How did the Persians influence Indian civilization?

Answer 1

This is known a Indo-persian culture, as the name suggests its a mix of the two cultures, which already had similarities.

The culture was influenced mostly through the use of language.

Many of the Sultans and nobility in the Sultanate period were Persianised Turks from Central Asia who spoke Turkic languages as their mother tongues. The Mughals were also from Persianized Central Asia, but spoke Chagatai Turkic as their first language at the beginning, before eventually adopting Persian. Persian became the preferred language of the Muslim elite of north India. Muzaffar Alam, a noted scholar of Mughal and Indo-Persian history, suggests that Persian became the lingua franca of the empire under Akbar for various political and social factors due to its non-sectarian and fluid nature. The influence of these languages on Indian Apabhramshas led to a vernacular that is the ancestor of today's Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani."

Persian hold on western India from about 500 BCE was tenuous and relatively short-lived. It had no significant effect as it was ruled by its own petty kings and tribal leaders under a Persian provincial governor whose job was to keep the peace and collect taxes, and retained its local customs, culture and languages.

The Mauryan Empire expanded west in the late 3rd Century BCE swallowed up western India and imposed its culture.

Answer 2

There are superficial language remnants in the Indian culture.