Kushan Empire: Encyclopedia - Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire (c. 1st–3rd centuries) was a state that at its height, about 105–250, stretched from Tajikistan to the Caspian Sea to Afghanistan and down into the Ganges river valley in northern India. The empire was created by the Kushan tribe of the Yuezhi, a people from modern Xinjiang, China, possibly related to the Tocharians. They had diplomatic contacts with Rome, Sassanian Persia and China, and for several centuries were at the center of exchange between the East and the West.

Kushan Empire - Origins

Chinese sources describe the Guishuang (Ch:貴霜), i.e. the "Kushans" as one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi (Ch:月氏), a loose confederation of Indo-European peoples, possibly speaking versions of the Tocharian language. They were the easternmost Indo-Europeans, who had been living in the arid grasslands of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, until they were driven west by the Xiongnu in 176–160 BCE. The five Yuezhi tribes are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì (Ch:休密), Guishuang (Ch:貴霜), Shuangmi (Ch:雙靡), Xidun (Ch:肸頓), and Dūmì (Ch:都密).

The Yuezhi reached the Hellenic kingdom of Greco-Bactria, in the Bactrian territory (northernmost Afghanistan and Uzbekistan) around 135 BCE, and displaced the Greek dynasties there, who resettled in Indus basin (in present day Pakistan) in the western part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

Kushan Empire - A multi-cultural Empire

In the following century, the Yuezhi tribe of the Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜) gained prominence over the others, and welded them into a tight confederation. 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 (An area lying primarily in Pakistan's Pothowar, and NWFP region but going in an arc to include Kabul valley and part of Qandahar in Afghanistan) and established twin capitals near present-day Kabul and Peshawar then known as Kapisa and Pushklavati respectively.

The Kushans adopted many elements of the Hellenistic culture of Bactria, where they had settled. They adapted the Greek alphabet (often corrupted) to suit their own language (with the additional development of the letter Þ "sh", as in "Kushan") and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model. On their coins they used Greek language legends combined with Kharoshthi legends until the first few years of the reign of Kanishka, and after that date, used Kushan language legends combined with Greek language legends, both of them in the Greek script.

The Kushans are believed to have been predominantly Zoroastrian and later Buddhist as well. However, from the time of Wima Takto, many Kushans started adopting some aspects of Indian culture like the other nomadic groups who had invaded India. The first great Kushan emperor Wima Kadphises may have embraced Saivism, as surmised by coins minted during the period. The following Kushan emperors represented a wide variety of faiths including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and possibly Saivism.

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 oversaw 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.

Kushan Empire - Heraios 1-30 CE

Heraios was probably the first of the Kushan kings. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios was probably the father of Kujula Kadphises.

Kushan Empire - Kujula Kadphises 30-80 CE

According to the Hou Hanshu: "the prince (xihou) of Guishuang (Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus), named Kujula Kadphises (Ch:丘就却, "Qiujiuque") attacked and exterminated the four other princes (xihou). He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishuang. He invaded Anxi (Parthia) and took the Gaofu (Kabul) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda, and Jibin (Kapisha-Gandhara). Qiujiuque (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died."

These conquests probably took place sometime between 45 and 60 CE, and laid the basis for the Kushan Empire which was rapidly expanded by his descendants.

Kujula issued an extensive series of coins and fathered at least two sons, Sadaṣkaṇa (who is known from only one inscription, and may never have ruled), and Vima Taktu.

Kushan Empire - Vima Taktu 80-105 CE

Vima Takt[u] (or Tak[to]) is mentioned in the Rabatak Inscription (see the reference to Sims-william's article below), which states that he was the father of Vima Kadphises, and the grandfather of Kanishka I. He expanded the Kushan Empire into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. The Hou Hanshu says:

“His [Kujula Kadphises’] son, Yangaozhen (Vima Taktu), became king in his place. He conquered Tianzhu (Northwestern India) and installed a General to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang (Kushan) king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi.”

Kushan Empire - Vima Kadphises 105-127 CE

Vima Kadphises was the son of Vima Taktu and the father of Kanishka I. He issued an extensive series of coins and inscriptions.

Kushan Empire - Kanishka I 127-147 CE

The rule of Kanishka I, the second great Kushan emperor, fifth Kushan king, who flourished for at least 28 years from c. 127, was administered from two capitals: Purushapura (now Peshawar in northern Pakistan) and Mathura, in northern India. The Kushans also had a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa), where the "Begram Treasure", comprising works of art from Greece to China, has been found. According to the Rabatak inscription, Kanishka was the son of Vima Kadphises, the grandson of Vima Taktu, and the great-grandson of Kujula Kadphises. Kanishka's era is now generally accepted to have begun in 127 CE on the basis of Harry Falk's ground-breaking research (see Reference section below).

Kushan Empire - The Kushans and Buddhism

Cultural exchanges also flourished, encouraging the development of Greco-Buddhism, a fusion of Hellenistic and Buddhist cultural elements, that was to expand into central and northern Asia as Mahayana Buddhism.

Kanishka is renowned in Buddhist tradition for having convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. This council is attributed with having marked the official beginning of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its schism with Nikaya Buddhism. Kanishka also had the original Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the language of Sanskrit. Along with the Indian king Ashoka, the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), and Harsha Vardhana, Kanishka is considered by Buddhism as one of its greatest benefactors.

Kushan Empire - Depiction of Kushan devotees in the art of Gandhara

The art and culture of Gandhara, at the crossroads of the Kushan hegemony, are the best known expressions of Kushan influences to Westerners. Several direct depictions of Kushans are known from Gandhara, where they are represented with a tunic, belt and trousers and play the role of devotees to the Buddha, as well as the Bodhisattva and future Buddha Maitreya.

In the iconography, they are never associated however with the very Hellenistic "Standing Buddha" statues (See image), which might therefore correspond to an earlier historical period. The style of these friezes incorporating Kushan devotees is already strongly Indianized, quite remote from earlier Hellenistic depictions of the Buddha:

Maitreya, with Kushan devotee couple. 2nd century Gandhara.

Maitreya, with Kushan devotees, left and right. 2nd century Gandhara.

Maitreya, with Indian (left) and Kushan (right) devotees.

Kushans worshipping the Buddha's bowl. 2nd century Gandhara.

Kushan devotee couple, around the Buddha, Brahma and Indra.

Gold coin of Kanishka with a rough representation of the Hellenistic Buddha (c.120 AD).

The "Kanishka casket", with the Buddha surrounded by Brahma and Indra, and Kanishka on the lower part, 127 CE.

Buddha triad and kneeling Kushan devotee couple. 3rd century.

Kushan Empire - Contacts with Rome

Several Roman sources describe the visit of ambassadors from the Kings of Bactria and India during the 2nd century CE, probably referring to the Kushans:

Historia Augusta, speaking of Emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE) tells:

Also in 138, according to Aurelius Victor (Epitome‚ XV, 4), and Appian (Praef., 7), Antoninus Pius, successor to Hadrian, received some Indian, Bactrian (Kushan) and Hyrcanian ambassadors.

The Chinese Historical Chronicle of the Hou Hanshu also describes the exchange of goods between northwestern India and the Roman Empire at that time: "To the west (Tiazhu, northwestern india) communicates with Da Qin (the Roman Empire). Precious things from Da Qin can be found there, as well as fine cotton cloths, excellent wool carpets, perfumes of all sorts, sugar loaves, pepper, ginger, and black salt."

The summer capital of the Kushan in Begram has yielded a considerable amount of goods imported from the Roman Empire, in particular various types of glassware.

Kushan Empire - Contacts with China

During the 1st and 2nd century, the Kushan Empire expanded militarily to the north and occupied parts of the Tarim Basin, their original grounds, putting them at the center of the profitable Central Asian commerce with the Roman Empire. They are related to have collaborated militarily with the Chinese against nomadic incursion, particularly when they collaborated with the Chinese general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84 CE, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of Kashgar. Around 85 CE, they also assisted the Chinese general in an attack on Turfan, east of the Tarim Basin.

In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Kushans requested, but were denied, a Han princess, even after they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 86 CE with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally defeated by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire during the reign of the Chinese emperor Han He (89–106).

Later, around 116 CE, the Kushans under Kanishka established a kingdom centered on Kashgar, also taking control of Khotan and Yarkand, which were Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang. They introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and expanded the influence of Greco-Buddhist art which developed into Serindian art.

The Kushans are again recorded to have sent presents to the Chinese court in 158–159 CE during the reign of the Chinese emperor Han Huan.

Following these interactions, cultural exhanges further increased, and Kushan Buddhist missionaries, such as Lokaksema, became active in the Chinese capital cities of Loyang and sometimes Nanjing, where they particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They were the first recorded promoters of Hinayana and Mahayana scriptures in China, greatly contributing to the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism.

Kushan Empire - Decline

From the 3rd century the Kushan empire began to fragment.

Around 225 Vasudeva I died and the Kushan empire was divided into western and eastern halves. Around 224–240, the Sasanians invaded Bactria and Northern India, where they are known as the Indo-Sassanians.

Around 270, the Kushans lost their territories on the Gangetic plain, where the Gupta Empire was established around 320.

During the middle of the 4th century CE a Kushan vassal in Pakistan, named Kidara, rose to power and overthrew the old Kushan dynasty. He created a kingdom known as the Kidarite Kingdom, although he probably considered himself a Kushan, as indicated by the Kushan style of his coins. The Kidarite seem to have been rather prosperous, although on a smaller scale than their Kushan predecessors.

These remnants of the Kushan empire were ultimately wiped out in the 5th century by the invasions of the White Huns, and later the expansion of Islam.

Kushan Empire - Main Kushan rulers

• Heraios (c. 1 – 30), first Kushan ruler, generally Kushan ruling period is disputed
• Kujula Kadphises (c. 30 – c. 80)
• Vima Takto, (c. 80 – c. 105) alias Soter Megas or "Great Saviour."
• Vima Kadphises (c. 105 – c. 127) the first great Kushan emperor
• Kanishka I (127 – c. 147)
• Vāsishka (c. 151 – c. 155)
• Huvishka (c. 155 – c. 187)
• Vasudeva I (c. 191 – 225), the last of the great Kushan emperors
• Kanishka II (c. 226 – 240)
• Vashishka (c. 240 – 250)
• Kanishka III (c. 255 – 275)
• Vasudeva II (c. 290 – 310)
• Chhu (c. 310? – 325?)
• Shaka I (c. 325 – 345)
• Kipunada (c. 350 – 375)

 6th century BCE
 5th century BCE
 4th century BCE

 3rd century BCE
 2nd century BCE

 1st century BCE
 1st century CE


 2nd century CE
 3rd century CE
 4th century CE
 5th century CE
 6th century CE
 7th century CE
 8th century CE
 9th century CE
10th century CE
11th century CE

• Magadha empire
• Nanda empire

• Mauryan empire
• Satavahana empire
• Sunga empire
• Kuninda kingdom

• Gupta empire

• Pratihara
• Pala Empire

• Solanki

• Pandya
  

• Kalinga
• Chera
  

• Chola

• Pallava

• Chalukya
• Rashtrakuta

(Persian rule)
(Greek conquests)

• Indo-Greek kingdom
  

• Indo-Scythians
• Indo-Parthian Kingdom
• Kushan Empire
• Western Kshatrapas
• Indo-Sassanians
• Kidarite Kingdom
• Indo-Hephthalites

(First Islamic conquests)

• Shahi

(Islamic invasion of India)

See also

• Pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
• Indo-Greek Kingdom
• Indo-Scythians
• Indo-Parthian Kingdom
• Indo-Sassanian
• Greco-Buddhism

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