Kushan

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Kushana (कुषाण) is Gotra of Jats. They are descendants of Kusha, the son of Rama. In this dynasty there was a King called Kushana (कुषण), from whom started the Kushana vansha.^[1]

Kushan (कुषाण) Empire

The Kushan (कुषाण) Empire (c. 1st–3rd centuries) was a state that at its height, about 105–250, stretched from Tajikistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and down into the Ganges river valley in northern India. The empire was created by the Kushan tribe of the Yuezhi confederation, a people from the eastern Tarim Basin and Gansu, China, possibly related to the Tocharians. They had diplomatic contacts with Rome, Persia and China, and for several centuries were at the center of exchange between the East and the West.

Kushans are Kaswan Jats

Kushan was a group of Yuezhi people in China. They are considered to be Kaswan Jats of India by various authors.

The clan of Kanishka, Kushan, has been identified to be the present Kaswan clan of Jats.^{[2] [3]} Jat historian Thakur Deshraj writes that Kushans were the people from Krishnavanshi who moved with Pandavas in the great migration after Mahabharata. There is no doubt that Kushan word is derived from sanskrit word karshneya and karshnik. The word is not 'Kushan' but Kaswan clan found in Jats. ^[4] The Taxila Ladle Copper inscription bears this as 'Kaswin' word. In Mahabharata there is a word Khawakasha which becomes 'Kashwa' when 'Kh' is changed to 'x' and tellies with the word 'kasuwa' of "Panchtar inscription". The word 'Kaswan' is in fact 'XWN' word of Tokharian language which means 'King'. In Mahabharata also there is mention of a country named 'Kuswan' which was situated in the north of Mansarovar lake. ^{[5] [6]}

Raja Kharwel in Orissa has mentioned in an article about the rule of Kaswan in 2nd century of Vikram samvat - ‘Hathi Gumpha and three other inscriptions’ (page 24) in Sanskrit as under: “Kusawanam Kshetriyanam cha Sahayyatavatan prapt masik nagaram”. This means that the city of 'Masik' was obtained with the help of 'Kuswa' Kshatriyas ^[7]

According to historian Bhim Singh Dahiya the correct name for Kushans in India is Kasuan, the present Kaswan clan of Jats of Rajasthan and Haryana. This title remains in use by Jat clan indicates their possibility of ancestral lineage from Kushans. ^[8]

James Legge mentions in chapter XII about the rule of Kanishka in foot note-4 that “Kanishka appeared, and began to reign, early in our first century, about A.D. 10. He was the last of three brothers, whose original seat was in Yueh-she, immediately mentioned, or Tukhara.” ^[9]

James Legge further mentions in footnote-6 (chapter XII) that

“This king was perhaps Kanishka himself, Fa-hien mixing up, in an inartistic way, different legends about him. Eitel suggests that a relic of the old name of the country may still exist in that of the Jats or Juts of the present day. A more common name for it is Tukhara, and he observes that the people were the Indo-Scythians of the Greeks, and the Tartars of Chinese writers, who, driven on by the Huns (180B.C.), conquered Transoxiana, destroyed the Bactrian kingdom (126 B.C.), and finally conquered the Punjab, Cashmere, and great part of India, their greatest king being Kanishak (E. H., p. 152).”^[10]

According to Thakur Deshraj Yuezhi people lived in north-west China. in 165 BCE there was a war of these people with with Hignu people in which Yuezhi were defeated and they moved to west in search of new lands. One of the groups of Yuezhi people was Kushan. Kadphises united all the five branches of Yuezhi and hence forth they were called Kushan. Thakur Deshraj says that Kushans were the people from Krishnavanshi, who moved with Pandavas in the great migration to north. The word Kushan has been derived from the sanskrit word 'Karshney' or 'Karshnik'. Kushan is nothing but Kaswan gotra found in Jats.

Kushan Rulers

Heraios (1-30)

Heraios was probably the first of the Kushan kings. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios was probably the father of Kujula Kadphises.

Kujula Kadphises (30-80)

According to the Hou Hanshu: "the prince (xihou) of Guishuang (Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus), named Kujula Kadphises attacked and exterminated the four other princes (xihou). He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishuang. He invaded Anxi (Parthia) and took the Gaofu (Kabul) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda, and Jibin (Kapisha-Gandhara). Qiujiuque (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died."

These conquests probably took place sometime between 45 and 60, and laid the basis for the Kushan Empire which was rapidly expanded by his descendants.

Kujula issued an extensive series of coins and fathered at least two sons, Sadaṣkaṇa (who is known from only one inscription, and may never have ruled), and Vima Taktu.

Vima Taktu (80-105)

Bronze coin of Vima Takto. Corrupted Greek legend ΒΑ&ΣΙΛЄΥ ΒΑΣΙΛЄΥΩΝ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΜΕΓΑΣ "Basileu[s] Basileon Sotēr Megas": "The King of Kings, Great Saviour".Vima Takt[u] (or Tak[to]) is mentioned in the Rabatak inscription (see the reference to Sims-william's article below), which states that he was the father of Vima Kadphises, and the grandfather of Kanishka I. He expanded the Kushan Empire into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. The Hou Hanshu says:

"His [Kujula Kadphises'] son, Yangaozhen (Vima Taktu), became king in his place. He conquered Tianzhu (Northwestern India) and installed a General to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang (Kushan) king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi."

Vima Kadphises (105-127)

Vima Kadphises was the son of Vima Taktu and the father of Kanishka I. He issued an extensive series of coins and inscriptions.

Kanishka I (127-147)

Gold coin of Kanishka I (c.120 CE).The rule of Kanishka I, the second great Kushan emperor, fifth Kushan king, who flourished for at least 28 years from c. 127, was administered from two capitals: Purushapura (now Peshawar in northern Pakistan) and Mathura, in northern India. The Kushans also had a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa), where the "Begram Treasure", comprising works of art from Greece to China, has been found. According to the Rabatak inscription, Kanishka was the son of Vima Kadphises, the grandson of Vima Taktu, and the great-grandson of Kujula Kadphises. Kanishka's era is now generally accepted to have begun in 127 on the basis of Harry Falk's ground-breaking research (see Reference section below).

Vāsishka (c. 151 – c. 155)

Havishka (c. 155 – c. 187)

Vasudeva I (c. 191 – 225)

the last of the great Kushan emperors

Kanishka II (c. 226 – 240)

Vashishka (c. 240 – 250)

Kanishka III (c. 255 – 275)

Vasudeva II (c. 290 – 310)

From the 3rd century the Kushan empire began to fragment.

Around 225 Vasudeva I died and the Kushan empire was divided into western and eastern halves. Around 224–240, the Sassanids invaded Bactria and Northern India, where they are known as the Indo-Sassanians.

Around 270, the Kushans lost their territories on the Gangetic plain, where the Gupta Empire was established around 320.

References

1. ↑ Dr Mahendra Singh Arya, Dharmpal Singh Dudee, Kishan Singh Faujdar & Vijendra Singh Narwar: Ādhunik Jat Itihasa (The modern history of Jats), Agra 1998
2. ↑ Ram Swarup Joon: History of the Jats, Rohtak, India (1938, 1967)
3. ↑ Bhim Singh Dahiya:Jats the ancient rulers
4. ↑ Thakur Deshraj: Jat Itihas (Hindi), Maharaja Suraj Mal Smarak Shiksha Sansthan, Delhi, 1934, 2nd edition 1992. Page-202
5. ↑ Bhim Singh Dahiya:Jats the ancient rulers
6. ↑ Jat Samaj Monthly Magazine, Agra, May (2006) page-7
7. ↑ Kishori Lal Faujdar:Jat Samaj Monthly Magazine, Agra, January/February (2001) page-6
8. ↑ Bhim Singh Dahiya:Jats the ancient rulers
9. ↑ James Legge : A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC INGDOMS, (Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414), in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline Translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text)
10. ↑ James Legge : A RECORD OF BUDDHISTIC INGDOMS, (Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414), in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline Translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the Chinese text)

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