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from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire
The Kushan Empire
(c. 1st–3rd
centuries) was a state that at its height, about 105–250, stretched from Tajikistan
to Afghanistan,
Pakistan and
down into the Ganges river valley in northern
India. The empire
was created by the Kushan tribe of the Yuezhi
confederation, a people from the eastern Tarim Basin
and Gansu, China, possibly
related to the Tocharians. They had diplomatic contacts with Rome, Persia
and China, and for
several centuries were at the center of exchange between the East and the West.
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. The Yuezhi are also generally considered as the
easternmost speakers of Indo-European languages, who had been living
in the arid grasslands of eastern Central
Asia, in modern-day Xinjiang and Gansu, possibly speaking versions of the Tocharian language, until they were driven west
by the Xiongnu
in 176–160 BCE. The
five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūḿ (Ch:
休密), Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜), Shuangmi (Ch: 雙靡), Xidun (Ch: 肸頓), and Dūḿ (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.
[edit]
In the following
century, the Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜) gained prominence over
the other Yuezhi tribes, and welded them into a tight confederation under yabgu
(Commander) 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 (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. They
adapted the Greek alphabet (often corrupted) to suit their own language (with
the additional development of the letter ̃ "sh", as in
"Kushan") and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model. On their
coins they used Greek language legends combined with Pali legends (in the Kharoshthi
script), until the first few years of the reign of Kanishka. After
that date, they used Kushan language legends (in an adpated Greek script),
combined with legends in Greek (Greek script) and legends in Pali (Kharoshthi
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.
[edit]
Silver tetradrachm of Kushan
king Heraios (1–30) in Greco-Bactrian
style, with horseman crowned by the Greek goddess of victory Nike.
Greek legend: ΤVΡΑΝΝΟVΟΤΟΣ
ΗΛΟV - ΣΛΝΛΒ -
ΚΟ̃̃ΑΝΟΥ "Of the Tyrant Heraios,
Sanav, the Kushan" (the meaning of "Sanav" is unknown).
[edit]
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.
[edit]
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, 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.
[edit]
Bronze coin of Vima Takto.
Corrupted Greek legend ΒΑ&ΣΙΛЄΥ
ΒΑΣΙΛЄΥΩΝ
ΣΩΤΗΡ ΜΕΓΑΣ "Basileu[s]
Basileon Sotēr Megas": "The King of Kings, Great Saviour".
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."
[edit]
Vima
Kadphises was the son of Vima Taktu and the father of Kanishka I. He issued
an extensive series of coins and inscriptions.
[edit]
Gold coin of Kanishka I
(c.120 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 on the
basis of Harry Falk's ground-breaking research (see Reference section below).
[edit]
Kushan man in the traditional
costume with tunic and boots, 2nd century, Gandhara.
A Kushan couple (man left, woman
right), posing as devotees in a Buddhist frieze, 2nd century.
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.
[edit]
An early Mahayana Buddhist
triad. From left to right, a Kushan devotee, the Bodhisattva
Maitreya,
the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara,
and a Buddhist monk. 2nd-3rd century, 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:
Kushan costume. |
A Kushan devotee conforting
the Bodhisattva
Vajrapani, in a scene of the Mahaparinirvana. |
Detail of the face of a Kushan devotee. |
Maitreya, with Kushan devotee couple. 2nd century Gandhara. |
Detail of Kushan devotee. |
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. |
The "Kanishka casket", with the Buddha surrounded
by Brahma and Indra, and Kanishka on the lower part, 127. |
Buddha triad and kneeling Kushan devotee couple.
3rd century. |
|
[edit]
A Greco-Roman gladiator on a
glass vessel, Begram,
2nd century.
Several Roman sources
describe the visit of ambassadors from the Kings of Bactria and India during
the 2nd
century, probably referring to the Kushans.
Historia
Augusta, speaking of Emperor Hadrian (117–138)
tells:
"Reges
Bactrianorum legatos ad eum, amicitiae petendae causa, supplices miserunt"
"The
kings of the Bactrians sent supplicant ambassadors to him, to seek his
friendship."
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.
[edit]
The Kushan Buddhist monk Lokaksema,
first known translator of Buddhist Mahayana
scriptures into Chinese, circa 170.
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, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of
Kashgar.
Around 85, 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 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, 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 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.
[edit]
Gold dinar of Kushan king Kanishka II
(200–220)
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 Sassanids
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 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.
·
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)
·
Vasudeva I (c. 191 – 225),
the last of the great Kushan emperors
·
Kanishka II (c. 226 – 240)
·
Kanishka III (c. 255 – 275)
·
Vasudeva II (c. 290 – 310)
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