The Buddhism of the Kushana Empire

The Kushana Empire was established during the first century CE when various peoples living in the area around Gandhara and Bactria were brought together under King Kadphises (see map of Gandhara). The third king of the dynasty which Kadphises established, King Kanishka, promoted Buddhism throughout his realm. As the Chinese under the Han dynasty began to lose their hold over Central Asia in the second century CE, the Kushana empire expanded eastward along the southern branch of the Silk Road. At the same time, much of northwest India was conquered by the Kushanas. During this period the extent of the Kushana empire ranked with those of Rome, Persia and China.

The Kushana empire included the city-state of Khotan and, further east, the Silk Road kingdom known to the Chinese as Shanshan. The empire owed much of its financial success to the Silk Road trade which passed through its domains. Trade flourished under the stability provided by the empire, and cultural exchange across the Silk Road increased.

The Kushana empire was relatively short-lived. First the Sassanians invaded from the West, and later various nomadic peoples, in particular the Xiongnu, moved in from the north, and by the end of the third century CE it was no longer an empire. Finally, Gandhara itself was sacked by the Xiongnu in the sixth century CE. Although the dates of the Kushana occupation of the southern Silk Road cannot be established with any certainty, they probably fall within the second and third centuries CE.

Remains on the Silk Road

The documents of the Kushana are written in the Gandhari language, one of the Indic languages which developed from Sanskrit, and in an ancient script called Kharosthi. Many documents written on wood have been found in the ancient cities of Niya and Loulan. Gandhari writing on a silk fragment was found as far east as Dunhuang, but there is no evidence of real Kushana presence this far east.

There are few remaining Gandhari Buddhist texts, and fewer still originate from the Silk Road. A Gandhari version of the Dharmapada was discovered in 1892 in the Khotan area, and a fragment of a Gandhari Mahaparinirvana sutra was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century. More recently other texts were discovered in modern Afghanistan, dating from the 1st to mid-2nd century CE.

Although few of the Kharosthi manuscripts from the Silk Road are Buddhist, many administrative documents mention Buddhist monks and a Buddhist monastic community. Furthermore, archaeological remains of monastic settlements and shrines have been discovered along the southern branch of the Silk Road; an especially fine group were discovered in Miran. The art of the Silk Road which dates back to the Kushana empire shows the influences of Indian, Graeco-Roman and Persian art.

The Buddhism of the Kushanas

The figures of deities on Kushana coins show that the empire tolerated the existence of various religions under its rule, including Graeco-Roman, Zoroastrian, Hindu and Buddhist. The Buddhism of the Kushanas derives from the Buddhism of Northern India. As yet, no traces of Mahayana Buddhism have been found in ancient Gandhari literature: the Kushana seem to have been solely followers of the Shravakayana.

Gandhari Buddhist texts from the Kushana empire seem to have been amongst the first Buddhist literature which reached China in the first or second century CE. Scholars have suggested that some of the earliest Chinese translations of Buddhist texts are from originals in Gandhari, and the early translators working in China include a significant number said to be of Kushana origin. Although it is not known when Buddhism first came to China, it was the stability which the Kushana empire promoted along the Silk Road which allowed large numbers of Buddhists and Buddhist texts to travel eastward into China. A Kharosthi Buddhist inscription in Luoyang, the one-time capital of China in the North-east, shows that how far the transmission of Buddhism in the Gandhari language reached inside of China.

Source

idp.bl.uk

[[Category:Silk Road]]