Kanishka and the Kushan Empire: Crossroads of the Silk Road

Kanishka I was the greatest ruler of the Kushan Empire, a state that around AD 127–150 stretched from the Oxus River in Central Asia across Afghanistan and Pakistan into the Ganges plain of northern India. Sitting astride the trade routes between China, India, Iran and the Roman world, his empire became a crossroads of the Silk Road. Kanishka is remembered for his multilingual coinage, the Rabatak inscription that names his dynasty, and his patronage of Buddhism and of the art of Gandhara and Mathura.

From the Yuezhi to the Kushans

The Kushans descended from the Yuezhi, a nomadic people driven out of western China by the Xiongnu in the 2nd century BC. The Chinese envoy Zhang Qian found the Yuezhi settled north of the Oxus around 128 BC. They later moved into Bactria, where one of their five clans, the Kushans, rose to dominate the others in the 1st century AD.

The first Kushan king, Kujula Kadphises, extended his power south of the Hindu Kush. His successors Vima Taktu and Vima Kadphises pushed into north-western India. Vima Kadphises introduced a large gold coinage, struck to a weight standard close to that of the Roman aureus, which suggests the scale of trade flowing through Kushan lands.

Kanishka’s reign and its date

Kanishka was the son of Vima Kadphises. The date of his accession is one of the most argued questions in ancient Indian history, because his regnal years became an era used in hundreds of inscriptions. Proposals ranged from AD 78, the start of the later Shaka era, to the 2nd and even 3rd centuries. In 2001 the Indologist Harry Falk argued from an astronomical text that year 1 of Kanishka’s era was AD 127, a date now accepted by most scholars, though not unanimously.

Inscriptions dated in his era run to about year 23, implying a reign of roughly 23 years, ending around AD 150. He was followed by Vasishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva I, under whom the empire remained powerful until the early 3rd century. Huvishka’s long reign in particular produced an even richer range of coin types than Kanishka’s, and Vasudeva’s name, that of an Indian god, reflects how far the dynasty had absorbed Indian culture.

The Rabatak inscription

In 1993 a limestone block carrying a long inscription was found at Rabatak in Baghlan province, northern Afghanistan. Deciphered and published by Nicholas Sims-Williams and Joe Cribb, it is written in Bactrian in Greek script. It records that in his first year Kanishka issued an edict in Greek and then put it into the “Aryan” language, Bactrian, which helps explain why Greek disappears from his coins.

The inscription orders the building of a dynastic temple at Rabatak for a group of deities headed by the goddess Nana, and lists Kanishka’s ancestors: great-grandfather Kujula Kadphises, grandfather Vima Taktu and father Vima Kadphises. This resolved long-standing confusion over the order of the early Kushan kings. It also names cities in India under Kushan control, including Saketa, Kausambi and Champa, and a further name read by many scholars as Pataliputra, which would show the empire reaching deep into the Ganges plain.

Coins of many gods

Kanishka’s coins are among the most varied in the ancient world. They show the king in Central Asian dress, with a long coat, boots and a spear, often sacrificing at a small fire altar. Their legend in Bactrian reads “king of kings, Kanishka the Kushan”.

The reverses depict a crowd of deities: Iranian gods such as Mithra (Miiro), Mao the moon god and Pharro, the spirit of royal glory; the goddess Nana; Greek-derived figures such as Helios and Selene on early issues; the Indian god Oesho, usually identified with Shiva; and Boddo, the Buddha. The Buddha coins, inscribed in Greek letters, are among the earliest securely dated images of him.

An empire of trade

Kushan territory controlled the routes that linked the oasis cities of Central Asia with the ports of western India. Silk and other goods from Han China travelled west through Bactria; Indian spices, textiles and gems moved north and west; and Roman gold, glass and wine reached India by sea and land. The treasure found at Begram, north of Kabul, near a Kushan royal centre, contained Roman bronzes and glassware, Indian ivories and Chinese lacquer, a vivid sign of this exchange.

Kushan gold coins were struck in large numbers and circulated widely, and Kushan inscriptions appear from Central Asia to the Ganges. The empire’s multilingual administration used Bactrian in the north and Prakrit in the Indian provinces, which helped merchants, monks and officials move across a very large area.

Kanishka and Buddhism

Chinese pilgrims such as Faxian and Xuanzang described the monuments he founded, and Buddhist tradition remembered Kanishka as a second Ashoka. Near his capital Purushapura (modern Peshawar) he built a great stupa, described by visiting pilgrims as one of the tallest structures in Asia. Excavations at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri in 1908–09 found a bronze reliquary, the “Kanishka casket”, inscribed with his name.

Tradition also credits him with sponsoring a Buddhist council in Kashmir, where commentaries of the Sarvastivada school were compiled, and associates him with the poet and philosopher Ashvaghosha. These stories come from later sources and cannot be confirmed, but Kushan rule clearly helped Buddhism spread along the trade routes to Central Asia and China.

Art of Gandhara and Mathura

The Kushan centuries saw two great schools of sculpture. In Gandhara, around Peshawar and Taxila, artists working in grey schist combined Indian Buddhist subjects with Greek and Roman styles of drapery and modelling. At Mathura, in red sandstone, sculptors developed a more purely Indian idiom. Both schools produced some of the earliest images of the Buddha in human form.

A life-size red sandstone statue of a Kushan king from Mat, near Mathura, inscribed with Kanishka’s name and titles, shows him in a heavy belted coat and boots. Its head is missing, but it remains one of the few portraits of a named ancient Indian ruler.

Decline of the Kushans

In the 3rd century the Sasanian Persians conquered Bactria and set up Kushano-Sasanian governors there. Kushan rulers survived for a time in Gandhara and the Punjab, while new powers, eventually including the Guptas, rose in the Ganges valley. By the 4th century the empire had broken into smaller states.

How Kanishka himself died is unknown. A late Buddhist tradition preserved in Chinese says that his own officers, tired of endless campaigns, smothered him, but this story cannot be checked against any contemporary evidence.

Timeline

• c. 128 BC: Zhang Qian visits the Yuezhi north of the Oxus.
• 1st century AD: Kujula Kadphises unites the Kushans and expands south of the Hindu Kush.
• c. AD 127: Kanishka comes to the throne; year 1 of his era.
• c. AD 127–150: Kushan Empire at its height; Rabatak temple and Peshawar stupa built.
• c. AD 150: Kanishka’s reign ends; Vasishka and Huvishka follow.
• 3rd century: Sasanian Persia conquers Bactria; Kushan power declines.
• 1908–09: The Kanishka casket is excavated near Peshawar.
• 1993: The Rabatak inscription is found in northern Afghanistan.

Why it matters

Kanishka’s empire joined the steppe, Iran and India under one ruler at a time when Rome and Han China were also at their height. Its coins, inscriptions and sculpture show how languages, gods and artistic styles mixed along the Silk Road, and its support for Buddhism helped carry the religion from India into Central and East Asia.