Kaniska, also spelled Kanishka, Chinese Chia-ni-se-chia (flourished 1st century ce), greatest king of the Kushan dynasty that ruled over the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and possibly areas of Central Asia north of the Kashmir region. He is, however, chiefly remembered as a great patron of Buddhism.
Through inheritance and conquest, Kaniska’s kingdom covered an area extending from Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan) in the west to Patna in the Ganges (Ganga) River valley in the east and from the Pamirs (now in Tajikistan) in the north to central India in the south. His capital probably was Purusapura (Peshawar, now in Pakistan). He may have crossed the Pamirs and subjugated the kings of the city-states of Khotan (Hotan), Kashgar, and Yarkand (now in the Xinjiang region of China), who had previously been tributaries of the Han emperors of China.
His conquests and patronage of Buddhism played an important role in the development of the Silk Road, and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China.
Earlier scholars believed that Kanishka ascended the throne in 78 CE, and that this date was used as the beginning of the Saka calendar era. However, this date is not now regarded as the historical date of Kanishka's accession. Kanishka is estimated to have accessed to the throne in AD 127.
Kaniska was a tolerant king, and his coins show that he honoured the Zoroastrian, Greek, and Brahmanic deities as well as the Buddha. During his reign, contacts with the Roman Empire via the Silk Road led to a significant increase in trade and the exchange of ideas; perhaps the most remarkable example of the fusion of Eastern and Western influences in his reign was the Gandhara school of art, in which Classical Greco-Roman lines are seen in images of the Buddha.
Kanishka's empire was certainly vast. It extended from southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, north of the Amu Darya (Oxus) in the north west to Pakistan and Northern India, as far as Mathura in the south east (the Rabatak inscription even claims he held Pataliputra and Sri Champa), and his territory also included Kashmir, where there was a town Kanishkapur, named after him not far from the Baramula Pass and which still contains the base of a large stupa.
Knowledge of his hold over Central Asia is less well established. The Book of the Later Han, Hou Hanshu, states that general Ban Chao fought battles near Khotan with a Kushan army of 70,000 men led by an otherwise unknown Kushan viceroy named Xie (Chinese: 謝) in 90 AD. Though Ban Chao claimed to be victorious, forcing the Kushans to retreat by use of a scorched-earth policy, the region fell to Kushan forces in the early 2nd century.[7] As a result, for a period (until the Chinese regained control c. 127 AD)[8] the territory of the Kushans extended for a short period as far as Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand, which were Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang. Several coins of Kanishka have been found in the Tarim Basin.
Controlling both the land (the Silk Road) and sea trade routes between South Asia and Rome seems to have been one of Kanishka's chief imperial goals.
No comments:
Post a Comment