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Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire
कुषाणसाम्राज्यम् (Sanskrit)
Κοϸανο (Bactrian)
Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν (Ancient Greek)
30–375
A map of India in the 2nd century AD showing the extent of the Kushan Empire (in green) during the reign of Kanishka. Most historians consider the empire to have variously extended as far east as the middle Ganges plain,[1] to Varanasi in the eastern Gangetic plain,[2][3] or probably even Pataliputra.[4][5]
A map of India in the 2nd century AD showing the extent of the Kushan Empire (in green) during the reign of Kanishka. Most historians consider the empire to have variously extended as far east as the middle Ganges plain,[1] to Varanasi in the eastern Gangetic plain,[2][3] or probably even Pataliputra.[4][5]
CapitalPuruṣapura
Takṣaśilā
Mathurā
Common languagesGreek (official until c. 127)[note 1]
Bactrian[note 1] (official from c. 127)[note 2]
Gandhari Prakrit[8]
Hybrid Sanskrit[8]
Religion
Hinduism[9]
Buddhism[10]
Zoroastrianism[11]
Demonym(s)Kushanas (Yuezhi)
GovernmentMonarchy
Emperor 
• 25–85
Kujula Kadphises (first)
• 350–375
Kipunada (last)
Historical eraClassical Antiquity
• Kujula Kadphises unites Yuezhi tribes into a confederation
30
• Subjugated by the Sasanians, Guptas and Hepthalites[12]
375
Area
• Total
2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi)
CurrencyKushan dinara
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Indo-Greek Kingdom
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
Indo-Scythians
Northern Satraps
Western Satraps
Maha-meghavahanas
Sasanian Empire
Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom
Nagas of Padmavati
Kidarites
Nagas of Vindhyatabi
Gupta Empire

The Kushan Empire (c. 30–c. 375 AD)[a] was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eastern Iran and Northern India,[16][17][18] 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.[note 3]

The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation,[22][23] an Indo-European nomadic people of possible Tocharian origin,[24][25][26][27][28] who migrated from northwestern China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and settled in ancient Bactria.[23] The founder of the dynasty, Kujula Kadphises, followed Iranian and Greek cultural ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition and was a follower of the Shaivite sect of Hinduism.[29] Two later Kushan kings, Vima Kadphises and Vasudeva II, were also patrons of Hinduism. The Kushans in general were also great patrons of Buddhism, and, starting with Emperor Kanishka, they employed elements of Zoroastrianism in their pantheon.[30] They played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, ushering in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as "Pax Kushana".[31]

The Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes but soon began to use the Eastern Iranian 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, encouraged travel across the Karakoram, and facilitated 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".[32] 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.[33]

The Kushan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell to the Sasanians invading from the west and establishing the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom in the areas of Sogdiana, Bactria, and Gandhara. In the 4th century, the Guptas, another 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 later the Hephthalites.[12]

  1. ^ Romila Thapar (2004). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. University of California Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8.
  2. ^ Burton Stein (2010). A History of India. John Wiley & Sons. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4443-2351-1.
  3. ^ Peter Robb (2011). A History of India. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-230-34549-2.[permanent dead link‍]
  4. ^ Hermann Kulke; Dietmar Rothermund (2016). A History of India. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-24212-3.
  5. ^ Di Castro, Angelo Andrea; Hope, Colin A. (2005). "The Barbarisation of Bactria". Cultural Interaction in Afghanistan c 300 BCE to 300 CE. Melbourne: Monash University Press. pp. 1–18, map visible online page 2 of Hestia, a Tabula Iliaca and Poseidon's trident. ISBN 978-1876924393.
  6. ^ Falk 2001, p. 133.
  7. ^ Rosenfield 1967, pp. 7 & 8.
  8. ^ a b Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tryon, Darrell T. (11 February 2011). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Vol I: Maps. Vol II: Texts. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-081972-4.
  9. ^ Bopearachchi 2007, p. 45.
  10. ^ Liu 2010, p. 61.
  11. ^ Golden 1992, p. 56.
  12. ^ a b "Afghanistan: Central Asian and Sassanian Rule, ca. 150 B.C.-700 A.D." Library of Congress Country Studies. 1997. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  13. ^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  14. ^ Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D.". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 132. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
  15. ^ Rosenfield 1967, p. 7
  16. ^ Anonymous. "The History of Pakistan: The Kushans". Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  17. ^ Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. The mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei-Săng [by Hsüan-chih Yang] Ta-T'ang si-yu-ki. Books 1–5. Translated by Samuel Beal. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. 1906.
  18. ^ Hill 2009, pp. 29, 318–350.
  19. ^ Falk 2001, pp. 121–136.
  20. ^ Falk 2004, pp. 167–176.
  21. ^ Hill 2009, pp. 29, 33, 368–371.
  22. ^ Runion, Meredith L. (2007). The history of Afghanistan. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-313-33798-7. The Yuezhi people conquered Bactria in the second century BCE. and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which would become the Kushan Empire. Recognizing the importance of unification, these five tribes combined under the one dominate Kushan tribe, and the primary rulers descended from the Yuezhi.
  23. ^ a b Liu, Xinru (2001). "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia". In Adas, Michael (ed.). Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-56639-832-9.
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference Narain was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Beckwith_380 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pulleyblank was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference EOIC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference TCHAC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Masson, V. M.; Harmatta, J.; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Litvinskiĭ, B. A. (1992–2005). History of civilizations of Central Asia. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 310. ISBN 92-3-102719-0. OCLC 28186754. Contrary to earlier assumptions, which regarded Kujula Kadphises as Buddhist on the basis of this epithet [dharmasthita- "steadfast in the Law"], it is now clear from the wording of a Mathura inscription, in which Huvishka bears the same epithet satyadharmasthita that the kingdom was conferred upon him by Sarva and Scamdavira (Candavira), that is, he was a devotee of Siva.
    The Mathura inscription in question is documented in Lüders 1961, p.138ff
  30. ^ Grenet, Frantz (2015). "Zoroastrianism among the Kushans". In Falk, Harry (ed.). Kushan histories. Literary sources and selected papers from a symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013. Bremen: Hempen Verlag.
  31. ^ Aldrovandi, Cibele; Hirata, Elaine (June 2005). "Buddhism, Pax Kushana and Greco-Roman motifs: pattern and purpose in Gandharan iconography". Antiquity. 79 (304): 306–315. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00114103. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 161505956.
  32. ^ Daniélou, Alain (2003). A Brief History of India. Simon and Schuster. p. 111. ISBN 9781594777943.
  33. ^ Hill 2009, p. 36 and notes.


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