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On 11/5/09, Harish Sati <harish.sati@gmail.com> wrote:
> KUSHANSIn the post-Mauryan era, central Asia and north-western India
> witnessed hectic and shifting political scenes. The Great Yuehi-chi driven
> out of fertile lend in Western china migrated towards the Aral Sea. There
> they encountered the Sakas near Syr Darya river and evicted them. The Great
> Yuehi-Chi tribes settled in the valley of Oxus and with the occupation of
> the Bactrian lands the great hordes were divided into five principalities. A
> century later the Kushan section or sect of Yuehi-Chi attained predominance
> over the otheres. Their leader was Kadphises. Thus began the history of
> Kushans.
>
> The unique geographical position of the Kushans empire made it a colossus
> astride on the spine of Asia uniting the Greco-Roman civilization in the
> west the Chinese civilization in the east and Indian civilisation in the
> south-east.
>
> The leader of the Kushans was kadphises and his rule probably began in 40
> A.D. He attacked the regions south of Hindu Kush, conquered Kabul and
> annexed Gandhara including the kingdom of Taxila. Kadphises died in 77 A.D.
> or 78 A.D. By then the Kushans had supplanted the princes belonging to the
> Indo-Greek saka and Indo-Parthian communities along the frontiers of India.
> The successor of kadphises was Vima-Kadphses. He conquered large parts of
> norther India. His coins show that his authority extended as far as Banaras
> and as well as the Indus basin. In all likelihood his power extended as far
> as Narbada and the Saka satraps in Malwa and Western India acknowledged his
> sovereignty.
>
> By that time the Chinese reasserted their authority in the north and this
> led to a collusion with the Kushans. The Chinese general pan-chao conquered
> Chinese Turkistan and established the Chinese authority in parthia that is
> on the territory south of the Caspian sea.
>
> These advances frightened the Kushans. In 87 AD Kadphises II, claimed the
> hand of a Chiese princes, an acknowledgement of his equality with the son of
> Heaven. The proposal was rejected and Kadphises, dispatched a large army,
> But the army was decimated because of the difficult terrain. And it was
> easily defeated by the Chinese. The Kushan ruler was compelled to pay
> tribute the China and the Chinese records so that the Kushans continued to
> send missions to Cnina till the close of the century. Rossibly the reign of
> Kadphises II ended C. 110 A.D.
>
> The next ruler, Kanishka probably belonged to the little Yuehi-chi section
> of the horde. His capital was Purushapura and here he erected a large number
> of Buddhist buildings. In his early years he annexed Kashmir and
> consolidated his rule in the Indus and the Gangetic basin. His army crossed
> the Pamirs and inflicted a defeat on the Chinese. The chief of Khotan,
> Yarkand and the Ksshgar were made to pay tribute. Tradition states that
> while Kanishka was on his return from the Chinese Turkistan, he was sothered
> to death by his officers who had got weary of his campaigns. Most of his
> time was spent on waging wars.
>
> A large number of inscriptions were incised during the times of Kanishka and
> his successor. According to evidence, Kanishka became an active partron of
> the Buddhist Church during the later part of his reign. Althouth the
> Buddhist records gloat over this fact and regard him as the second Asoka,
> his coins prove that he honoured a medley of gods - zoroastrain, Greek,
> Mitraic, and Indian. The prominent Indian duty on the coins was Shiva. The
> peculiar assembly of deities by the Kushans offers a great deal of
> speculation. May be Kansihka follwed a loose from of Zorostrianism and
> freely venerated the deities of other greeds.
>
> Also, Kanishka covened a council of Buddhist theologians to settle disputes
> relating to Buddhist faith and practices. The conclusions of this council
> were engraved on copper sheets and preserved in the stupa of the capital.
> The delgates to the council primarily belonged to the Hinayana sect.
>
> The Buddhism of this period was definitely a lax one. The Mahayana sect was
> popular. But early Buddhism was an India product and was based on the Indian
> ideas of rebirth, transmigration of souls and the blessedness of escape from
> the pains of being. This Buddhism was supported by a practical system of
> ethics inculcating a stoic devotion to duty for its own sake. Such a
> teaching needed fundamental changes to attract the sturdy mountaineer, the
> nomad horseman and the Helloe rized Alexandrian. The veneration for a dead
> teacher passed into a worship of living seviour.
>
> Soon the Kushan power declined. Within the Kingdom, harm was done to the
> Kushan Empire by the Nagas and Yaudheyas. A Naga ruler probably performed
> ten ashvamedha sacrifices. Apart from these two communities, a few other
> tribes also, like the Malavas and the Kunindas, probably regained their
> importance at the expense of the Kushan empire.
>
> Apart from the weaknesses to the successors of Kanishka, developments in the
> Persia influenced the history of North western India. The Parthians were
> overthrown byArdashir in 226 A.D. who established theSassanian dynasty. His
> successors annxed Peshawar and Taxila during the middle of the 3rd century.
> And Kushan kings in the north-west became the vassals of the Sasssanians.
> The successors of Kanishka, as established today, are the following :
> Vashiska (102-106), Hyvishka (106-138), and Vasudeva (c. 152-176). The
> history after this period is extremely vague. Over the ruins of the empire,
> in Central Asia and the west, rose the Sassanian empire of Persia and in
> India. The Gupta empire.
>
> Speaking in general about the achievement of the Kushans, the first is the
> economic prosperity. As the Kushan empire was situated in a crucial
> geographical region. There was brisk trade. Moreover, the very area covered
> by the Kushan empire helped the flow of trade between the east and the west.
> Some trade routes which came into existence in this period continued to
> serve the future also. Gold coins of great complexity were issued by the
> Kushans.
>
> These coins speak of the prosperity of the people. The coins of Kanishka
> usually show the figure of Kanishka standing and sacrificing at altar, and
> on the obverse, deities belonging to various religions. The coins of the
> Kushans also show that the Kushans were in contact with the Romans - the
> weight of the Kushan coins has certain similarities with the Roman coins.
> According to the author of the Periplus god and silver species were imported
> at Barygaza (Broach).
>
> As regards art and literature, we have to state that their greatest
> contribution was the Gandhara art. It was in this period that the stone
> images of the Buddha and the Bodhisattavas were craved out. The chief of
> quality of this art is the blending of Buddhist subjects with Greek forms.
> Images of the Buddha appear in the likeness of Apollo, and theYakshakubera
> is posed in the fasino of Zeus. The imprint of this school of art is still
> to be found in Mathura and Amarvati. Indeed, the carving of images and the
> building of temples was not neglected in earlier days, but under the Kushans
> they attained a refinement. The Chaitya built at Peshawar was as high as
> four storeys. Fa-Hien, passing through Gandhara, during the fifth century,
> praised the images of the Buddha, Bodhisattavas and numerous other deities.
> The early rulers fostered the Hellenistic art of Gandhara and also the
> Bhikshu Bela, and from this place artistic products were sent to Sarasvati
> and Sarnath. Kanishka was a great builder - tower at Peshawar, a new city in
> Taxila, a town in Kashmir and fine buildings and sculptures at Mathura. It
> was at the last place a portrait stature of Kanishka has been found but its
> head is not there. Further, the die-engravers employed by the Kushans were
> far from negligible. A special note is to be taken of coinage. The Kushan
> coins became the prototypes for many varieities of coins of Yadheyas, the
> imperial Guptas, some kings of Nepa and several Kings of Chedi. Eminent
> Buddhist writers - Nagajuna, Asvaghosha and Vasumitra were the names
> associated with Kanishka. The first was a poet, musician, scholar and a
> zealous Buddhist monk. Charaka was the court physician of Kanishka.
>
> The next thing to be noted about the Kushana is their religion. In all
> likelihood, missionaries propagated Buddhism in central Asia and China in
> this period. Possibly, it was during the time of Kanishka that Mahayana
> Buddhism was sanctified. The fourth Buddhist council that was summoned by
> Kanishka canonized the doctrines of Hinayana and Mahayana. The deliberations
> of the conference were engraved on sheets of copper and were sealed and
> deposited in a stupa, but they have not been found so far. But to regard
> Kanishka as the founder patron of the Mahayana sect, which came into
> existence under the Kushans, is a disputable point. Even though many
> scholars regard Kanishka as the second Asoka some writers do not agree with
> this view. In addition to these things, we must mention that the Kushana
> kings patronized all kinds of religions, including Hinduism. Kanishka was
> definitely and eclectic monarch as he honored a medley of gods belonging to
> the Greek, Zoroastrian and Hindu faiths. Not only Buddhism flourished under
> the Kushanas but there were definitely stirrings of Hinduism. Many
> brahminical sects started merging. Along with religion, Sanskrit language
> received an impetus. In a way the Kushan age constituted the prelude to the
> Gupta age.
>
> In this ammner, the services rendered by the Kushanas are commendable. A
> mere evaluation of the personality of Kanishka alone would not help us to
> estimate the importance of the Kushanas as the empire lasted for three
> centuries. To a certain extent, the prosperious time of peace during the
> Gupta period was directly due to the Kushans undertaking the unconscious
> role of the shield and buckler of Indian civiliszation and culture. The
> Kushan state was a buffer between the Aryan civilization and the nomadic
> hordes in central Asia who from time to time, had overrun the civilized
> worlds with the sweep of avalanches. It was also responsible for the
> exchange of ideas and goods between different civilization because of the
> peculiar geographical position occupied by the Kushanas a clearing house for
> the ideas and goods of different civilization.
>
>
> --
> with warm regards
>
> Harish Sati
> Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
> Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068
>
> (M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com
>
> >
>
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Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.
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