Kushan Empire: A Visual History

The Kushan Empire was founded by the Yuezhi, nomads who had conquered Bactria, when Kujula Kadphises united their five clans around 30 AD. Under Kanishka (about 127-150) it ruled from the Aral Sea and the Tarim Basin to the Ganges plain, with capitals at Peshawar and Mathura. Sitting astride the Silk Road, it struck gold coins with Greek, Persian, Hindu and Buddhist deities, hosted the Fourth Buddhist Council and spread Buddhism to China. The Sasanians took its western lands in the 230s and the Guptas its Indian ones; it faded by about 375.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Kushan territory

Timeline of the Kushan Empire

1. 130 BC
   Yuezhi conquer Bactria
2. 30
   Kujula Kadphises unites the Yuezhi
3. 90
   Kushan clash with the Han in the TarimBan Chao repels them.
4. 127
   Kanishka's accession
5. 150
   Peak extent
6. 230
   Sasanians take Bactria
7. 350
   Samudragupta reduces the Kushans
8. 375
   Kushan kingdom ends

From Yuezhi to Kushan

Driven from Gansu by the Xiongnu around 175 BC, the Yuezhi conquered Greek Bactria and settled north of the Oxus. About 30 AD Kujula Kadphises, chief of the Kushan clan, united the Yuezhi and pushed south over the Hindu Kush into Kabul and Gandhara. Vima Kadphises took the Punjab and introduced a gold coinage on the Roman standard.

Kanishka

Kanishka ruled a vast realm at the crossroads of Eurasia. His coins name Greek, Iranian, Indian and Buddhist gods; the Kanishka casket and a giant stupa stood at Peshawar. He convened a Buddhist council in Kashmir, and Gandharan art, blending Greek style with Buddhist subjects, produced the first Buddha images. Kushan trade sent Chinese silk to Rome and Roman glass and gold east; Kushan envoys reached both.

Decline

After Vasudeva I (about 190-230) the western territories fell to Ardashir I and Shapur I of Persia, who installed Kushano-Sasanian governors. Kushan kings survived in the Punjab and Mathura until the Gupta emperor Samudragupta made them tributaries around 350; the last were absorbed or replaced by the Kidarites by about 375. Their legacy included Buddhism in Central Asia and China and the Bactrian language written in Greek letters.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (256 BC to 125 BC)
• Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC to 10)
• Indo-Scythian Kingdom (150 BC to 400)
• Parthian Empire (247 BC to 224)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)
• Gupta Empire (320 to 550)
• Eastern Han dynasty (25 to 220)
• Roman Empire (27 BC to 476)
• Western Satraps (35 to 415)
• Hephthalite Empire (440 to 560)

8 surprising things about the Kushan Empire

1. The Kushans were the first to put the Buddha's image on coins.
2. The Rabatak inscription found in 1993 finally clarified the Kushan royal genealogy and Kanishka's date.
3. Kanishka's coins show Greek Helios and Heracles, Persian Mithra, Indian Shiva and Buddha, and were struck in gold on the Roman standard.
4. The Kushan king was called Devaputra, 'son of god', imitating Chinese and Roman imperial titles.
5. Kanishka's stupa at Peshawar was reportedly 120 metres tall, one of the tallest structures of the ancient world.
6. The Kushans introduced the Bactrian era and possibly the Saka era of 78 AD still used in India.
7. The Kushans' Buddhist missionaries reached China; the first translators of Buddhist texts in Luoyang were Yuezhi.
8. The Kushans are the reason Buddhism took root along the Silk Road and in the Tarim oases.

Sources

• Kushan dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Kushan Empire Wikipedia
• Kushan Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Craig Benjamin, Empires of Ancient Eurasia (2018) Cambridge University Press

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