Kushan Empire and its expansion under Kanishka
It was during Kanishka’s reign that the Kushana empire reached its zenith. Scholars have considered his reign to have begun in 78 C.E. Kanishka was the son of Vima Kadphises and the grandson of Saddashkana. The Rabatak inscription states that during Kanishka’s reign, the Kushana empire expanded further east into the Ganga valley and extended to Pataliputra and Champa in the east. Kaudinyapura (Kaudinya) in the Amaravati district of Maharashtra marked the southern border of the empire. Kanishka’s empire included most of Afghanistan, parts of Sindhu, parts of Parthia, Punjab, Kashmir, parts of Magadha (including Pataliputra), Malwa, Benaras, perhaps parts of Bengal, Khotan, Kashgar, and Yarkhand (the last three in modern China), and covered Gandhara, Peshawar, Oudh, and Pataliputra. His kingdom also included the eastern part of Xinjiang in China and extended till north of the Oxus river in central Asia.
Kanishka’s Religious Contributions
Kanishka has been considered a great patron of Buddhism in Buddhist texts; he enshrined the Buddha’s relics in a stupa at Purushapura, and it became the center of a major monastery. Kanishka is believed to have patronized Buddhist scholars such as Ashvaghosha and Vasumitra. Missionaries were sent to Kashgar, China, and Yunan. Kushanas and their Notion of Divine Kingship. The title Devaputra has been used to refer to the Kushana kings. This can be referred to as how the position of the king has been exalted to the extent of projecting him as divine, which was an idea common in various ancient empires. In one inscription called the Rabatak inscription, the emperor Kanishka was considered a ruler who had obtained kingship from Nana (a West Asian goddess) and was described as ‘the great deliverer, the god, the just, the autocrat, one who was worthy of worship.
Kushan Empire
Kushan Empire: The Kushanas (Kuei-shang) Empire was one of the five Great Yueh-chi principalities and was part of a series of tribal movements that began in Central Asia. The Kushana Empire was unified and founded by Kujuka Kadphises in the early 1st century C.E., and this empire continued to reign until 230 C.E. The empire expanded into the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, establishing control over the Indus Valley and the Mathura region.
The empire reached its zenith during the reign of Kanishka. The empire developed its notion of kinship and acknowledged the religious diversity that existed within the empire. Historians have referred to various archaeological and literary sources to understand the importance of this empire and its contribution to shaping ancient Indian history.
Read below to learn about the Kushana Empire in depth.
Table of Content
- Emergence of Kushan Empire and its consolidation
- Kushan Empire and its expansion under Kanishka
- Significance of the Kushana Empire
- Successors of Kanishka and the Decline of the Empire
- Literary and archaeological sources of Kushana Empire