Editing History of India (section)

==== Kushan Empire ====
{{Main|Kushan Empire}}

{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2
| total_width       = 300
| caption_align     = center
| title             = Kushan Empire
| image1            = Map of the Kushan Empire.png
| caption1          = Kushan territories (full line) and maximum extent of Kushan dominions under Kanishka (dotted line), according to the Rabatak inscription
| image2            = Kanishka Buddha detail.jpg
| caption2          = Depiction of the [[Buddha]] in Kanishka's coinage, [[Mathura art]], 2nd century CE
}}

The Kushan Empire expanded out of what is now Afghanistan into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of their first emperor, [[Kujula Kadphises]], about the middle of the 1st century CE. The Kushans were possibly a [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian speaking]] tribe,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Loewe|first1=Michael|last2=Shaughnessy|first2=Edward L.|author-link1=Michael Loewe|author-link2=Edward L. Shaughnessy|title=The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHA7Ey0-pbEC|year=1999|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-47030-8|access-date=1 November 2013|pages=87–88}}</ref> one of five branches of the [[Yuezhi]] confederation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Runion|first=Meredith L.|title=The history of Afghanistan|url=https://archive.org/details/historyafghanist00runi_653|url-access=limited|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport|isbn=978-0-313-33798-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyafghanist00runi_653/page/n66 46]|quote=The Yuezhi people conquered Bactria in the second century BCE. and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which would become the Kushan Empire. Recognizing the importance of unification, these five tribes combined under the one dominate Kushan tribe, and the primary rulers descended from the Yuezhi.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Liu|first=Xinrui|title=Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history|year=2001|publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1-56639-832-9|page=156|editor=Adas, Michael}}</ref> By the time of his grandson, [[Kanishka the Great]], the empire spread to encompass much of [[Afghanistan]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120307154447/http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm ''Buddhist Records of the Western World''] Si-Yu-Ki, (Tr. Samuel Beal: Travels of Fa-Hian, The Mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei-Sing, Books 1–5), Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. London. 1906 and Hill (2009), pp. 29, 318–350</ref> and then the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.<ref>which began about 127 CE. "Falk 2001, pp. 121–136", Falk (2001), pp. 121–136, Falk, Harry (2004), pp. 167–176 and Hill (2009), pp. 29, 33, 368–371.</ref>

Emperor Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism; however, as Kushans expanded southward, the deities of their later coinage came to reflect its new [[Hindu]] majority.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grégoire Frumkin|title=Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyinsov0000frum|url-access=registration|year=1970|publisher=Brill Archive|pages=[https://archive.org/details/archaeologyinsov0000frum/page/51 51]–|id=GGKEY:4NPLATFACBB}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rafi U. Samad|title=The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNUwBYGYgxsC&pg=PA93|year=2011|publisher=Algora Publishing|isbn=978-0-87586-859-2|pages=93–}}</ref> Historian [[Vincent Arthur Smith|Vincent Smith]] said about Kanishka:

{{Blockquote|He played the part of a second Ashoka in the history of Buddhism.<ref>Oxford History of India – Vincent Smith</ref>}}

The empire linked the Indian Ocean maritime trade with the commerce of the [[Silk Road]] through the Indus valley, encouraging long-distance trade, particularly between China and [[Roman empire|Rome]]. The Kushans brought new trends to the budding and blossoming [[Gandhara art]] and [[Mathura art]], which reached its peak during Kushan rule.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Los Angeles County Museum of Art|author2=Pratapaditya Pal|title=Indian Sculpture: Circa 500 B.C.–A.D. 700|url=https://archive.org/details/indiansculpturec00losa|url-access=registration|year=1986|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-05991-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/indiansculpturec00losa/page/151 151]–}}</ref> The period of peace under Kushan rule is known as ''[[Pax Kushana]]''. By the 3rd century, their empire in India was disintegrating and their last known great emperor was [[Vasudeva I]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm|publisher=kushan.org|title=The History of Pakistan: The Kushans|access-date=6 January 2017|archive-date=7 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707162312/http://www.kushan.org/general/other/part1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Si-Yu-Ki, ''Buddhist Records of the Western World'', (Tr. Samuel Beal: Travels of Fa-Hian, The Mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei-Sing, Books 1–5), Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. London. 1906</ref>