Kanishka: Encyclopedia II - Kanishka - Kanishka's coinage

Kanishka - Kanishka's coinage

Kanishka's coins show Hindu, Buddhist, Greek, Persian and even Sumerian-Elamite images of gods. They are demonstrative of religious syncretism in his beliefs. Kanishka's coins at the beginning of his reign were written in the Greek language, with the Greek script, and depicted Greek divinities. Later in his reign, Kanishka ordered that the Bactrian language be used (the Iranian language the Kushans apparently spoke), and Greek divinities were replaced by corresponding Iranian ones. All of Kanishka's coins (even the Bactria language) were written in corrupted Greek script, with the addition of the Kushan letter Þ, pronounced "Sh", as in the word "Kushan".

Kanishka - Hellenistic phase

A few coins at the beginning of his reign have a legend in the Greek language and Greek script: BACIΛEΥC BACIΛEWΝ KANHÞKOY ("Basileus Basileon Kanishkou"): "King of Kings Kanishka". This is a heretoforth unknown form in Greek, which is nevertheless proper grammatically (nominative form), indicating that Greek was still a "living" language among the Kushans at that time.

Greek deities, with Greek names are represented on these early coins:

• HΛIOC (Sun god Helios), HΦAHCTOC (Fire god Hephaistos), CAΛHNH (Moon god Selene), ANHMOC (Wind god Anemos)

Kanishka - Iranian/Indian phase

Following the transition to the Bactrian language on coins, numerous Iranian divinities were adopted in replacement (and extension) of Greek ones:

• MAO (Moon god Mao), OAΔO (Wind god Oado)
• MIΘPO ("Mitro", Mithra), MIIPO, MIOPO, MIYPO
• NANA, NANAIA, MANAOBAΓO, NANAÞAO
• ΛPOOACΠO, ΦAPPO, OPΛAΓNO, AθÞO, APΔOXÞO, MOZΔOOANO, ΦAPPO

One or two Indian divinities were used as well:

• BOΔΔO ("Boddo", the name of the Buddha in its Greek form)
• OHÞO ("Oisho", long considered as the Hindu god Shiva, although recent studies tend to indicate that Oisho is an Iranian god, derived from Herakles, with admitedly many of the attributes of Shiva ^[1])

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Kanishka's coinage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki