The Kushanas and divine kingship

Detail

Who the Kushanas were, and the date problem

• The Kushanas came from Central Asia. At their peak their empire ran from Central Asia into large parts of north India.
• They ruled northern India, Afghanistan, and possibly Central Asian land north of the Kashmir region [4].
• Dates are genuinely unsettled — the NCERTs themselves differ:
• Class 12 Part 1, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns" places them c. 1st century BCE – 1st century CE, with Kanishka's accession at c. 78 CE, and marks that date as uncertain.
• Class 7 Part 1, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation" says they entered India "probably in the 2nd century CE".
• Exam rule: treat every Kushana date as approximate. If a question gives 78 CE for Kanishka, accept it, but know it is debated.

New notions of kingship — the royal statues

• The Kushanas pushed a new idea of kingship: the king is not only powerful, he is close to god.
• Colossal (very large) statues of Kushana rulers were set up in two places:
• a shrine at Mat, near Mathura (Uttar Pradesh),

• a shrine in Afghanistan.

• A group of royal portrait sculptures was recovered from the village of Mat near Mathura [2].

• Because kings were placed inside a shrine — the spot normally kept for a god — some historians read this as the Kushanas seeing themselves as godlike.
• Many Kushana rulers took the title devaputra, meaning "son of god".
• This was possibly copied from Chinese emperors, who were styled "sons of heaven".

The headless Kanishka statue

• The best-known Mat piece is the headless statue of Kanishka.
• It is about 1.85 metres tall, made in Mathura around the late 1st century CE, and is kept in the Archaeological Museum, Mathura [2].
• The figure wears heavy boots, a tunic and a long coat, and leans on a mace (a heavy club-like weapon) [2].
• The dress is Central Asian, not Indian — the king is showing off his foreign, steppe origin, not hiding it.

• Mathura workshop royal portraits are stiff, strictly front-facing, with belted tunic, high boots and conical cap [2].

• The statue carries a Brahmi legend (Brahmi = the script most early Indian inscriptions use):

• maharaja rajadhiraja devaputra Kanishka
• = "great king, king of kings, son of god".
• Break it down: maharaja = great king; rajadhiraja = king of kings (a title borrowed from Iran/Central Asia); devaputra = son of god. Three layers of claim in one line.

Coins as ideology

• Kushana coins were advertising. Each side sold a message.
• One Kanishka issue pairs:
• the king holding a spear, titled "King of Kings", with

• the Buddha, labelled BOΔΔO in Greek script on the other side.

• Another issue shows Shiva with his bull Nandi.

• Read together: a strong ruler telling everyone he supports more than one faith.
• External support: Kanishka's coins honoured Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanical gods as well as the Buddha — a deliberately tolerant line-up [4].

The first gold coinage

• The Kushanas issued the first gold coins in India, from about the 1st century CE.
• They were issued in the largest hoards (hoard = a buried lot of coins found together) known from this period.
• Their weight is virtually identical to the Roman aureus (the Roman gold coin) and to Parthian issues.

• Why this matters: matching weight means the coin could be accepted in long-distance trade without re-weighing. It is proof of India being plugged into a wider money world.

• They are found across north India and Central Asia.

• Kushana gold follows a Roman weight standard, and on them the rulers present themselves alongside a range of Near Eastern and South Asian deities [4].

Note: Britannica describes the Great Kushan gold coinage as minted in the 2nd and early 3rd centuries CE [4], while the NCERT places the first gold coins at c. 1st century CE. Keep the NCERT date for the exam; the difference is part of the same fuzzy Kushana chronology.

Silk Route, trade and art

• The Kushanas controlled significant sections of the Silk Route — the overland trade roads linking China, Central Asia, India and the West.
• Trade boomed. India was connected to the rest of Asia and to the West.
• Under Kanishka, contact with the Roman Empire along the Silk Road sharply raised trade and the exchange of ideas [4].
• Gandhara had direct access to the overland silk routes and links to ports on the Arabian Sea — trade and art travelled the same roads [4].
• Kanishka patronised art and culture and helped new artistic styles grow (see §9).
• The clearest example: the Gandhara school of art, where Greek and Roman lines appear in images of the Buddha [4].

Prelims Hooks

• Devaputra = "son of god"; a common Kushana royal title, possibly inspired by Chinese "sons of heaven".
• Full legend on the Kanishka statue: maharaja rajadhiraja devaputra Kanishka, in Brahmi script.
• Kushana royal statue shrines: Mat (near Mathura) and one in Afghanistan.
• Headless Kanishka statue: about 1.85 m tall, late 1st century CE, now in the Archaeological Museum, Mathura [2].
• Kanishka's statue shows boots, tunic, coat, leaning on a mace — Central Asian dress [2].
• The Buddha on a Kanishka coin is labelled BOΔΔO in Greek script.
• Another Kanishka coin type shows Shiva with Nandi.
• The Kushanas issued the first gold coins in India, weight nearly equal to the Roman aureus and Parthian coins.
• Kanishka's accession c. 78 CE per Class 12 Part 1, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns", flagged uncertain; Class 7 Part 1, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation" puts Kushana entry in India "probably in the 2nd century CE".
• Kanishka's coins honoured Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanical gods plus the Buddha [4].

Mains Points

• Kingship became divine, not just powerful. Earlier Indian kings claimed victory and sacrifice (Ashoka used devanampiya, "beloved of the gods"). The Kushanas went further — devaputra, son of god, plus statues inside shrines. Argument: political weakness of a foreign dynasty in a new land is met with a religious claim to legitimacy.
• The titles show mixing of traditions. Maharaja is Indian; rajadhiraja is Iranian/Central Asian; devaputra may echo Chinese practice. A single inscription borrows from three worlds — good evidence for India as part of a connected Eurasia, not an isolated region.
• Coins are political documents, not just money. Buddha on one issue, Shiva on another, Iranian and Greek gods elsewhere [4]. Argue that this is deliberate state policy: a ruler over many peoples buys loyalty by backing all their gods, rather than one state religion.
• Trade paid for the ideology. Control of the Silk Route funded gold coinage on a Roman weight standard, and the same roads carried Greco-Roman artistic forms into Gandhara Buddha images [4]. Link economics → art → kingship in one chain rather than treating them as separate sections.