The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories
in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of modern-day territory of Afghanistan,
Pakistan and northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi , where
inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great.
The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, an Indo-European
nomadic people of possible Tocharian origin, who migrated from northwestern China and settled
in ancient Bactria. The founder of the dynasty, Kujula Kadphises, followed Greek religious
ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition, but was also a devotee of the Hindu
God Shiva, an almost historical necessity due to the presence of Indian culture and
traders on the Silk Road. The Kushans in general were also great patrons of Buddhism, and,
starting with Emperor Kanishka, they also employed elements of Zoroastrianism in their
pantheon. They played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and
China.
The Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes, but
soon began to use the Bactrian language. Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains.
A direct road from Gandhara to China remained under Kushan control for more than a century,
encouraging travel across the Karakoram and facilitating the spread of Mahayana Buddhism
to China. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia,
the Aksumite Empire and the Han dynasty of China. The Kushan Empire was at the center
of trade relations between the Roman Empire and China: according to Alain Daniélou, "for
a time, the Kushana Empire was the centerpoint of the major civilizations". While much philosophy,
art, and science was created within its borders, the only textual record of the empire's history
today comes from inscriptions and accounts in other languages, particularly Chinese.
The Kushan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell
to the Sasanians invading from the west, establishing the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom in the areas
of Sogdiana, Bactria and Gandhara. In the 4th century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty
also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kingdoms were
eventually overwhelmed by invaders from the north, known as the Kidarites, and then the
Hephthalites. Origins
Chinese sources describe the Guishuang , i.e. the Kushans, as one of the five aristocratic
tribes of the Yuezhi. There is scholarly consensus that the Yuezhi were a people of Indo-European
origin. A specifically Tocharian origin of the Yuezhi is often suggested. An Iranian,
specifically Saka, origin, also has some support among scholars. Others suggest that the Yuezhi
might have originally been a nomadic Iranian people, who were then partially assimilated
by settled Tocharians, thus containing both Iranian and Tocharian elements.
The Yuezhi were described in the Records of the Great Historian and the Book of Han as
living in the grasslands of eastern Xinjiang and northwestern part of Gansu, in the northwest
of modern-day China, until their King was beheaded by the Xiongnu who were also at war
with China, which eventually forced them to migrate west in 176–160 BCE. The five tribes
constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì , Guìshuāng , Shuāngmǐ
, Xìdùn , and Dūmì . The Yuezhi reached the Hellenic kingdom of
Greco-Bactria around 135 BC. The displaced Greek dynasties resettled to the southeast
in areas of the Hindu Kush and the Indus basin , occupying the western part of the Indo-Greek
Kingdom.
In India, Kushan emperors regularly used the dynastic name ΚΟϷΑΝΟ on their coinage.
Several inscriptions in Sanskrit in the Brahmi script, such as the Mathura inscription of
the statue of Vima Kadphises, refer to the Kushan Emperor as Gupta allahabad ku.jpg Gupta
gujarat ssaa.jpg Gupta ashoka nn.svg, Ku-ṣā-ṇa . Some later Indian literary sources referred
to the Kushans as Turushka, a name which in later Sanskrit sources was confused with Turk,
"probably due to the fact that Tukharistan passed into the hands of the western Turks
in the seventh century". Yet, according to Wink, "nowadays no historian considers them
to be Turkish-Mongoloid or 'Hun', although there is no doubt about their Central-Asian
origin."
Early Kushans Some traces remain of the presence of the
Kushans in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana in the 2nd-1st century BCE, where they had
displaced the Sakas, who moved further south. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-i
Sangin, Surkh Kotal , and in the palace of Khalchayan. On the ruins of ancient Hellenistic
cities such as Ai-Khanoum, the Kushans are known to have built fortresses. Various sculptures
and friezes from this period are known, representing horse-riding archers, and, significantly,
men such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan with artificially deformed skulls, a practice
well attested in nomadic Central Asia. Some of the Khalchayan sculptural scenes are also
thought to depict the Kushans fighting against the Sakas. In these portrayals, the Yuezhis
are shown with a majestic demeanour, whereas the Sakas are typically represented with side-wiskers,
and more or less grotesque facial expressions.
The Chinese first referred to these people as the Yuezhi and said they established the
Kushan Empire, although the relationship between the Yuezhi and the Kushans is still unclear.
Ban Gu's Book of Han tells us the Kushans divided up Bactria in 128 BCE. Fan Ye's Book
of Later Han "relates how the chief of the Kushans, Ch'iu-shiu-ch'ueh , founded by means
of the submission of the other Yueh-chih clans the Kushan Empire."
The earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler,
was Heraios. He calls himself a "tyrant" in Greek on his coins, and also exhibits skull
deformation. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage.
Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises.
The Chinese Book of Later Han chronicles then gives an account of the formation of the Kushan
empire based on a report made by the Chinese general Ban Yong to the Chinese Emperor c.
125 AD:
More than a hundred years later , the prince of Guishuang established himself as king,
and his dynasty was called that of the Guishuang King. He invaded Anxi , and took the Gaofu
region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda and Jibin . Qiujiuque was
more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yangaozhen , became king in his place.
He defeated Tianzhu and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then
became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call the Guishuang king, but the Han call them
by their original name, Da Yuezhi.
— Book of Later Han. Diverse cultural influences
In the 1st century BCE, the Guishuang gained prominence over the other Yuezhi tribes, and
welded them into a tight confederation under yabgu Kujula Kadphises. The name Guishuang
was adopted in the West and modified into Kushan to designate the confederation, although
the Chinese continued to call them Yuezhi.
Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scythian tribes, the Kushans expanded
south into the region traditionally known as Gandhara and established twin capitals
in Begram. and Peshawar, then known as Kapisa and Pushklavati respectively.
The Kushans adopted elements of the Hellenistic culture of Bactria. They adopted the Greek
alphabet to suit their own language and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model.
On their coins they used Greek language legends combined with Pali legends , until the first
few years of the reign of Kanishka. After the middle of Kanishka's reign, they used
Kushan language legends , combined with legends in Greek and legends in Prakrit .
The Kushans "adopted many local beliefs and customs, including Zoroastrianism and the
two rising religions in the region, the Greek cults and Buddhism". From the time of Vima
Takto, many Kushans started adopting aspects of Buddhist culture, and like the Egyptians,
they absorbed the strong remnants of the Greek culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming
at least partly Hellenised. The great Kushan emperor Vima Kadphises may have embraced Shaivism
, as surmised by coins minted during the period. The following Kushan emperors represented
a wide variety of faiths including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Shaivism.
The rule of the Kushans linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce
of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley. At the height of the dynasty,
the Kushans loosely ruled a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day
Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into northern India.
The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade,
brought Chinese silks to Rome, and created strings of flourishing urban centers.
Territorial expansion Rosenfield notes that archaeological evidence
of a Kushan rule of long duration is present in an area stretching from Surkh Kotal, Begram,
the summer capital of the Kushans, Peshawar, the capital under Kanishka I, Taxila, and
Mathura, the winter capital of the Kushans. The Kushans introduced for the first time
a form of governance which consisted of Kshatrapas and Mahakshatrapa .
Other areas of probable rule include Khwarezm and its capital city of Toprak-Kala, Kausambi
, Sanchi and Sarnath , Malwa and Maharashtra, and Odisha .
Kushan invasions in the 1st century CE had been given as an explanation for the migration
of Indians from the Indian Subcontinent toward Southeast Asia according to proponents of
a Greater India theory by 20th-century Indian nationalists. However, there is no evidence
to support this hypothesis.
The recently discovered Rabatak inscription confirms the account of the Hou Hanshu, Weilüe,
and inscriptions dated early in the Kanishka era , that large Kushan dominions expanded
into the heartland of northern India in the early 2nd century CE. Lines 4 to 7 of the
inscription describe the cities which were under the rule of Kanishka, among which six
names are identifiable: Ujjain, Kundina, Saketa, Kausambi, Pataliputra, and Champa . The Buddhist
text Śrīdharmapiṭakanidānasūtra—known via a Chinese translation made in 472 CE—refers
to the conquest of Pataliputra by Kanishka. A 2nd century stone inscription by a Great
Satrap named Rupiamma was discovered in Pauni, south of the Narmada river, suggesting that
Kushan control extended this far south, although this could alternatively have been controlled
by the Western Satraps. In the East, as late as the 3rd century CE,
decorated coins of Huvishka were dedicated at Bodh Gaya together with other gold offerings
under the "Enlightenment Throne" of the Buddha, suggesting direct Kushan influence in the
area during that period. Coins of the Kushans are found in abundance as far as Bengal, and
the ancient Bengali state of Samatata issued coins copied from the coinage of Kanishka
I, although probably only as a result of commercial influence. Coins in imitation of Kushan coinage
have also been found abundantly in the eastern state of Orissa.
In the West, the Kushan state covered the Pārata state of Balochistan, western Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan was known for
the Kushan Buddhist city of Merv.
Northward, in the 1st century CE, the Kujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin
to support the city-state of Kucha, which had been resisting the Chinese invasion of
the region, but they retreated after minor encounters. In the 2nd century CE, the Kushans
under Kanishka made various forays into the Tarim Basin, where they had various contacts
with the Chinese. Kanishka held areas of the Tarim Basin apparently corresponding to the
ancient regions held by the Yüeh-zhi, the possible ancestors of the Kushan. There was
Kushan influence on coinage in Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan. According to Chinese chronicles,
the Kushans requested, but were denied, a Han princess, even though they had sent presents
to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 90 CE with a force
of 70,000 but were defeated by the smaller Chinese force. Chinese chronicles relate battles
between the Kushans and the Chinese general Ban Chao. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute
to the Chinese Empire. The regions of the Tarim Basin were all ultimately conquered
by Ban Chao. Later, during the Yuánchū period , the Kushans sent a military force to install
Chenpan, who had been a hostage among them, as king of Kashgar.