The Later Kushans and Conclusion

Following the death of Vasudeva in ca. 225 ce, Kushan history entered a period of decline, although a series of lesser kings known exclusively through their coinage did continue to hold on to power.

But they were faced by the new and rising power in the region, the Sasanian conqueror Ardashir who, soon after his coronation in 224 ce, began to lead his formidable forces into Kushan territory.^[977] By 262 Begram and Taxila had been destroyed by Sasanian forces under the leadership of Ardashir's son Shapur I (241-272 ce); and the northwestern areas of the former Kushan Empire were incorporated into the Sasanian state named Kushanshar.^[978] According to the Chinese source the Sanguoji, either King Vasudeva or an immediate successor (Kanishka II? ca. 230-242?) sent an embassy to the Chinese Wei Court in the year 230, perhaps (ironically, given the Yuezhi's rejection of Zhang Qian more than three centuries earlier) seeking an alliance with the Chinese against the Sasanians, but to no avail.^[979] During the long period of Sasanian conquest of Kushan territories, and the establishment of the new province of Kushanshar, coinage of both imperial powers developed a degree of synchronism. There is evidence of overstrikes by the Kushans on Kushano-Sasanian coins and vice versa, and some Kushano-Sasanian coins copied specific motifs from Kushan coins, particularly images of fire altars and reverses that derived ultimately from the Vasudevan Siva and Nandi types.^[980]

Despite their defeat and subjugation at the hands of the Sasanians, numismatic evidence indicates the continuance of some type of Kushan royal polity in the region. Following the reign of Kanishka II noted earlier, coins of Vasishka, Kanishka III, Vasudeva II, Shaka, and Kipunda continue through to the early fifth century.^[981] Archaeological evidence from various sites excavated by Ghirshman might also indicate that, as Puri argued in the 1960s, “fire and destruction was [sic] followed by new activity under the later Kushans.”^[982] Later and lesser Kushan kings might have retained the status of Sasanian viceroys, providing contingents of Kushan cavalry to the formidable Sasanian military; or even of nominally independent monarchs ruling territories under Sasanian suzerainty, perhaps linked to the Iranian aristocracy by marriage.^[983] Indeed, Narain maintained that the Kushans of the northwest never fully submitted to the Sasanians, and that “more than one branch of them was struggling to maintain their independence and enhance their political power during the century-long period of decline”^[984]

In India meanwhile, the rise of small but powerful monarchical and republican states such as those of the Naghas, Maghas, and Yaudheyas undermined Kushan power, although Mathura may have remained under Kushan control until as late as the year 157 of the Kanishkan Era (i.e., ca.

284 ce).^[985] The cultural development of these Indian states was also influenced by their Kushan heritage. The Yaudheyas in particular, who were at the zenith of their power in the region between the Ganges and Indus between the third and fourth centuries ce, issued coins that appear to have copied the fabric and reduced copper denominations of Huvishka, but with depictions of either a male warrior god Karttikeya or a beautiful female divinity Devasena on the reverse.^[986] Similarly, the Western Satraps of northern India, regarded as vassals of the Kushans for much of their history, issued a long series of Kushan- and Indo-Greek-influenced silver coins through to the Gupta conquest of the lower Gangetic provinces in the fourth century. Even the early gold coinage of the Guptas themselves, who emerged under Chandragupta to fill the political vacuum formed in India following Kushan disintegration, seems to have been influenced by Kushan design, although without the Greek legends.^[987]

Further evidence of some form of continuing Kushan power in the Indus Valley well into the fourth century can be found in the history of the Iranian-speaking Kidarites (also known as the Xionites) who began migrating into Bactria in ca. 320 ce. The Kidarite King Grumbat engaged in a prolonged struggle with Shapur II of the Sasanians, and in the end both sides concluded a peace alliance that saw Grumbat and his forces fight with the Sasanians against the Romans. Later Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that, although Grumbat was “middle aged” “he was endowed with a mind that acted grandly, and he was famous for his many significant victories”^[988] Yet, until 360 the southern branch of the powerful Kidarites, the so-called Red Huns, were apparently forced to accept vassal status to the Kushans of the Indus Valley, until some evidence indicates that Kidara II successfully led Kidarite troops from Bactria across the Hindu Kush to defeat the Kushans of northwestern India.^[989]

The Kidarites were displaced in the last quarter of the fifth century by a new wave of Hunnish invaders, the Hephthalites, or White Huns, who might also have had an intriguing Kushan connection.

Chinese chronicles describe the Hephthalites as being descended from one of the five original xihun of the Yuezhi, although this is impossible to substantiate. By the end of the fifth century the Hephthalites had defeated the Sasanians at the Battle of Herat and become the dominant power in Transoxiana. They also placed enormous military pressure on the Gupta kings of India, several of whom were hard pressed to keep the invaders out. Excavations at Taxila provide evidence of the destructive power of the Hephthalites, yet even these White Huns could not obliterate the syncretistic ethos that had prevailed in Central Asia for almost half a millennium, as demonstrated by the varied imitative nature of their coins.^[990] Most Hephthalite coins copy Sasanian prototypes, but there are also Kushan copies and even Greco-Bactrian imitations, despite the fact that the Greco- Bactrian kingdom had been destroyed by the Yuezhi more than six centuries earlier.

Although the initial disintegration of the Kushan Empire occurred precipitously during the middle decades of the third century at the hands of the Sasanians under Ardashir and Shapur I, it appears that the destruction was not complete because a Kushan monarchy continued to rule in some capacity for another century, and various groups of Kushans managed to retain power in different regions of the former empire until late into the fourth century. Clearly the advent of the Sasanians led directly to the collapse of the Kushan Empire then, but the cultural, political, and economic achievements of the Kushans continued to influence their regional successors for centuries afterward. As we noted in the introduction to the chapter, evidence for the Kushans might be sparse and inconclusive, but it is surely sufficient to demonstrate the significance and legacy of an extraordinary empire that dominated the “crossroads of Eurasia” for more than two centuries, and which through its facilitation of Silk Roads trade and cultural exchange, profoundly influenced the historical development of much of ancient Eurasia.

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Source: Bang Peter F., Bayly C.A., Scheidel Walter (eds.). The Oxford World History of Empire. Volume Two: The History of Empires. Oxford University Press,2020. — 1352 p.. 2020

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