Kanishka

Kanishka was the most famous Kushan ruler, who ruled over the western half of northern India at least as far as Varanasi, and whose dominions in Central Asia were very extensive. The date of Kanishka, like the chronology of the whole Shaka-Kushan period, is very uncertain, and estimates of the year of his accession have varied from 58 Be to AD 278. At present opinions of most competent authorities favour a date between AD 78 and 144. The former date is that of the foundation of one of the most widespread of Indian systems of dating, later known as the Shaka era. Kanishka was not a Shaka, but the term was very loosely applied, and he is known to have founded an era.

Kanishka was a great conqueror. He annexed even Kashmir. He defeated the Parthian kings. His war with the Chinese resulted in the conquest of Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkhand. He was perhaps defeated by a Chinese general Pan Chao, but he avenged his defeat a little later. Punjab, Kashmir, Sind and U.P. were included in his dominions. Probably Malwa, Rajasthan, Kathiawar and Konkan came under his suzerainty. His coins have also been found in Bihar and Bengal.

Kanishka extended his full patronage to Buddhism. Some of his coins depict the figure of the Buddha. He held a Buddhist council (fourth) in Kashmir, where the doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism were finalised under the guidance of Vasumitra and Asvaghosa. The successors of Kanishka continued to rule in north-western India till AD 230, and some of them bore typical Indian names such as Vasudeva.

The Kushan empire in Afghanistan and in the areas west of the Indus was supplanted in the mid-third century AD by the Sassanian power, which arose in Iran. But Kushan principalities continued to exist in India for about a century. The Kushan authority seems to have lingered in the Kabul Valley, Kapisa, Bactria, Khorezma and Sogdiana in the third­fourth centuries. Many Kushan coins, inscriptions and terracottas have been found in these areas. Especially at a place called Toprak-Kala in Khorezma a huge Kushan palace of the third-fourth centuries has been unearthed. It housed administrative archives containing inscriptions and documents written in Aramaic script and Khorezmian language.

At its height, the Kushan empire extended from the Oxus to the Ganga, from Khorasan in Central Asia to Varanasi in U.P. A good part of Central Asia, a portion of Iran, a portion of Afghanistan, almost the whole of Pakistan, and almost the whole of northern India were brought under one rule by the Kushans.

The early Kushan kings issued numerous gold coins with higher degree of metallic purity than is found in the Gupta gold coins. Although the gold coins of the Kushans are found mainly west of the Indus, their inscriptions are distributed not only in north-western India and Sind but also in Mathura, Sravasti, Kaushambi and Varanasi. Hence they had set up their authority in the greater part of the Gangetic basin. Kushan coins, inscriptions, constructions and pieces of sculpture found in Mathura show that it was their second capital, the first being Purushpura or Peshawar, where Kanishka erected a monastery and a huge stupa, built under the supervision of a Greek architect named Agesilaos.

Kanishka's court was adorned by the celebrated Bud­dhist teachers Parsva and Vasumitra, the great Buddhist poet and philosopher Asvaghosha, the well-known philoso­pher Nagarjuna, and the physician Charaka.