𝙆𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙠𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩, 𝘼𝙛𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣'𝙨 𝙀𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙧

 𝙆𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙠𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩, 𝘼𝙛𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣'𝙨 𝙀𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤-𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖 

By Athena Arya. 

Under Kanishka (ΚΑΝΗϷΚΕ) the Great, in the first part of the second century AD, the Kushan Empire was at its height, reaching from Central Asia north of the Oxus/Amu-darya through into central India. His regnal era (beginning probably in AD 127) was used for around three hundred years. This lecture will begin with an overview of the Kushan Empire and its visual and material culture under Kanishka, then focus on the personality of Kanishka as king and innovator. 

Kanishka implemented several policies which were a deliberate rejection of the past, and specifically of the Greek past. The evidence of several inscriptions suggests that he discontinued the use of the Greek language as a public language of government and political power, but that some bureaucrats remained capable of writing it. In his coinage, the change is more visible, and more telling: the iconography of the deities depicted remains the same, but their names change from the Greek (e.g. Helios) to the Bactrian equivalent (e.g. Mithra). Greek legends are likewise replaced with legends in Bactrian.

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