Kushanas

A major ruling group of the post-Mauryan period was the Kushanas. The Kushanas were a branch of the Yueh-chi, a nomadic group of people who inhabited territories near Dunhuang until conflicts with the Xiongnu led to their migration across the Tarim Basin to Bactria between c. 165-128 BCE. They were one of the five clans into which the Yueh-chi tribe was divided.

The significance of the Kushana realm in the political history of the subcontinent and its north-western borderlands is enormous. With the advent of the Kushanas, small territorial kingdoms in the Indo-Iranian borderlands gave way to an Empire which was achieved through political integration of the region. It transformed the Kushana principality in Bactria into a massive empire which included portions of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, parts of Chinese Central Asia, north-west borderlands of the subcontinent, Mathura and at times beyond Mathura through the Ganga plains till Bhagalpur in Bihar. Because of this, the Kushana Empire is sometimes called the Central Asian Empire.

 

The glowing testimony of Kushana control till the Ganga valley comes from the Rabatak inscription discovered from the Puli Khumri area of Afghanistan of Kanishka I written in Bactrian language. Although the name of Vima Taktu as the direct successor of Kujula Kadphises (the head of the Kushana clan) is not entirely clear, the Rabatak inscription confirms that Kujula Kadphises was followed by another ruler before Vima Kadphises (Kanishka’s father). Vima Taktu can be linked with ‘Soter Megas’ (‘Great Savior’), the Kushana ruler who issued a series of coins that follow the coin-types of Kujula Kadphises and precede those of Vima Kadphises.

During the Kushana period in the first to third centuries CE, political, economic, religious, and cultural contacts between South Asia and Central Asia increased greatly. Archaeological excavations, art historical evidence, coins, and inscriptions directly reflect these connections. During Kanishka’s rule over Transoxiana and Bactria, the empire came to play an important role in the Silk route. The Silk route connected China across Bactria with West Asia and the Mediterranean.

Besides this, the Kushana empire had direct contacts with Indo-Roman trade in the Indian Ocean through the western coast of India.

Subcribe on Youtube - IGNOU SERVICE

For PDF copy of Solved Assignment

WhatsApp Us - 9113311883(Paid)