Kushan Empire

Boundary of the Kushan empire at its greatest extent, ca. 150 A.D.
Enlarge
Boundary of the Kushan empire at its greatest extent, ca. 150 A.D.

The Kushan Empire (ca. 1st century A.D.- 3rd century A.D.) was a state that at its height, about 150 - 250 CE, stretched from Tajikistan to the Caspian Sea to Afghanistan and down into the Ganges river valley. The empire was created by Tocharians from modern Xinjiang, China. 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.

Contents

Origins

The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term, traditionally transliterated Guishang, that described a branch of the Yuezhi: a loose confederation of Indo-European peoples 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 Yuezhi reached the Hellenic kingdom of Greco-Bactria, in the Bactrian territory (northernmost Afghanistan and Uzbekistan) around 135 BC, and displaced the Greek dynasties there, who resettled in India in the western part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

Silver tetradrachm of Kushan king Heraios (1-30 AD) in Greco-Bactrian style, with horseman crowned by the Greek goddess of victory Nike.
Enlarge
Silver tetradrachm of Kushan king Heraios (1-30 AD) in Greco-Bactrian style, with horseman crowned by the Greek goddess of victory Nike.

In the following century, charismatic leaders welded the group into a tight confederation. Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scythian tribes, the Yuezhi expanded south into the region traditionally known as Gandhara (the Pathan areas now shared between Pakistan and Afghanistan) and established a capital near present-day Kabul.

A multi-cultural Empire

The Kushans adopted many elements of the Hellenistic culture of Bactria, where they had settled. They adapted the Greek alphabet to suit their own language and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model.

Kujula Kadphises

At the beginning of the 1st century AD, during the reign of Kujula Kadphises, the Kushans suffered a strong setback, as a large part of their empire was invaded by the Parthians. The Parthian leader Gondophares established an Indo-Parthian Kingdom that was to last until the end of the century. By around 75 AD, however, the Kushans had regained most of their territory.

Kanishka I

Gold coin of Kushan emperor Kanishka I (c.100-126 AD) with a Hellenistic representation of the Buddha (except for the feet spread apart, Kushan style), and the word "Boddo" in Greek script.
Enlarge
Gold coin of Kushan emperor Kanishka I (c.100-126 AD) with a Hellenistic representation of the Buddha (except for the feet spread apart, Kushan style), and the word "Boddo" in Greek script.

The rule of Kanishka I, the third Kushan emperor, who flourished from the late 1st to the early/mid-2nd century AD, 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, where the "Begram Treasure", comprising works of art from Greece to China, has been found.

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.

Kushan man in the traditional costume with tunic and boots, 2nd century, Gandhara.
Enlarge
Kushan man in the traditional costume with tunic and boots, 2nd century, Gandhara.

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.

Cultural exchanges also flourished, encouraging the development of Greco-Buddhism, a fusion of hellenist and Buddhist cultural elements, that was to expand into central and northern Asia as Mahayana Buddhism. Kanishka is renowed 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 scission with Nikaya Buddhism. Kanishka also had the original Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the high literary language of Sanskrit. Along with the Indian king Ashoka, the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), and Harshavardhan, Kanishka is considered by Buddhism as one of its greatest benefactors.


The art and culture of Gandhara, at the crossroads of the Kushan hegemony, are the best known expressions of Kushan influences to Westerners.

Decline

Gold dinar of Kushan king Kanishka II (200-220 AD)
Enlarge
Gold dinar of Kushan king Kanishka II (200-220 AD)

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

Around 200 AD Vasudeva I died and the Kushan empire was divided into western and eastern halves. Around 224-240 AD, the Sasanians invaded Bactria and Northern India. Around 270, the Kushans lost their territories on the Gangetic plain.

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

Main Kushan rulers

See also

External links



There is also an unrelated Kushan Empire in the PC game series "Homeworld."

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article. Browse Wikipedia for more information.