the conqueror would have plenty of problems in India itself.
However, the ramifications even of a short rule are of course even more contact between the two, and some cultural diffusion perhaps.
The closest you could come would be the Kabul Shahis (Hindu Shahis/Shahiya) who in their early period were Buddhist and after about 870 or so suddenly became Hindu in a way that contemporary chroniclers just shrugged off. (Seriously, it's weird, both the Muslim and Indian chroniclers talk about the dynasty as continuous and even mix them up a bit but there is a clear break between when they were Buddhist and Hindu).

So if the Kabul Shahis do better, you could have Culturally Hindu, religiously Buddhist, Turco-Pashtuns.
 
Having said that, it's the problem really that there's nothing in Persia that India needs. If an Indian kingdom can successfully defend the passes through the Hindu Kush, there's no point wasting time trying to push further.
 
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