Abstract
The study of the Kushan Empire can be approached from only limited vantage points. While certain aspects of Kushan history, such as its cultural and imperial presence can deduced from their material remains, lack of any cohesive narrative history prevents us from contextualising the Kushans in their historical context. From among the various world-historical approaches, the comparative method can be of limited use for Kushan history, as some of the available evidence seem to allow for observations close to what can be found in other ancient and late antique empires of the Iranian/South Asian world. In terms of connections, the lack of certainty in Kushan chronology (see further on the date of Kanishka) prevents us from making any reliable synchronic comparisons. However, some connections can be made in terms of Kushan legacy and the endurance of what we might label an imperial strategy, namely their remarkable control of the regions to the north and the south of the Hindu-Kush range.
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Notes
- 1.
For a concise recap of the enduring discussions on the date of Kanishka, see the debate between Robert Göbl and Joe Cribb (1999). The date now accepted by most seems to be AD 127 established by Falk (2001), although that is far from universal, as Schindel has argued in various publications, including Schindel (2009 and 2014).
- 2.
See Posch (1995) for a criticism of such characterization.
- 3.
- 4.
Shapur’s Ka’aba-i Zardušt inscription (ŠKZ); Ph. Huyse (1999).
- 5.
Κουσην[ων] εθνη εως εμπροσθεν Πασκιβουρων καί εως Κας Σωδικηνής καί · [καί] Τσατσηνής… in the Greek text of the inscription, lines 4–5 (Huyse 1999, I, pp. 23–24).
- 6.
The transcription of ŠKZ is adopted from Huyse (1999, I, p. 23) (§3); the translation is by the present author.
- 7.
Huyse, hesitantly, suggests that this might be Kashgar, which along with Chach, which he translates as Tashkent, would extend the Kushan territories well east and north of their core territories around the Hindu-Kush, see Huyse (1999, II, pp. 36–37) for a discussion of this.
- 8.
- 9.
Ibn Khurradadbeh (1967, p. 29) considers Kushanshah to be the title of the king of Mawara-un-nahr (Transoxiana).
- 10.
Sims-Williams (1996, p. 83).
- 11.
Sims-Williams (2012, p. 79).
- 12.
Bracey (2012).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
See Rezakhani (2017: Chap. 1).
- 16.
Cribb (1993).
- 17.
For a brilliant, if disorienting, example of this, see J. Cribb’s and R. Göbl’s separate, and widely differing, contributions in Coin, Art, and Chronology, (1999).
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
See Cereti (2010) for a discussion of this.
- 21.
- 22.
Hansen (2012, p. 71).
- 23.
See Hansen (2012, pp. 71–72) and the discussion of the presence of the Twghry (Tocharians?) in Beshbaliq (incidentally meaning “five districts” in Uighur) in Turkistan/Xinjiang.
- 24.
Liu (2001, pp. 261–292), despite its particularly trusting treatment of Chinese sources.
- 25.
See Göbl (1999).
- 26.
The matter of matching Chinese geographical names to the actual geographic settings is a very difficult task, which is a source of constant disagreement between scholars. Anxi is generally accepted to be the name for Parthia, and Kangju is a shifting term pointing to the middle Syr Darya region and sometimes Sogdiana. See Wan 2012 for an example of these disagreements.
- 27.
Nandoumi of the Wusun was previously killed by the Yüeh-zhi.
- 28.
This appears to be referring to the chief of the Xiongnu tribe.
- 29.
See De Blois (2013) for an etymology of the name of the region and the city.
- 30.
The connection between the groups might be further substantiated by the evidence of Pompeius Trogus who says that the Asiani were the kings of the Tocharoi and that they defeated the Saucaraucae (Sacarauli?); Zadneprovskiy (1994, p. 449).
- 31.
The name, specifically speaking, is probably a misnomer as the Tocharians are the speakers of the Tocharian language, a displaced member of the kentum sub-stratum of Indo-European languages; Henning (1938, pp. 545–571).
- 32.
Mair and Mallory (2000, pp. 280–282)
- 33.
Mallory and Adams (1997, p. 509).
- 34.
Henning (1949, pp. 158–163).
- 35.
On this title, see Sims-Williams (2002, p. 235).
- 36.
Hulsewé and Loewe (1979, p. 122, n. 292).
- 37.
Enoki, K. (1974, p. 265).
- 38.
Liu (2001, p. 266 n. 7).
- 39.
- 40.
See Humbach (1966, p. 41) for the development of Bactrian Þ /š/and its background.
- 41.
Errington and Curtis (2007, p. 67).
- 42.
- 43.
MacDowall (2007, pp. 103–104).
- 44.
Cribb (1993).
- 45.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 21–37). The case of ΣΑΝΑΒ, appearing on some early Kushan issues, and the possibility of it denoting an authority, such as Sanabares of the Indo-Parthian dynasty, has not yet been fully explored; see Senior 2001–2006: type B1.2 T.
- 46.
- 47.
Sims-Williams (1998, p. 82, ln. 12).
- 48.
I like to thank Razieh Taasob for this idea, which is elaborated in a meticulous study of the early Kushan issues in her unpublished 2017 dissertation at the University of Vienna.
- 49.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 30, coins 44–69).
- 50.
See Sims-Williams (2002, pp. 229–230; 235) for the derivation of the title of Yabgu from Chinese xihou “allied prince”.
- 51.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 34–35), coin 103–112.
- 52.
See Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 25–26) about the range of distribution, including finds in Begram and Taxila.
- 53.
Bopearachchi (2009).
- 54.
Bracey (2012).
- 55.
- 56.
Cribb (1999).
- 57.
- 58.
- 59.
For a more extensive discussion of this matter, see Rezakhani (2017): Chap. 1 and the discussion of the date of Gondophares.
- 60.
Bailey (1980, pp. 21–29).
- 61.
Whitehead (1913, pp. 658–61).
- 62.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 44).
- 63.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 39–51).
- 64.
MacDowall (1968).
- 65.
Sims-Williams (1996) with reconsiderations in (1998).
- 66.
Cribb (1996, pp. 97–142). The identification, now widely accepted by many scholars of the Kushan period, does have some opposition, mainly from Bopearachchi who suggests that Soter Megas was in fact a separate authority, possibly a usurper of the crown of Vima Tak[to] and thus his contemporary. His reason is the fact that the Soter Megas series has a completely different iconography to the rest of the early Kushan series (i.e. the pre-Vima Kadphises silver and copper issues) and thus do not belong to the general Kushan series. I find the suggestion interesting, at least for the political history of the Kushans, but do not understand its necessity in light of the fact that the pre-Vima Kadphises series of Kushan coins generally displays widely varying coin types, mainly owing to the variety of influences and localities and that the Kushan series is not really well formed prior to the rule of the third king of the dynasty. Bopearachchi (2007).
- 67.
- 68.
Göbl (1999, p. 156).
- 69.
See Göbl (1999, pp. 155–156) for a discussion of Cribb’s point and Göbl’s answers.
- 70.
As suggested by Cribb in Sims-Williams and Cribb (1995/1996).
- 71.
- 72.
Shenkar (2014, p. 154).
- 73.
Allchin (1962).
- 74.
Huntington (1980).
- 75.
Aurelius Victor, Ep. de Caesaribus 15.4.
- 76.
See a discussion of the role of religion and art in the Kushan Dynastic art and ideology in ADH, Bivar (2009).
- 77.
Hou Hanshou LXXVII (Chavannes 1906, p. 237).
- 78.
Rosenfield (1967, p. 42).
- 79.
Bivar CHI: 204.
- 80.
Staviskiy (1980).
- 81.
Bracey (2012).
- 82.
Sims-Williams (1998, p. 81, ln. 5).
- 83.
Rosenfield (1967, pp. 41–42).
- 84.
Bivar (1983, p. 204).
- 85.
Rosenfield (1967, pp. 34–36).
- 86.
- 87.
Rosenfield (1967, p. 37).
- 88.
- 89.
Bracey (2012, p. 119).
- 90.
Gershevitch (1979).
- 91.
Sims-Williams (1996/1998). An earlier statement in the same inscription that Kanishka had issued an edict initially in Greek (ιωναγγο) and then turned it into Aryan/Arian (αριαο) (Sims-Williams 1998, p. 81, line 3) bears a further resemblance to the case of Darius, the first versions of whose famous Behistun Inscription were composed in Akkadian and Elamite, before it being translated into Old Persian (Aryan) (Schmitt 1999). The use of the term ιωναγγο “Ionian”, the usual term for Greek in Old Peraian, is significant. One would imagine that two centuries of Graeco-Bactrian presence in the region would have contributed a term derived from “´Ελλην Hellens” to mark the language. The continued prominence of the Old Persian/Achaemenid term thus evidences the essential connection of the Bactrian literary world to the larger Iranian one.
- 92.
Sims-Williams (2002, p. 56).
- 93.
Bivar (1979, pp. 202–204).
- 94.
Bracey (2012, p. 120).
- 95.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 89).
- 96.
- 97.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 90–93).
- 98.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 91–92).
- 99.
However, see Gafurov et al. (1974–1975) for many studies of Kushan archaeological remains, although few are devoted to landscape archaeology.
- 100.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 279). The interest of the Kushans in a variety of gods and cults, apart from the evidence of their coinage, can also be found in Kanishka’s Rabatak inscription, where apart from Nana, the gods Umma, Aurmuzd (Ahuramazda?), Sroshard (Srōš), Narasa, and Mihir (Mithra) are also mentioned and honoured (Sims-Williams (1998, p. 82, lns. 9–10)
- 101.
Jongward and Cribb (2015, p. 135). Although the Bactrian rendering of the name, βαζυδευο, might suggest a possible Iranian root as well.
- 102.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 135–137).
- 103.
However, now see Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 4) who suggest a date of AD 190–230 for Vasudeva I. Of course, despite popular acceptance, we should keep in mind that the date of the Era of Kanishka is still a speculative matter, and historical conclusions based on it, including the narrative presented here, should be treated with care and due diligence; see Falk (2001) and contra Schindel (2009) and (2012).
- 104.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 135).
- 105.
Evgeny Zeimal, however, disagrees with the succession of Kanishka II to Vasudeva, suggesting that the two were contemporaneous and ruled in different parts of the Kushan Empire as successors of Huvishka. His identification of these co-ruling kings is based on observations made on their coinage: Zeimal (1983, p. 225 f).
- 106.
Errington and Curtis (2007, p. 71).
- 107.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 179–220).
- 108.
Bivar (2009).
- 109.
Zeimal (1983, p. 223).
- 110.
- 111.
Lüders (1961, pp. 125–126).
- 112.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 164–167).
- 113.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, p. 169).
- 114.
As mentioned, Zeimal suggests that there was only one king named Vasudeva and he was the one who succeeded Huvishka together with Kanishka II and made the image of Shiva and Nandi on the reverse of his coins canonical; Zeimal (1983, p. 233). The significance of this suggestion is that it might help us in establishing the regions that came to the control of the later, or what Dani calls “Eastern”, Kushans. Vasudeva’s Shiva-and-Nandi type becomes the model for the later Kushano-Sasanian issues (Dani (1996, p. 169), thus leading us to believe that Vasudeva’s region of influence was further to the north, possibly consisting mainly of the Kushan “homeland” of Tokharistan/ Bactria.
- 115.
Jongeward and Cribb (2015, pp. 174–178).
- 116.
Dani (1996, p. 169).
- 117.
Errington and Curtis (2007, p. 71).
- 118.
Rezakhani (2017, pp. 87–103).
- 119.
Huyse (1999, p. I, 23) (ŠKZ, ln. 3).
- 120.
The longevity of Kushan imperial idea, and the endurance of its idea in subsequent polities, is perhaps its most important aspect; see Gehler and Rollinger (2014, pp. 11–12) for the importance, or rather perceived importance, of this in historiography of empires.
- 121.
- 122.
See Gehler and Rollinger (2014, pp. 3–4) for a discussion of the types of systems that we could consider “imperial.”
- 123.
On possible Zoroastrian presence in Bactria, see Sims-Williams (2000).
- 124.
Sims-Williams (1998, p. 81, ln. 2)
- 125.
- 126.
Gehler and Rollinger (2014, p. 7).
- 127.
Gehler and Rollinger (2014, pp. 9–10).
- 128.
Rezakhani (2017, pp. 72–86).
- 129.
Sims-Williams (1998, p. 81, ln. 3).
- 130.
Gehler and Rollinger (2014, pp. 10–11).
- 131.
A prominent proponent of this date is Joe Cribb, in many articles, including Cribb (1999).
- 132.
- 133.
A brilliant and thorough study of this is reflected most recently in the article by Fabrizio Sinisi (2017).
- 134.
See above as well as Jongeward and Cribb (2015) for a study of Kushan gold issues in various stages.
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Rezakhani, K. (2022). The Kushan Empire. In: Gehler, M., Rollinger, R. (eds) Empires to be remembered. Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34003-2_12
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