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64-616: Gandhari served as an official language of the Kushan Empire and various central Asian kingdoms, including Khotan and Shanshan . It appears on coins, inscriptions and texts, notably the Gandhāran Buddhist texts . It is notable among the Prakrits for having some archaic phonology, for its relative isolation and independence, for being partially within the influence of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean and for its use of

128-962: A Kushan rule of long duration is present in an area stretching from Surkh Kotal, Begram , the summer capital of the Kushans, Peshawar , the capital under Kanishka I, Taxila , and Mathura , the winter capital of the Kushans. The Kushans introduced for the first time a form of governance which consisted of Kshatrapas ( Brahmi : [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] , Kṣatrapa , " Satraps ") and Mahakshatrapa ( Brahmi : [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] , Mahakṣatrapa , "Great Satraps "). Other areas of probable rule include Khwarezm and its capital city of Toprak-Kala , Kausambi (excavations of Allahabad University ), Sanchi and Sarnath (inscriptions with names and dates of Kushan kings), Malwa and Maharashtra , and Odisha (imitation of Kushan coins, and large Kushan hoards). Kushan invasions in

192-816: A century, encouraged travel across the Karakoram, and facilitated the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to China. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman 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

256-574: A consensus has grown in scholarship which sees the first wave of Buddhist missionary work as associated with Gāndhārī and the Kharoṣṭhī script, and tentatively with the Dharmaguptaka sect. Available evidence also indicates that the first Buddhist missions to Khotan were carried out by the Dharmaguptaka sect, and used a Kharoṣṭhī-written Gāndhārī. However, there is evidence that other sects and traditions of Buddhism also used Gāndhārī, and evidence that

320-640: A force of 70,000 but were defeated by the smaller Chinese force. Chinese chronicles relate battles between the Kushans and the Chinese general Ban Chao . The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire. The regions of the Tarim Basin were all ultimately conquered by Ban Chao . Later, during the Yuánchū period (AD 114–120), the Kushans sent a military force to install Chenpan, who had been

384-598: A hostage among them, as king of Kashgar . Several Kushan fortresses are known, particularly in Bactria , which were often rebuilt on top of Hellenistic fortifications, as in Kampir Tepe . They are often characterised by arrow-shaped loopholes for archers. Kushan rulers are recorded for a period of about three centuries, from circa 30 CE to circa 375 CE, until the invasions of the Kidarites . They ruled around

448-585: A possession of Kanishka or just beyond it). The Buddhist text Śrīdharmapiṭakanidānasūtra —known via a Chinese translation made in AD 472—refers to the conquest of Pataliputra by Kanishka. A 2nd century stone inscription by a Great Satrap named Rupiamma was discovered in Pauni , south of the Narmada river , suggesting that Kushan control extended this far south, although this could alternatively have been controlled by

512-468: A special letter (noted by scholars as an underlined s, [ s ]), which later is used interchangeably with s, suggesting an early change to a sound, likely the voiced dental fricative ð, and a later shift to z and then a plain s. The Middle Prakrits typically weakened th to dh, which later shifted to h. Kharoṣṭhī does not render the distinction between short and long vowels, so the details of that feature are not known. Linguistic evidence links some groups of

576-515: Is also credited (along with Raja Dab ) for building the massive, ancient Fort at Bathinda ( Qila Mubarak ), in the modern city of Bathinda , Indian Punjab . The Kushans also had a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa), where the "Begram Treasure", comprising works of art from Greece to China, has been found. According to the Rabatak inscription, Kanishka was the son of Vima Kadphises,

640-511: Is evidence for the collaboration between Greek populations and the Kushans in the 2nd century AD. Apparently the main architect of the Kushan temple at Surkh Kotal was a Greek named Palamedes. A Greek inscription has been found which could be read as: ΔΙΑ ΠΑΛΑΜΕΔΟΥΣ, i.e. dia Palamedous , meaning "through or by Palamedes". This proves that Hellenistic populations still remained in Bactria up into

704-489: Is known from only two inscriptions, especially the Rabatak inscription, and apparently never ruled), and seemingly Vima Takto. Kujula Kadphises was the great-grandfather of Kanishka. Vima Takto (Ancient Chinese: 閻膏珍 Yangaozhen ) is mentioned in the Rabatak inscription (another son, Sadashkana, is mentioned in an inscription of Senavarman, the King of Odi). He was the predecessor of Vima Kadphises, and Kanishka I. He expanded

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768-545: The Afridi Pashtuns in the 19th century. Georg Morgenstierne claimed that Tirahi is "probably the remnant of a dialect group extending from Tirah through the Peshawar district into Swat and Dir ". Nowadays, it must be entirely extinct and the region is now dominated by Iranian languages brought in by later migrants, such as Pashto . Among the modern day Indo-Aryan languages still spoken today, Torwali shows

832-578: The Brahmi script , such as the Mathura inscription of the statue of Vima Kadphises , refer to the Kushan Emperor as [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] , Ku-ṣā-ṇa ("Kushana"). Some later Indian literary sources referred to the Kushans as Turushka , a name which in later Sanskrit sources was confused with Turk , "probably due to the fact that Tukharistan passed into the hands of

896-477: The Dardic languages with Gandhari. The Kohistani languages , now all being displaced from their original homelands, were once more widespread in the region and most likely descend from the ancient dialects of the region of Gandhara. The last to disappear was Tirahi , still spoken some years ago in a few villages in the vicinity of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, by descendants of migrants expelled from Tirah by

960-491: The Gupta Empire , until the invasion of the Kidarites destroyed the last remains of Kushan rule. The Kushan religious pantheon is extremely varied, as revealed by their coins that were made in gold, silver, and copper. These coins contained more than thirty different gods, belonging mainly to their own Iranian, as well as Greek and Indian worlds as well. Kushan coins had images of Kushan Kings, Buddha, and figures from

1024-867: The Hellenistic culture of Bactria. They adopted the Greek alphabet to suit their own language (with the additional development of the letter Þ "sh", as in "Kushan") and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model. On their coins they used Greek language legends combined with Pali legends (in the Kharoshthi script), until the first few years of the reign of Kanishka. After the middle of Kanishka's reign, they used Kushan language legends (in an adapted Greek script), combined with legends in Greek (Greek script) and legends in Prakrit (Kharoshthi script). Interestingly there

1088-727: The Kharoṣṭhī script, compared to Brahmic scripts used by other Prakrits. Gāndhārī is an early Middle Indo-Aryan language – a Prakrit – with unique features that distinguish it from all other known Prakrits. Phonetically, it maintained all three Old Indo-Aryan sibilants – s, ś and ṣ – as distinct sounds where they fell together as [s] in other Prakrits, a change that is considered one of the earliest Middle Indo-Aryan shifts. Gāndhārī also preserves certain Old Indo-Aryan consonant clusters, mostly those involving v and r. In addition, intervocalic Old Indo-Aryan th and dh are written early on with

1152-503: The Kushan monk Lokakṣema began translating the first Buddhist sutras into Chinese. The earliest of these translations show evidence of having been translated from Gāndhārī. It is also known that manuscripts in the Kharoṣṭhī script existed in China during this period. Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( c.  30 – c.  375 AD) was a syncretic empire formed by

1216-680: The Kushan prince of Khalchayan with artificially deformed skulls , a practice well attested in nomadic Central Asia. Some of the Khalchayan sculptural scenes are also thought to depict the Kushans fighting against the Sakas . In these portrayals, the Yuezhis are shown with a majestic demeanour, whereas the Sakas are typically represented with side-whiskers, and more or less grotesque facial expressions. The Chinese first referred to these people as

1280-661: The Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom in the areas of Sogdiana , Bactria, and Gandhara. In the 4th century, the Guptas , another Indian dynasty, also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by invaders from the north, known as the Kidarites , and later the Hephthalites . Chinese sources describe the Guìshuāng ( 貴霜 , Old Chinese : *kuj-s [s]raŋ ), i.e.

1344-579: The Western Satraps . In the East, as late as the 3rd century AD, decorated coins of Huvishka were dedicated at Bodh Gaya together with other gold offerings under the "Enlightenment Throne" of the Buddha, suggesting direct Kushan influence in the area during that period. Coins of the Kushans are found in abundance as far as Bengal , and the ancient Bengali state of Samatata issued coins copied from

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1408-848: The Yuezhi confederation, an Indo-European nomadic people of possible Tocharian origin, who migrated from northwestern China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and settled in ancient Bactria. The founder of the dynasty, Kujula Kadphises , followed Iranian and Greek cultural ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition and was a follower of the Shaivite sect of Hinduism . Two later Kushan kings, Vima Kadphises and Vasudeva II , were also patrons of Hinduism. The Kushans in general were also great patrons of Buddhism , and, starting with Emperor Kanishka, they employed elements of Zoroastrianism in their pantheon. They played an important role in

1472-528: The Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Tajikistan , Uzbekistan , Afghanistan , Pakistan , Eastern Iran and Northern India , at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath , near Varanasi , where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great . The Kushans were most probably one of five branches of

1536-479: The western Turks in the seventh century". According to John M. Rosenfield , Turushka , Tukhāra or Tukhāra are variations of the word Tokhari in Indian writings. Yet, according to Wink, "nowadays no historian considers them to be Turkish-Mongoloid or "Hun", although there is no doubt about their Central-Asian origin." Some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana in

1600-550: The 1st century AD had been given as an explanation for the migration of Indians from the Indian Subcontinent toward Southeast Asia according to proponents of a Greater India theory by 20th-century Indian nationalists . However, there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. The Rabatak inscription , discovered in 1993, confirms the account of the Hou Hanshu, Weilüe , and inscriptions dated early in

1664-557: The 1st century AD, the Kujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support the city-state of Kucha , which had been resisting the Chinese invasion of the region, but they retreated after minor encounters. In the 2nd century AD, the Kushans under Kanishka made various forays into the Tarim Basin , where they had various contacts with the Chinese. Kanishka held areas of the Tarim Basin apparently corresponding to

1728-471: The 1st century of the Common Era. The Middle Prakrit phonetic features are the weakening of intervocalic consonants: degemination and voicing, such as the shift of OIA * k to g . The most rapid loss was the dentals, which started to disappear completely even before the late period as with * t > ∅ as in * pitar > piu ; in contrast, retroflex consonants were never lost. There is also evidence of

1792-519: The 2nd-1st century BC, where they had displaced the Sakas , who moved further south. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-i Sangin , Surkh Kotal (a monumental temple), and in the palace of Khalchayan . On the ruins of ancient Hellenistic cities such as Ai-Khanoum , the Kushans are known to have built fortresses. Various sculptures and friezes from this period are known, representing horse-riding archers, and, significantly, men such as

1856-577: The Chinese continued to call them Yuezhi . Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scythian tribes, the Kushans expanded south into the region traditionally known as Gandhara (an area primarily in Pakistan 's Pothowar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region) and established twin capitals in Begram and Charsadda , then known as Kapisa and Pushklavati respectively. The Kushans adopted elements of

1920-814: The Dardic languages, whereas all the Indo-Aryan languages have replaced that term with reflexes of bhaginī . Until 1994, the only Gāndhāri manuscript available to the scholars was a birch bark manuscript of a Buddhist text, the Dharmapāda , discovered at Kohmāri Mazār near Hotan in Xinjiang in 1893 CE. From 1994 on, a large number of fragmentary manuscripts of Buddhist texts, seventy-seven altogether, were discovered in eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan. These include: Mahayana Buddhist Pure Land sūtras were brought from Gandhāra to China as early as 147 CE, when

1984-592: The Dharmaguptaka sect also used Sanskrit at times. It is true that most manuscripts in Gāndhārī belong to the Dharmaguptakas, but virtually all schools — inclusive Mahāyāna — used some Gāndhārī. Von Hinüber (1982b and 1983) has pointed out incompletely Sanskritised Gāndhārī words in works heretofore ascribed to the Sarvāstivādins and drew the conclusion that either the sectarian attribution had to be revised, or

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2048-504: The Gaofu ( Kabul ) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda ( Paktiya ) and Jibin ( Kapisha and Gandhara ). Qiujiuque (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yangaozhen [probably Vema Tahk (tu) or, possibly, his brother Sadaṣkaṇa ], became king in his place. He defeated Tianzhu [North-western India] and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All

2112-402: The Great , fourth Kushan king, lasted for about 23 years from c. AD 127. Upon his accession, Kanishka ruled a huge territory (virtually all of northern India), south to Ujjain and Kundina and east beyond Pataliputra, according to the Rabatak inscription: In the year one, it has been proclaimed unto India, unto the whole realm of the governing class, including Koonadeano (Kaundiny, Kundina ) and

2176-472: The Greek culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming at least partly Hellenised . The great Kushan emperor Vima Kadphises , father of Kanishka , embraced Shaivism , a sect of Hinduism , as surmised by coins minted during the period. The following Kushan emperors represented a wide variety of faiths including Buddhism , Zoroastrianism and Hindu Shaivism . The rule of the Kushans linked

2240-777: The Hellenic kingdom of Greco-Bactria (in northern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan) around 135 BC. The displaced Greek dynasties resettled to the southeast in areas of the Hindu Kush (in present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) and the Indus basin (in present-day Pakistan and India), occupying the western part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom . In South Asia , Kushan emperors regularly used the dynastic name ΚΟϷΑΝΟ ("Koshano") on their coinage. Several inscriptions in Sanskrit in

2304-599: The Indo-Aryan and Iranian pantheons. Greek deities, with Greek names are represented on early coins. During Kanishka's reign, the language of the coinage changes to Bactrian (though it remained in Greek script for all kings). After Huvishka, only two divinities appear on the coins: Ardoxsho and Oesho (see details below). The Iranian entities depicted on coinage include: Representation of entities from Greek mythology and Hellenistic syncretism are: The Indic entities represented on coinage include: Mah%C4%81y%C4%81na Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2368-457: The Kanishka era (incept probably AD 127), that large Kushan dominions expanded into the heartland of northern India in the early 2nd century AD. Lines 4 to 7 of the inscription describe the cities which were under the rule of Kanishka, among which six names are identifiable: Ujjain , Kundina , Saketa , Kausambi , Pataliputra , and Champa (although the text is not clear whether Champa was

2432-657: The Kushan Empire into the northwest of South Asia. The Hou Hanshu says: "His son, Yangaozhen [probably Vema Tahk (tu) or, possibly, his brother Sadaṣkaṇa], became king in his place. He defeated Tianzhu [North-western India] and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang [Kushan] king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi." Vima Kadphises (Kushan language: Οοημο Καδφισης)

2496-503: The Kushan Empire." The earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler, was Heraios . He calls himself a " tyrant " in Greek on his coins, and also exhibits skull deformation. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises. The Chinese Book of Later Han chronicles then gives an account of

2560-533: The Kushan era, and also explains how the Greek alphabet could have been applied to the Bactrian language. The Kushans "adopted many local beliefs and customs, including Zoroastrianism and the two rising religions in the region, the Greek cults and Buddhism ". From the time of Vima Takto , many Kushans started adopting aspects of Buddhist culture, and like the Egyptians, they absorbed the strong remnants of

2624-636: The Kushans, as one of the five aristocratic tribes of the Yuezhi . Many scholars believe that the Yuezhi were a people of Indo-European origin. A specifically Tocharian origin of the Yuezhi is often suggested. An Iranian , specifically Saka origin, has also been suggested by some scholars. The Yuezhi were described in the Records of the Great Historian and the Book of Han as living in

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2688-485: The Yuezhi and said they established the Kushan Empire, although the relationship between the Yuezhi and the Kushans is still unclear. Ban Gu 's Book of Han tells us the Kushans (Kuei-shuang) divided up Bactria in 128 BC. Fan Ye 's Book of Later Han "relates how the chief of the Kushans, Ch'iu-shiu-ch'ueh (the Kujula Kadphises of coins), founded by means of the submission of the other Yueh-chih clans

2752-519: The ancient regions held by the Yüeh-zhi , the possible ancestors of the Kushan. There was Kushan influence on coinage in Kashgar , Yarkand , and Khotan . According to Chinese chronicles, the Kushans (referred to as Da Yuezhi in Chinese sources) requested, but were denied, a Han princess, even though they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in AD 90 with

2816-575: The best evidence available to be in 150) until the succession of Vasudeva I about thirty years later. His rule was a period of retrenchment and consolidation for the Empire. In particular he devoted time and effort early in his reign to the exertion of greater control over the city of Mathura. Vasudeva I (Kushan: Βαζοδηο "Bazodeo", Chinese: 波調 "Bodiao") was the last of the "Great Kushans". Named inscriptions dating from year 64 to 98 of Kanishka's era suggest his reign extended from at least AD 191 to 225. He

2880-485: The city of Ozeno (Ozene, Ujjain ) and the city of Zageda ( Saketa ) and the city of Kozambo ( Kausambi ) and the city of Palabotro ( Pataliputra ) and as far as the city of Ziri-tambo ( Sri-Champa ), whatever rulers and other important persons (they might have) he had submitted to (his) will, and he had submitted all India to (his) will. His territory was administered from two capitals: Purushapura (now Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan ) and Mathura , in northern India. He

2944-612: The closest linguistic affinity possible to Niya , a dialect of Gāndhārī. Initial identification of a distinct language occurred through study of one of the Buddhist āgamas , the Dīrghāgama , which had been translated into Chinese by Buddhayaśas ( Chinese : 佛陀耶舍 ) and Zhu Fonian ( Chinese : 竺佛念 ). The now dominant hypothesis on the propagation of Buddhism in Central Asia goes back to 1932 when E. Waldschmidt remarked that

3008-449: The coinage of Kanishka I, although probably only as a result of commercial influence. Coins in imitation of Kushan coinage have also been found abundantly in the eastern state of Orissa . In the West, the Kushan state covered the Pārata state of Balochistan , western Pakistan , Afghanistan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Uzbekistan , and Turkmenistan . Turkmenistan was known for the Kushan Buddhist city of Merv . Northward, in

3072-400: The formation of the Kushan empire based on a report made by the Chinese general Ban Yong to the Chinese Emperor c.  AD 125 : More than a hundred years later [than the conquest of Bactria by the Yuezhi], the prince [ xihou ] of Guishuang ( Badakhshan ) established himself as king, and his dynasty was called that of the Guishuang (Kushan) King. He invaded Anxi (Indo-Parthia), and took

3136-415: The grandson of Sadashkana, and the great-grandson of Kujula Kadphises. Kanishka's era is now generally accepted to have begun in 127 on the basis of Harry Falk's ground-breaking research. Kanishka's era was used as a calendar reference by the Kushans for about a century, until the decline of the Kushan realm. Huvishka (Kushan: Οοηϸκι, "Ooishki") was a Kushan emperor from the death of Kanishka (assumed on

3200-430: The grasslands of eastern Xinjiang and northwestern part of Gansu , in the northwest of modern-day China, until their King was beheaded by the Xiongnu (匈奴) who were also at war with China, which eventually forced them to migrate west in 176–160 BC. The five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì (休密), Guìshuāng (貴霜), Shuāngmǐ (雙靡), Xìdùn (肸頓), and Dūmì (都密). The Yuezhi reached

3264-404: The kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang [Kushan] king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi. In the 1st century BC, the Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜) gained prominence over the other Yuezhi tribes, and welded them into a tight confederation under commander Kujula Kadphises. The name Guishuang was adopted in the West and modified into Kushan to designate the confederation, although

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3328-411: The kingdoms of Puda [Paktiya] and Jibin [Kapisha and Gandhara]. Qiujiuque [Kujula Kadphises] was more than eighty years old when he died." These conquests by Kujula Kadphises probably took place sometime between AD 45 and 60 and laid the basis for the Kushan Empire which was rapidly expanded by his descendants. Kujula issued an extensive series of coins and fathered at least two sons, Sadaṣkaṇa (who

3392-424: The loss of a distinction between aspirates and plain stops as well, which is unusual in the Indo-Aryan languages . In Central Asian Gāndhārī, there is often confusion in writing nasals with homorganic stops; it is unclear if this might represent assimilation of the stop or the appearance of prenasalized consonants to the phonetic inventory. Gāndhārī grammar is difficult to analyse; endings were eroded not only by

3456-414: The loss of final consonants and cluster simplification of all Prakrits but also by the apparent weakening of final vowels "'to the point that they were no longer differentiated'". Nonetheless, there was still at least a rudimentary system of grammatical case . Verbal forms are highly restricted in usage due to the primary usage of longer texts to translations of religious documents and the narrative nature of

3520-462: The names quoted in the Chinese Dīrghāgama (T. 1), which had been translated by the avowedly Dharmaguptaka monk Buddhayaśas (who also translated the Dharmaguptakavinaya ), were not rendered from Sanskrit, but from a then undetermined Prākrit also found in the Khotan Dharmapada . In 1946, Bailey identified this Prākrit, which he named Gāndhārī, as corresponding to the language of most Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions from Northwestern India. Since this time,

3584-409: The same time as the Western Satraps , the Satavahanas , and the first Gupta Empire rulers. ...the prince [elavoor] of Guishuang, named thilac [Kujula Kadphises], attacked and exterminated the four other xihou. He established himself as king, and his dynasty was called that of the Guishuang [Kushan] King. He invaded Anxi [Indo-Parthia] and took the Gaofu [Kabul] region. He also defeated the whole of

3648-533: The seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley . At the height of the dynasty, the Kushans loosely ruled a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day Uzbekistan , Afghanistan , Pakistan and northern India . The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade, brought Chinese silks to Rome , and created strings of flourishing urban centers. Rosenfield notes that archaeological evidence of

3712-438: The spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, ushering in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as " Pax Kushana ". The Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes but soon began to use the Eastern Iranian Bactrian language . Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains. A direct road from Gandhara to China remained under Kushan control for more than

3776-410: The sutras but seem to parallel changes in other Prakrits. The lexicon of Gāndhārī is also limited by its textual usage; it is still possible to determine unusual forms, such as Gāndhārī forms that show commonalities with forms in modern Indo-Aryan languages of the area, notably some groups of the Dardic languages . An example is the word for sister, which is a descendant of Old Indo-Aryan svasṛ- as in

3840-413: The tacit dogma "Gāndhārī equals Dharmaguptaka" is wrong. Conversely, Dharmaguptakas also resorted to Sanskrit. Starting in the first century of the common era, there was a large trend toward a type of Gāndhārī which was heavily Sanskritized. In general terms, Gāndhārī is a Middle Prakrit, a term for middle-stage Middle Indo-Aryan languages. It only begins to show the characteristics of the Late Prakrits in

3904-562: The year 22 (the Sanchi inscription of "Vaksushana" – i.e., Vasishka Kushana) and year 28 (the Sanchi inscription of Vasaska – i.e., Vasishka) of a possible second Kanishka era. Following territorial losses in the west ( Bactria lost to the Kushano-Sasanians ), and in the east (loss of Mathura to the Gupta Empire ), several "Little Kushans" are known, who ruled locally in the area of Punjab with their capital at Taxila : Vasudeva II (270 – 300), Mahi (300 – 305), Shaka (305 – 335) and Kipunada (335 – 350). They probably were vassals of

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3968-408: Was a Kushan emperor from around AD 95–127, the son of Sadashkana and the grandson of Kujula Kadphises, and the father of Kanishka I, as detailed by the Rabatak inscription. Vima Kadphises added to the Kushan territory by his conquests in Bactria. He issued an extensive series of coins and inscriptions. He issued gold coins in addition to the existing copper and silver coinage. The rule of Kanishka

4032-408: Was the centerpoint of the major civilizations". 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. The Kushan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell to the Sasanians invading from the west and establishing

4096-539: Was the last great Kushan emperor, and the end of his rule coincides with the invasion of the Sasanians as far as northwestern India, and the establishment of the Indo-Sasanians or Kushanshahs in what is nowadays Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India from around AD 240. Vāsishka was a Kushan emperor who seems to have had a 20-year reign following Kanishka II . His rule is recorded at Mathura , in Gandhara and as far south as Sanchi (near Vidisa ), where several inscriptions in his name have been found, dated to

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