200 meter High Stupa built 150 CE in Peshawar, Pakistan.

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Kanishka stupa

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

The Kanishka stupa was a monumental stupa established by the Kushan king Kanishka during the 2nd century CE in today's Shah-ji-Dheri on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan.

The stupa was described by Chinese pilgrims in the 7th century as the tallest stupa in all India. Archaeologists have examined the remains of the structure and determined that it had a diameter of 286 feet. Ancient Chinese manuscripts tell of Buddhist pilgrims reporting that the stupa had a height of 591–689 feet (The measurements they stated were in Chinese units, which were 600–700. This height was equal to about 180–210 meters or 591–689 feet.

Three Chinese reports are known (by Faxian, who travelled between 399–412 CE, Sung Yun who arrived in India in 518 CE, Xuanzang who went to India in 630 CE). Sung Yun describes the stupa in the following terms:

 

 

<DL><DD>"The king proceeded to widen the foundation of the Great Tower 300 paces and more. To crown all, he placed a roof-pole upright and even. Throughout the building he used ornamental wood, he constructed stairs to lead to the top....there was an iron-pillar, 3-feet high with thirteen gilded circlets. Altogether the height from the ground was 700 feet.” </DD></DL>The stupa was discovered and excavated in 1908–1909 by a British archælogical mission, and led to the discovery in its base of the Kanishka casket, a six-sided rock crystal reliquary containing three small fragments of bone,<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>[1]</SUP> relics of the Buddha (which were transferred to Mandalay, Burma for safekeeping, where they still remain), and a dedication in Kharoshthi involving Kanishka.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>[2]</SUP>

According to Buddhist the building of the stupa was foretold by the Buddha:

 

 

<DL><DD>"The Buddha, pointing to a small boy making a mud tope….[said] that on that spot Kanishka would erect a tope by his name." Vinaya sutra <SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-2>[3]</SUP> </DD></DL>The same story is repeated in a Khotanese scroll found at Dunhuang, which first described how Kanishka would arrive 400 years after the death of the Buddha. The account also describes how Kanishka came to raise his stupa:

 

 

<DL><DD>"A desire thus arose in [Kanishka to build a vast stupa]….at that time the four world-regents learnt the mind of the king. So for his sake they took the form of young boys….[and] began a stupa of mud....the boys said to [Kanishka] ‘We are making the Kanishka-stupa.’….At that time the boys changed their form....[and] said to him, ‘Great king, by you according to the Buddha’s prophecy is a Sangharama to be built wholly (?) with a large stupa and hither relics must be invited which the meritorious good beings...will bring." <SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-3>[4]</SUP> </DD></DL>

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The Kushan Empire (c. 1st–3rd centuries) was a Bactrian state of Ancient India that at its cultural zenith, circa 105–250 CE, extended from what is now Tajikistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and down into the Ganges river valley in northernIndia. The empire was created by the Kushan tribe of the Yuezhi confederation, believed to have been an Indo-European people<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-metmuseum.org_1-0>[2]</SUP> from the eastern Tarim Basin, 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.

 

Chinese sources describe the Guishuang i.e. the "Kushans", as one of the five aristocratic tribes of the Yuezhi, also spelled Yueh-chi, a loose confederation of supposedly Indo-European peoples.<SUP id=cite_ref-metmuseum.org_1-1></SUP> The Yuezhi are also generally considered as the easternmost speakers of Indo-European languages, who had been living in the arid grasslands of eastern Central Asia, in modern-day Xinjiang and Gansu, possibly speaking versions of the Tocharian language, until they were driven west by the Xiongnu in 176–160 BCE. The five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì, Guishuang, Shuangmi, Xidun, and Dūmì.

Historian John Keay contextualizes the movements of the Kushan within a larger setting of mass migrations taking place in the region:

Chinese sources tell of the construction of the Great Wall in the third century BC and the repulse of various marauding tribes. Forced to head west and eventually south, these tribes displaced others in an ethnic knock-on effect which lasted many decades and spread right across Central Asia. The Parthians from Iran and the Bactrian Greeks from Bactria had both been dislodged by the Shakas coming down from somewhere near the Aral Sea. But the Shakas had in turn been dislodged by the Yueh-chi who had themselves been driven west to Xinjiang by the Hiung-nu. The last, otherwise the Huns, would happily not reach India for a long time. But the Yueh-chi continued to press on the Shakas, and having forced them out of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<st1:place w:st=" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bactria</st1:country-region>, it was sections or clans of these Yueh-chi who next began to move down into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> in the second half of the first century AD."

The Yuezhi reached the Hellenic <ST1:Pkingdom of Greco-Bactria, in the Bactrian territory (northernmost <st1:country-region w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Uzbekistan</st1:country-region></st1:place>) around 135 BCE. The displaced Greek dynasties resettled to the southeast in areas of the Hindu Kush and the Indus basin (in present day <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>), occupying the western part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

 

Early Kushans

Head of a Kushan prince (Khalchayan palace, Uzbekistan).

Some traces remain of the presence of the Kushan in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-I-Sangin, Surkh Kotal (a monumental temple), and in the <st1:place w:st="on"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">palace</st1:PlaceType> of Khalchayan. Various sculptures and friezes are known, representing horse-riding archers, and significantly men with artificially deformed skulls, such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan (a practice well attested in nomadic <st1:place w:st="on">Central Asia</st1:place>). On the ruins of ancient Hellenistic cities such as Ai-Khanoum, the Kushans are known to have built fortresses. The earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler was Heraios. He calls himself a "Tyrant" on his coins, and also exhibits skull deformation. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises.</st1:place>

A multi-cultural Empire

In the following century, the Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜) gained prominence over the other Yuezhi tribes, and welded them into a tight confederation under yabgu (Commander) Kujula Kadphises. The name Guishuang was adopted in the West and modified into Kushan to designate the confederation, although the Chinese continued to call them Yuezhi.

 

Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scythian tribes, the Kushans expanded south into the region traditionally known as Gandhara (An area lying primarily in Pakistan's Pothowar, and Northwest Frontier Provinces region but going in an arc to include Kabul valley and part of Qandahar in Afghanistan) and established twin capitals near present-day Kabul and Peshawar then known as Kapisa and Pushklavati respectively.

The Kushan writing system used the Greek alphabet, with the addition of the letter Sho.

 

 

The Kushans adopted elements of the Hellenistic culture of Bactria. They adapted the Greek alphabet (often corrupted) to suit their own language (with the additional development of the letter Þ "sh", as in "Kushan") and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model. On their coins they used Greek language legends combined with Pali legends (in the Kharoshthi script), until the first few years of the reign of Kanishka. After that date, they used Kushan language legends (in an adapted Greek script), combined with legends in Greek (Greek script) and legends in Pali (Kharoshthi script).

The Kushans are believed to have been predominantly Zoroastrian and later Buddhist as well. However, from the time of Wima Takto, many Kushans started adopting Hinduism. Like the Egyptians they absorbed the strong remnants of the Greek Culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming at least partly Hellenised. The first great Kushan emperor Wima Kadphises have embraced Hinduism, as surmised by coins minted during the period. The following Kushan emperors represented a wide variety of faiths including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

The rule of the Kushans linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley. At the height of the dynasty, the Kushans loosely oversaw a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into northern India.

The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade, brought Chinese silks to Rome, and created strings of flourishing urban centers.

 

 

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Territorial expansion

Direct archaeological evidence of a Kushan rule of long duration is basically available in an area stretching from Surkh Kotal, Begram, the summer capital of the Kushans, Peshawar the capital under Kanishka I, Taxila and Mathura, the winter capital of the Kushans.<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-0>[7]</SUP>

Other areas of probable rule include Khwarezm (Russian archaeological findings)<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-1>[7]</SUP> Kausambi (excavations of the Allahabad University),<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-2>[7]</SUP> Sanchi and Sarnath (inscriptions with names and dates of Kushan kings),<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-3>[7]</SUP> Malwa and Maharashtra,<SUP id=cite_ref-7>[8]</SUP> Orissa (imitation of Kushan coins, and large Kushan hoards).<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-4>[7]</SUP>

The recently discovered Rabatak inscription tends to confirm large Kushan dominions in the heartland of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The lines 4 to 7 of the inscription describe the cities which were under the rule of Kanishka, among which six names are identifiable: Ujjain, Kundina, Saketa, Kausambi, Pataliputra, and Champa (although the text is not clear whether Champa was a possession of Kanishka or just beyond it).

Northward, in the 2nd century CE, the Kushans under Kanishka made various forays into the Tarim Basin, seemingly the original ground of their ancestors the Yuezhi, where they had various contacts with the Chinese. Both archaeological findings and literary evidence suggest Kushan rule, in Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan.<SUP id=cite_ref-Rosenfield.2C_p._41_6-5>[7]</SUP>

As late as the 3rd century CE, decorated coins of Huvishka were dedicated at Bodh Gaya together with other gold offerings under the "Enlightenment Throne" of the Buddha, suggesting direct Kushan influence in the area during that period.<SUP id=cite_ref-12>[13]</SUP>

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Looks like I am not the only one watching the new PBS series,"The Story of India" written and presented by Micheal Woods.

 

Everyone should try to catch this series, it is simply fabulous.

 

Last week I learned from the show the recipe for soma. It is a tea of what the Afghans call *som, cannabis and poppy seeds.

 

Not sure why the poppy seeds but we know what else comes from those poppies.

 

* They showed the som plant and the same plant is called Ma Huang in China. The active ingedient is ephedra.

 

I hope shiva saw it as he was very found of ma huang ...as am I.