An outline, era by era

Kushan Empire

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

The Kushan Empire was a large state that, at its height in the first to third centuries CE, stretched from Central Asia across Afghanistan and Pakistan into northern India. It was ruled by a dynasty of the Kushans, who had come from the Yuezhi, a people originally from the steppes of north-western China. The empire is usually dated from about 30 CE, though the dates of its early rulers are debated, and its strength was greatest under Kanishka and his successors. Its chief cities included Bagram, Peshawar (Purushapura) and Mathura.

The Kushans sat in the middle of the Silk Road trade between Rome, Parthia, India and China. They issued fine gold coins that show gods from Greek, Iranian and Indian traditions, and they supported Buddhism, helping it spread to Central Asia and China. Gandharan and Mathura art flourished under their rule. In the third century the Sasanians took the western Kushan lands, and later Kushan rule shrank to parts of the north-west, where successor lines continued for a time. Their final end is poorly documented.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The Yuezhi move west and settle in Bactria

    Event

    What happened

    In the second century BCE the Yuezhi are pushed out of north-western China by the Xiongnu and migrate west. By about 130 BCE they are established north of the Oxus (Amu Darya) and then dominate Daxia, the Chinese name for Bactria, where Greek rule had largely already ended. The Chinese envoy Zhang Qian finds them there around 128 BCE.

    The rest is history

    Chinese sources say the Yuezhi were later divided into five chiefdoms in Bactria. Archaeology at Tillya Tepe shows a rich, nomad-influenced culture in the region. Around the first century CE one chief of the Guishuang (Kushan) united the groups. Several decades and poorly documented stages separate the settlement from that consolidation, and the exact date of the unification is debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySima Qian. Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), chapter 123, c. 90 BCE. Translated by Burton Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
    2. PrimaryFan Ye. Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han), chapter 88, 5th century CE. Account of the Yuezhi and the rise of the Guishuang.
    3. BookLiu, Xinru. The Silk Road in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

  2. Kujula Kadphises unites the Yuezhi tribes

    Event

    What happened

    In the first century CE a Yuezhi chief named Kujula Kadphises brings the five groups under his rule. He issues coins in his own name, at first imitating Greek and Roman coin types, and extends control south of the Hindu Kush into Gandhara and Kabul. His successors Vima Takto and Vima Kadphises continue the conquests.

    The rest is history

    The Chinese Hou Hanshu records that the chief of the Guishuang (Kushan) united the other chiefdoms and conquered neighbouring lands. Vima Kadphises issued gold coins, probably the first Kushan gold, which opened a rich trade with the Roman world. The exact dates of these early rulers are debated, but they created the state that Kanishka would inherit.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryFan Ye. Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han), chapter 88, 5th century CE.
    2. PrimaryRabatak inscription of Kanishka, Bactrian, found in Afghanistan in 1993, c. 2nd century CE. Lists Kujula Kadphises, Vima Takto, Vima Kadphises and Kanishka as ancestors.
    3. BookRosenfield, John M. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

  3. Kanishka and the height of the empire

    Event

    What happened

    Kanishka comes to the throne in the early second century CE, and the start of his reign is the base of a dating system, though its exact year is debated. His inscriptions, found from Afghanistan to Sarnath near Varanasi, show a realm reaching deep into northern India. Peshawar (Purushapura) and Mathura are both important Kushan centres in his time.

    The rest is history

    Under Kanishka the Kushans controlled a key stretch of the Silk Road. The Rabatak inscription records his use of the Bactrian language, written in Greek letters, for official purposes. His rule saw the building of great Buddhist monuments, and his reign is seen as the high point of Kushan power. The order and dates of his successors, including Vasudeva I, are disputed, so the exact course of the later weakening is uncertain.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRabatak inscription of Kanishka, Bactrian, c. 2nd century CE, discovered in northern Afghanistan in 1993.
    2. BookFalk, Harry, ed. Kushan Histories: Literary Sources and Selected Papers from a Symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013. Bremen: Hempen Verlag, 2015.

  4. Kushan gold and the Roman trade

    Event

    What happened

    From the reign of Vima Kadphises, the Kushans strike gold coins on a weight standard close to the Roman aureus. Roman gold, glass and wine reach northern India and Central Asia, while silk, spices and gems pass west. Excavations at Begram in Afghanistan find sealed storerooms filled with Roman glass, Indian ivories and Chinese lacquer.

    The rest is history

    The Begram hoard, found by French archaeologists in the 1930s and 1940s, shows how widely goods travelled through Kushan lands in the first to second centuries CE. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek trade handbook of the first century CE, mentions the ports and markets of north-western India. Kushan gold coins, with their mix of Greek, Iranian and Indian gods, remain one of the best sources for the empire's religions and kings.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPeriplus of the Erythraean Sea. Greek merchant's guide, 1st century CE. Translated by Lionel Casson, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
    2. BookHiebert, Fredrik, and Pierre Cambon, eds. Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2008.

  5. Sasanian conquests in the Kushan west

    Event

    What happened

    In 224 CE the Parthian dynasty falls to the Sasanians under Ardashir I. His successor Shapur I campaigns in the east, and his inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam lists the Kushan realm among the lands he holds. Around the mid third century the Sasanians take Bactria and set up Kushano-Sasanian rulers.

    The rest is history

    The Kushan realm was divided. Minor Kushan lines survived in Gandhara and northern India, and the Gupta rulers rose in the Ganges region in the fourth century. Kidarite and other newcomers appeared in the north-west. Gupta expansion did not simply end the Kushans, and the chronology of the last successor states is uncertain. Kushan coins, art and Buddhist networks outlasted the empire.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRes Gestae Divi Saporis (Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zardosht, Naqsh-e Rustam), Middle Persian, Parthian and Greek, c. 260 CE.
    2. BookRezakhani, Khodadad. ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

  6. Kanishka and the Fourth Buddhist Council

    Origin story

    The legend

    Troubled by differing Buddhist teachings, King Kanishka calls a great council of monks in Kashmir. Five hundred monks gather to settle the doctrine and compose commentaries, which are said to be engraved on copper plates and sealed in a stupa.

    The rest is history

    The story comes from later Buddhist sources, including the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who visited the region in the seventh century CE, and Tibetan traditions. Scholars doubt that a council of this size took place, or that the plates were made, and the Theravada tradition does not recognise it. Kanishka was a real patron of Buddhism, and Sarvastivada scholarship, including the huge Mahavibhasha commentary, flourished in this region under Kushan rule. No copper plates have been found.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryXuanzang. Da Tang Xiyu ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions), 646 CE. Translated by Samuel Beal, Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. London: Trübner, 1884.
    2. BookLamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut Orientaliste, 1988.
    3. BookSchopen, Gregory. Figments and Fragments of Mahayana Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.

  7. The great stupa of Kanishka at Peshawar

    Folk tale

    The legend

    The Chinese pilgrims tell that Kanishka, guided by a boy herding cattle who says the Buddha foretold a tower on that spot, builds a stupa at Peshawar. It rises in many tiers, taller than any in India, and shines with gold and jewels.

    The rest is history

    The tale is from the accounts of the pilgrims Faxian (about 400 CE), Song Yun and Xuanzang. In 1908 to 1909 archaeologists dug at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri near Peshawar and found a relic casket inscribed with Kanishka's name, strongly suggesting the site. The casket, now in the Peshawar Museum, shows Kanishka's image and the Buddha. The stupa's great height is attested by several visitors, but it was ruined by the time of later travellers.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryFaxian. Foguo ji (Record of Buddhist Kingdoms), c. 416 CE. Translated by James Legge, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886.
    2. BookDobbins, K. Walton. The Stupa and Vihara of Kanishka I. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1971.

  8. Kanishka's death by his own soldiers

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A tradition says Kanishka, wearied by endless wars and his drive to conquer beyond the mountains, is smothered by his own officers when he falls ill, in a plot to end the campaigns.

    The rest is history

    The story comes from Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist writing, centuries after Kanishka's reign, and has no support from any inscription or coin. How and when Kanishka died is not known. Inscriptions and coins show that Huvishka followed him, but they do not tell us how the succession happened. The tale is best read as a moral story about ambition.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryXuanzang. Da Tang Xiyu ji, 646 CE, passages on Kapisa and Gandhara.
    2. BookBasham, A. L., ed. Papers on the Date of Kaniṣka. Leiden: Brill, 1968.

  9. Kushan rulers as 'sons of god' and the four empires

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the Kushans styled themselves 'sons of God' and were a sister empire of Rome and Han China, one of four great world powers of the age.

    The rest is history

    The title devaputra, 'son of god', does appear in Kushan inscriptions and coin legends, and may echo the Chinese 'Son of Heaven'. The 'four empires' framing is a modern summary, not an ancient statement. Gan Ying's report on the West does not support it, and Indian embassies mentioned for Trajan's reign cannot be securely identified as Kushan. Roman gold and goods in Kushan lands do show real trade, but not any formal partnership of equals.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRabatak inscription of Kanishka, Bactrian, c. 2nd century CE.
    2. ArticleThorley, John. "The Roman Empire and the Kushans." Greece & Rome 26, no. 2 (1979): 181-190.
    3. BookHill, John E. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty. Charleston: BookSurge, 2009.

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