Kushana Kingdom

(Kushan dynasty), a state in the ancient world. In its period of greatest flourishing (the late first through third centuries A.D.) it included a significant part of the territory of modern Middle Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, and possibly Sinkiang (Hsin-chiang). Despite its important historical role, the Kushana kingdom has received inadequate study. The general contours of its political history are emerging from Chinese and Roman sources and from the analysis of Kushana coins and the few inscriptions. The precise chronology of the kingdom has not yet been established.

The Kushana kingdom arose at approximately the threshold of the Common Era, more than 100 years after the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was destroyed by nomads who formed a number of separate principalities. One such principality in Bactria, headed by the Kushana tribe or family, became the nucleus of the Kushana kingdom. The Kushanas’ main conquests are attributed to Kujula Kadphises, his son Vima Kadphises (Kadfiz II), and the most famous Kushana king, Kanishka. The apogee of the kingdom coincides with the rule of Kanishka and his son Huvishka; the decline (from about the mid-third century A.D.) began with the rule of Vasudeva. The history of the Kushana kingdom in the fourth century is still unclear.

The most important excavations of Kushana settlements have been carried out in Bagram and Baghlan (Surkh Kotal) in Afghanistan, Taxila in Pakistan, and a number of ancient fortified town sites of northern Bactria in the Uzbek SSR and the Tadzhik SSR. Archaeologists have established that in these territories great construction projects were completed, cities grew up, and irrigation and crafts developed significantly. The trade relations between the Kushana kingdom and China, Parthia, and Rome have been studied in detail (the Kushana kingdom and Rome exchanged ambassadors); communications were maintained along the Great Silk Road, which ran from the Chinese capital through the Kushana and Parthian lands into Roman Syria, and by sea from Roman Egypt to the ports of western India. During the Kushana rule, Buddhism spread from India to Middle Asia and the Far East.

The art of the Kushana kingdom, developing within the framework of several major schools (the Bactrian, Paropa-misadian, Gandharan, and Mathuran), represents an expression of Hellenistic artistic culture in south central Asia. In the rapidly growing cities, citadels and powerful defensive walls were erected and urban structures were reinforced (Dalverzin-Tepe, Termez, Balkh, Sirsukh, and other towns). Adobe structures were built in the north and stone structures in the south. Dwellings and palaces (in Khalchayan and Bagram), temples of the Kushana dynastic cult (in Surkh Kotal and Mathura), Buddhist monasteries, sanctuaries, and stupas (in Taxila, Hadda, and Butkara) are characteristically designed with a central hall, surrounded by rooms and corridors, and a colonnaded iwan on the main façade. A local system of orders based on Hellenistic and ancient Indian traditions was developed.

A synthesis of architecture, sculpture, and painting was characteristic of Kushana art. Sculpture—clay, plaster, and stone—was dominated by themes of dynastic glorification (in Khalchayan, Dalverzin-Tepe, and Mathura), mythological subjects (Butkara and Shotorak), and the beginnings of iconography of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Paintings (tempera on a dry ground-coat) on mythological and genre themes are vivid and laconic in color. In the style of Kushana painting and sculpture, the realistic element gradually yields to the sacerdotal.

The decorative arts were also developed: metallic art objects, precious woven goods, and terra-cotta statuettes depicting popular beliefs and concepts. The art of the Kushana kingdom exerted significant influence upon the subsequent development of the arts in Middle Asia, Afghanistan, and India.