Kushan art

Statue of Kushan emperor Kanishka I in long coat and boots, holding a mace and a sword, in the Mathura Museum. An inscription runs along the bottom of the coat.

The inscription is in middle Brahmi script:

Mahārāja Rājadhirāja Devaputra Kāṇiṣka
"The Great King, King of Kings, Son of God, Kanishka".^[1]
Mathura art, Mathura Museum

Kushan art, the art of the Kushan Empire in northern India, flourished between the 1st and the 4th century CE. It blended the traditions of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, influenced by Hellenistic artistic canons, and the more Indian art of Mathura.^[2] Kushan art follows the Hellenistic art of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom as well as Indo-Greek art which had been flourishing between the 3rd century BCE and 1st century CE in Bactria and northwestern India, and the succeeding Indo-Scythian art. Before invading northern and central India and establishing themselves as a full-fledged empire, the Kushans had migrated from northwestern China and occupied for more than a century these Central Asian lands, where they are thought to have assimilated remnants of Greek populations, Greek culture, and Greek art, as well as the languages and scripts which they used in their coins and inscriptions: Greek and Bactrian, which they used together with the Indian Brahmi script.^[3]

With the demise of the Kushans in the 4th century CE, the Indian Gupta Empire prevailed, and Gupta art developed. The Gupta Empire incorporated vast portions of central, northern, and northwestern India, as far as Punjab and the Arabian Sea, continuing and expanding on the earlier artistic tradition of the Kushans and developing a unique Gupta style.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

^ Puri, Baij Nath (1965). India under the Kushāṇas. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
^ Stokstad, Marilyn; Cothren, Michael W. (2013). Art History (5th Edition) Chapter 10: Art Of South And Southeast Asia Before 1200. Pearson. pp. 306–308. ISBN 978-0205873487.
^ Holt, Frank Lee (1999). Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 9780520920095.
^ Duiker, William J.; Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2015). World History. Cengage Learning. p. 279. ISBN 9781305537781.
^ Mookerji, Radhakumud (1997). The Gupta Empire. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 143. ISBN 9788120804401.
^ Gokhale, Balkrishna Govind (1995). Ancient India: History and Culture. Popular Prakashan. pp. 171–173. ISBN 9788171546947.
^ Lowenstein, Tom (2012). The Civilization of Ancient India and Southeast Asia. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 53. ISBN 9781448885077.

[India_under_the_Kushāṇas-1] Puri, Baij Nath (1965). India under the Kushāṇas. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

[AH-2] Stokstad, Marilyn; Cothren, Michael W. (2013). Art History (5th Edition) Chapter 10: Art Of South And Southeast Asia Before 1200. Pearson. pp. 306–308. ISBN 978-0205873487.

[3] Holt, Frank Lee (1999). Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 9780520920095.

[4] Duiker, William J.; Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2015). World History. Cengage Learning. p. 279. ISBN 9781305537781.

[5] Mookerji, Radhakumud (1997). The Gupta Empire. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 143. ISBN 9788120804401.

[6] Gokhale, Balkrishna Govind (1995). Ancient India: History and Culture. Popular Prakashan. pp. 171–173. ISBN 9788171546947.

[7] Lowenstein, Tom (2012). The Civilization of Ancient India and Southeast Asia. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 53. ISBN 9781448885077.

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