Great Merchants of Silk Route

Great Merchants of Silk Route
Sukanta Roy, 1977 Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering

The Kushans were one of two key middlemen during the First Silk Roads Era (the other being the Parthians). Moving goods between Rome and China, they would unify the overland Silk Road between the Oxus and Ganges rivers and establish themselves as cosmopolitan masters of northern India. Much of their prosperity also came from controlling the maritime trade between the Indian and Roman ports and, in doing so, they were able to circumvent the Parthians and their high taxes levied on caravans. In the main, the Kushans kept peace with their neighbour, creating the stable conditions crucial to promoting trade and cultural exchange. Their rule as a family dynasty would last over two centuries; and after their fourth king Kanishka came to power around AD 127, the subsequent so-called Great Kushans era has been described by Narain ‘as one of the great periods of world history’.
Yet in comparison to the other three Silk Road empires, frustratingly little is known about them from when the Yuezhi- Kushans first migrated into Bactria, as they did not produce any great historian nor possess a script of their own. Moreover, there is no consensus about their borders or chronology; Benjamin regards the Kushans as ‘one of the most important yet least known agrarian civilizations in world history’. Even the span of their rule—for our purposes AD 25 to 225—is one of the most disputed in Asian history.

The Kushan’s originated from a central Asian region that was the site of extensive migrations of numerous ethnic groups. They were said to have originated from the Yuezhi people who were nomadic pastoralists. Around 130 BC, Kushans were one of about five central Asian nomadic tribes that conquered the region of Bactria (Today’s Afghanistan). Here the Kushans absorbed the Greek and Indian cultural influences that had developed in Bactria. The tribe eventually became the most powerful group in the area under the Kushan ruler Kujula Kadphises 1. The Kushans moved east, adopting the Hindukush region of northwestern India as their home. Beginning with the rule of Kuluja Kedphises and continuing through the reign of his son, Wima Kedphises and then Kanishka. The Kushans gained control of a large part of India. The territory of the Kushans extended to Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand, which were in the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang).

The Great Himalayan Complex as most must be aware includes the greatest Mountain Ranges which radiate from some point in Central Asia / Northern India and then goes all the way to China. Looking at these greatest Mountains in a historical context there have been few Rulers, in fact not more than handful who have exercised control over this wildest of the wildernesses on the Planet.

One name which comes to mind is that of the Great Kushan Emperor Kanishka whose Empire ranged from Southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, north of the Amu Darya (Oxus) in the north west to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, as far as Mathura in the south east. From Gandhara to Kashmir to Mathura to Patliputra and all the way to Gujarat. And he ruled from his capital of Purushupura which we know as Peshawar of today. It was a massive enterprise with vast array of different people under their Rule and included areas encompassed by the Western / Central Himalayas, the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, the Pamirs and the Kun Lun and all the way to the Altai Mountains.

Emperor Kanishka is widely believed to be the most powerful of the Kushan kings who left impressive historical records which are being discovered even to this day. The famous Rabatak (official script of Kushans derived from Bactrian script using Greek Alphabet) Inscription talks of the great lineage of the Kushan Rulers as well as talks of their conquests. The Rabatak inscription was found at Surkh-Kotal in Baghlan province in the foothills of the Hindu Kush.

One of the most enduring legacy left behind by the Kushans were their coinage and notably that of Kanishka. The Kushans created a syncretic culture and had elements from all the Cultures around them. The Empire stood at the crossroads of where Greek culture and its influenced Bactrian and Gandhara culture met Indian culture. It was here in the foothills of the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas that great monuments were built in Gandhara as well as Kashmir which was at that time a part of Gandhara as well the Swat Valley.

Some important facts related to Kanishka are:

• It was During Kanishka”s reign that Buddhism was divided into Mahayana and Hinayana.
• He was the founder of Shaka Era of AD 78
• He had invaded Patliputra and had taken the Buddhist monk Asvaghoosa to Purushpura. Later, it was the same monk, Asvaghosa, who introduced Kanishka with the thoughts of Budhha.
• Charaka and Shushruta were in court of Kanishka

Kanishka himself became an adherent of Buddhism but his coinage reflected the multi-cultural aspect of the people they ruled over. The coinage had Hellenic (Greek), Mesopotamian deities, Iranian/ Avestan (Zoroastrian) deities, Buddha and last but not the least Osheo which is said to represent Shiva. This Kushan coinage has been unearthed at various sites all over the realm of the Kushans giving historians a true sense of the size of their Empire.

Kanishka has been credited with the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and Gandhara itself became the center of the Buddhist world. It was under Kanishka’s rule that the Fourth Buddhist Council was held in Kashmir and 500 Monks went all over Central Asia to spread the five message of what came to be the Mahayana school of Buddhist tradition. He also favoured the Gandhara School of Buddhist Art as well the Mathura School of Hindu Art just like he believed in Buddha but in certain Avestan and Vedic deities as well.

In 1908 – 1909 Archaeologists while working on excavations at the Kanishka Stupa, which at one point of time was the tallest Stupa in the entire subcontinent came upon a Chamber. This was at a place called Shah-Ji-Deri near Peshawar under the shadows of the Hindu Kush in the Peshawar Valley. The excavators chanced upon a Gilded Copper Casket, a reliquary of sorts and this priceless find was named as the Kanishka Casket and it was dated to the Second century AD. The Interesting part was the depictions on the Casket which point out that this was the place where different cultures met and infused and also the part that the Kushans in general and Kanishka in particular played in the same process. The lid of the casket shows the Buddha on a Lotus Pedestal and Indra and Brahma on either side will folded hands in reverence. The edge of the lid is decorated by a frieze of flying geese, or hansa, symbolizing the travel of departing souls and the removal from samsara. Some of the geese have a wreath of victory in their beak.

The body of the casket represents a Kushan monarch, most logically Kanishka as we are familiar with his likelihood and especially his big boots, with the Iranian Sun god and Moon god at his side. On the sides are two images of a seated Buddha, worshiped a royal figure, possibly a Bodhisattva. A garland, supported by cherubs goes around the scene in typical Hellenistic style. There are also inscriptions in Kharosthi which underline these facts. Kharosthi was an Indian ancient script which was used well beyond Gandhara and into Central Asia.

And now the most interesting part. Inside the Casket were found three Bone fragments which are said to be of the Buddha himself. They were concealed in a Crystal which was hollowed from one side and then sealed up after the fragments were placed there. And it had the Emperor’s seal on it. There had been another case of discovery of Buddha’s similar bone relics in the Terai foothills of Nepal much closer to where the Buddha was born. So what about these? Well we all know that Kanishka was a great proponent of Buddhism. And as per certain Buddhist literature after the cremation of Buddha his remains were divided into eight parts to be buried under Great Stupas to be built at various places. It is entirely possible that Kanishka got hold of some of the relics in his time and took them to his capital Purushapura as Peshawar was called at that time and had them enshrined under a great Stupa. The Chinese pilgrim Huen Tsang remarked in his journey that this place indeed held the relics of Buddha and he described the Kanishka Stupa as 170 m tall.

The Bone Relics of the Buddha were sent were sent to Burma by the British where they are supposedly kept somewhere in Mandalay. As for the original casket it was sent to England. And in England a number of copies of the same were made of the original. The real one was then apparently sent back to Peshawar. One copy of the same is on display at the British Museum. Another copy is supposed to be in Oxford. The one on display in Peshawar is also supposedly a copy of the original. At the time of the partition there was a tussle between India and Pakistan over certain treasures but mostly the Indus ones as no one really cared much about Gandhara as the mainstream narrative in India never took on the Kushans as their own and were looked upon as outsiders.

As a result, as of today no one is really aware where the actual Casket is. Some say it was taken to Karachi. Out of all the Scholars engaged in work on the Gandhara / Kushans none has seen the original and no one has any clue to where it is.

One of our most priceless Treasures is now nowhere to be found. The Keeper of the Buddha’s bones.

Like the Mauryan emperor Ashoka the Great four centuries before him, Kanishka is also remembered as a great patron of Buddhism, leading to its proliferation throughout Asia. The same routes first taken into India by the nomadic tribes, the Saka and Yuezhi, served as pathways out for monks—hence, this route is sometimes referred to as the Buddhist Road. In Sanskrit literature, the Enlightened One is referred to as the Mahasarthavaha (Great Caravan Leader) for leading his followers to nirvana after having eliminated human suffering. A disciple of his, the Indo-Greek king Menander, in describing his lord to a converted Bactrian king, explained that Buddha ‘is like a caravan leader to men in that he brings them beyond the sandy desert of rebirths’.

Kanishka is regarded as the greatest of the Kushan kings. He would be followed by two others before the dynasty began its steady decline, sometime after AD 225—a story again reflected in their coinage, which begins to show deterioration and debasement. During most of the First Silk Roads Era, the Kushans were the great merchants of Central Asia, playing such a critical role that Benjamin suggests his designation of this period could also be labelled the Kushan Era. After their decline as middlemen, they would be replaced by another people: traders who had started out as their apprentices but whose time had now come—the Sogdians.

Bibliography:

1. https://www.encyclopedia.com/Kushankingkanishka
2. https://www.britanicca.com/biography/Kanishka
3. https://www.indiathedestiny.com/indian-kings/kanishka-buddhist-king
4. https://www.KushansGandharasfactsanddetails.com
5. ‘The Stone Tower’ by Riaz Dean – Penguin Publishers