Kushan Empire: Difference between revisions

← Older edit

Kushan Empire (edit)

Revision as of 11:02, 5 December 2023

75 bytes added , 5 December 2023

Fix

TalanChopra

91

edits

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Short description|30–375 AD empire in Central and South Asia}}
 {{Use Indian English|date=July 2023}}
 {{Infobox former country
 | native_name            = {{native name|xbc|Κοϸανο}}<br />{{native name|grc|Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν}}<br />{{native name|sa|कुषाण वंश}}
@@ Line 54: / Line 55: @@
 }}
-The '''Kushan Empire''' ({{lang-grc|Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν}}; {{lang-xbc|Κοϸανο}}, {{transliteration|xbc|Košano}}; {{lang-sa|कुषाण वंश}}; [[Brahmi]]: [[File:Gupta allahabad ku.jpg|16px]] [[File:Gupta gujarat ssaa.jpg|12px]] [[File:Gupta ashoka nn.svg|14px]], ''{{IAST|Ku-ṣā-ṇa}}''; [[Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit|BHS]]: {{IAST|Guṣāṇa-vaṃśa}}; {{lang-xpr|𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓}}, {{lang|xpr-Latn|Kušan-xšaθr}}; {{zh|t=[[wikt:貴霜|貴霜]]|p=Guìshuāng}}<ref name="JMR7">{{harvnb|Rosenfield|1967|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA7 7]}}</ref>) was a [[Syncretism|syncretic]] empire, formed by the [[Yuezhi]], in the [[Bactria|Bactrian]] territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now [[Uzbekistan]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Pakistan]] and [[Northern India]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Anonymous |title=The History of Pakistan: The Kushans |url=http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm |access-date=17 May 2015 |archive-date=7 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707162312/http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |translator=Samuel Beal |title=Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. The mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei-Săng [by Hsüan-chih Yang] Ta-T'ang si-yu-ki. Books 1–5 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. |place=London |year=1906 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD9AxsfuV-wC}}</ref>{{sfn|Hill|2009|pp=29, 318–350}} at least as far as [[Saketa]] and [[Sarnath]] near [[Varanasi]] (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor [[Kanishka the Great]].{{refn|group=note|It began about 127 CE.{{sfn|Falk|2001|pp=121–136}}{{sfn|Falk|2004|pp=167–176}}{{sfn|Hill|2009|pp=29, 33, 368–371}}}}
+The '''Kushan Empire''' ({{lang-grc|Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν}}; {{lang-xbc|Κοϸανο}}, {{transliteration|xbc|Košano}}; {{lang-sa|कुषाण वंश}}; [[Brahmi]]: [[File:Gupta allahabad ku.jpg|16px]] [[File:Gupta gujarat ssaa.jpg|12px]] [[File:Gupta ashoka nn.svg|14px]], ''{{IAST|Ku-ṣā-ṇa}}''; [[Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit|BHS]]: {{IAST|Guṣāṇa-vaṃśa}}; {{lang-xpr|𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓}}, {{lang|xpr-Latn|Kušan-xšaθr}}; {{zh|t=[[wikt:貴霜|貴霜]]|p=Guìshuāng}}<ref name="JMR7">{{harvnb|Rosenfield|1967|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA7 7]}}</ref>) was a [[Syncretism|syncretic]] empire, formed by the [[Yuezhi]], in the [[Bactria|Bactrian]] territories in the early 1st century. They belonged to [[Kushan (clan)|Kushan]] clan of the [[Gurjar|Gujjars]].
-The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of the [[Yuezhi]] confederation,<ref>{{cite book |last=Runion |first=Meredith L. |title=The history of Afghanistan |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport |isbn=978-0-313-33798-7 |page=46 |quote=The Yuezhi people conquered Bactria in the second century BCE. and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which would become the Kushan Empire. Recognizing the importance of unification, these five tribes combined under the one dominate Kushan tribe, and the primary rulers descended from the Yuezhi.}}</ref><ref name=liu156>{{cite book |last=Liu |first=Xinru |chapter=The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia |editor=Adas, Michael |title=Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history |year=2001 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-1-56639-832-9 |page=156}}</ref> an [[Indo-European peoples|Indo-European]] nomadic people of possible [[Tocharians|Tocharian]] origin,<ref name="Narain"/><ref name="Beckwith_380"/><ref name="Pulleyblank"/><ref name="EOIC"/><ref name="TCHAC"/> who migrated from northwestern China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and settled in ancient [[Bactria]].<ref name=liu156/> The founder of the dynasty, [[Kujula Kadphises]], followed Greek religious ideas and iconography after the [[Greco-Bactrian]] tradition, and was also a follower of the [[Shaivism|Shaivite]] sect of [[Hinduism]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of civilizations of Central Asia |author1=Dani, Ahmad Hasan |author2=Masson, V. M. |author3=Harmatta, J. |author4=Puri, Baij Nath |author5=Etemadi, G. F. |author6=Litvinskiĭ, B. A. |date=1992–2005 |publisher=UNESCO |location=Paris |isbn=92-3-102719-0 |pages=[https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000097871 310] |oclc=28186754|quote="Contrary to earlier assumptions, which regarded Kujula Kadphises as Buddhist on the basis of this epithet [dharmasthita- "steadfast in the Law"], it is now clear from the wording of a Mathura inscription, in which Huvishka bears the same epithet satyadharmasthita that the kingdom was conferred upon him by Sarva and Scamdavira (Candavira), that is, he was a devotee of Siva."}}<br>The Mathura inscription in question is documented in [https://www.indianculture.gov.in/ebooks/mathura-inscriptions Lüders 1961, p.138ff]</ref> The Kushans in general were also great patrons of [[Buddhism]], and, starting with Emperor Kanishka, they also employed elements of [[Zoroastrianism]] in their pantheon.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Zoroastrianism among the Kushans |year=2015 |first=Frantz |last=Grenet |editor-last=Falk |editor-first=Harry |title=Kushan histories. Literary sources and selected papers from a symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013 |place=Bremen |publisher=Hempen Verlag}}</ref> They played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, ushering in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as "[[Pax Kushana]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aldrovandi |first1=Cibele |last2=Hirata |first2=Elaine |title=Buddhism, Pax Kushana and Greco-Roman motifs: pattern and purpose in Gandharan iconography |journal=Antiquity |date=June 2005 |volume=79 |issue=304 |pages=306–315 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00114103 |s2cid=161505956 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/buddhism-pax-kushana-and-grecoroman-motifs-pattern-and-purpose-in-gandharan-iconography/2D71B3DA60DB2549959DA7BDE49B9E69 |language=en |issn=0003-598X}}</ref>
+It spread to encompass much of what is now [[Uzbekistan]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Pakistan]] and [[Northern India]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Anonymous |title=The History of Pakistan: The Kushans |url=http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm |access-date=17 May 2015 |archive-date=7 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707162312/http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |translator=Samuel Beal |title=Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. The mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei-Săng [by Hsüan-chih Yang] Ta-T'ang si-yu-ki. Books 1–5 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. |place=London |year=1906 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD9AxsfuV-wC}}</ref>{{sfn|Hill|2009|pp=29, 318–350}} at least as far as [[Saketa]] and [[Sarnath]] near [[Varanasi]] (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor [[Kanishka the Great]].{{refn|group=note|It began about 127 CE.{{sfn|Falk|2001|pp=121–136}}{{sfn|Falk|2004|pp=167–176}}{{sfn|Hill|2009|pp=29, 33, 368–371}}}} The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of the [[Yuezhi]] confederation,<ref>{{cite book |last=Runion |first=Meredith L. |title=The history of Afghanistan |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport |isbn=978-0-313-33798-7 |page=46 |quote=The Yuezhi people conquered Bactria in the second century BCE. and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which would become the Kushan Empire. Recognizing the importance of unification, these five tribes combined under the one dominate Kushan tribe, and the primary rulers descended from the Yuezhi.}}</ref><ref name=liu156>{{cite book |last=Liu |first=Xinru |chapter=The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia |editor=Adas, Michael |title=Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history |year=2001 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-1-56639-832-9 |page=156}}</ref> an [[Indo-European peoples|Indo-European]] nomadic people of possible [[Tocharians|Tocharian]] origin,<ref name="Narain"/><ref name="Beckwith_380"/><ref name="Pulleyblank"/><ref name="EOIC"/><ref name="TCHAC"/> who migrated from northwestern China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and settled in ancient [[Bactria]].<ref name=liu156/> The founder of the dynasty, [[Kujula Kadphises]], followed Greek religious ideas and iconography after the [[Greco-Bactrian]] tradition, and was also a follower of the [[Shaivism|Shaivite]] sect of [[Hinduism]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of civilizations of Central Asia |author1=Dani, Ahmad Hasan |author2=Masson, V. M. |author3=Harmatta, J. |author4=Puri, Baij Nath |author5=Etemadi, G. F. |author6=Litvinskiĭ, B. A. |date=1992–2005 |publisher=UNESCO |location=Paris |isbn=92-3-102719-0 |pages=[https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000097871 310] |oclc=28186754|quote="Contrary to earlier assumptions, which regarded Kujula Kadphises as Buddhist on the basis of this epithet [dharmasthita- "steadfast in the Law"], it is now clear from the wording of a Mathura inscription, in which Huvishka bears the same epithet satyadharmasthita that the kingdom was conferred upon him by Sarva and Scamdavira (Candavira), that is, he was a devotee of Siva."}}<br>The Mathura inscription in question is documented in [https://www.indianculture.gov.in/ebooks/mathura-inscriptions Lüders 1961, p.138ff]</ref> The Kushans in general were also great patrons of [[Buddhism]], and, starting with Emperor Kanishka, they also employed elements of [[Zoroastrianism]] in their pantheon.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Zoroastrianism among the Kushans |year=2015 |first=Frantz |last=Grenet |editor-last=Falk |editor-first=Harry |title=Kushan histories. Literary sources and selected papers from a symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013 |place=Bremen |publisher=Hempen Verlag}}</ref> They played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, ushering in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as "[[Pax Kushana]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aldrovandi |first1=Cibele |last2=Hirata |first2=Elaine |title=Buddhism, Pax Kushana and Greco-Roman motifs: pattern and purpose in Gandharan iconography |journal=Antiquity |date=June 2005 |volume=79 |issue=304 |pages=306–315 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00114103 |s2cid=161505956 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/buddhism-pax-kushana-and-grecoroman-motifs-pattern-and-purpose-in-gandharan-iconography/2D71B3DA60DB2549959DA7BDE49B9E69 |language=en |issn=0003-598X}}</ref>
 The Kushans possibly used the [[Greek language]] initially for administrative purposes but soon began to use the [[Bactrian language]]. Kanishka sent his armies north of the [[Karakoram|Karakoram mountains]]. A direct road from [[Gandhara]] to China remained under Kushan control for more than a century, encouraged travel across the [[Karakoram]] and facilitated the [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism|spread of Mahayana Buddhism]] to China. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the [[Roman Empire]], [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian Persia]], the [[Aksumite Empire]] and the [[Han dynasty]] of China. The Kushan Empire was at the center of trade relations between the Roman Empire and China: according to [[Alain Daniélou]], "for a time, the Kushana Empire was the centerpoint of the major civilizations".<ref name="A Brief History of India">{{cite book |last1=Daniélou |first1=Alain |title=A Brief History of India |date=2003 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781594777943 |page=111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT111}}</ref> While much philosophy, art, and science was created within its borders, the only textual record of the empire's history today comes from inscriptions and accounts in other languages, particularly Chinese.{{sfn|Hill|2009|p=36 and notes}}