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Asian Art :
Kushan Art : Kushan Empire earthenware mould with the depiction of a Nereid on a sea monster
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Kushan Empire earthenware mould with the depiction of a Nereid on a sea monster - SF.088
Origin: Central Asia
Circa: 100
AD
to 300
AD
Dimensions:
3.15" (8.0cm) high
Collection: Asian Art
Medium: Earthenware
£6,500.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
The Kushan empire was a syncretic empire
formed by Yuezhi, an Indo-European
confederation of nomadic pastoralists, who
migrated from the arid grassland area in the
northwestern part of the modern Chinese
province of Gansu and settled in the territories of
ancient Bactria. The Yuezhi reached Bactria
(northwest Afghanistan and Tajikistan) around 135
B.C. and gradually wresting control of the area
from the Scythians and the Parthians, they
progressively moved south into the northwest
Indian region, traditionally known as Gandhara
(present-day regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan)
and established their capital near today-Kabul.
The rule of Kanishka, the third Kushan emperor,
who flourished from the late 1st to the early/mid-
2nd century A.D., was administered from two
capitals: Purushapura (now Peshawar) and
Mathura in northern India. Under Kanishka’s rule,
at the height of the dynasty, Kushan controlled a
large territory ranging from the Aral Sea through
areas that include present-day Uzbekistan,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, having infiltrated into
northern parts of the Indian subcontinent as far
east as Benares and as far south as Sanchi.
It was also a period of great wealth marked by
extensive mercantile activities and a flourishing of
urban life, Buddhist thought and the arts. Under
the rule of the Kushans, northwest India and
adjoining regions participated both in seagoing
trade and in the commerce along the Silk Road to
China.
Initially the Kushans used the ancient Greek
alphabet and language for administrative
purposes, but soon afterwards they switched to
use the Bactrian language.
Kujula, founder of the Kushan empire, was the
first ruler to strike gold coins which were used as
official coinage and exchanged along the caravan
routes. Most of Kujula's coins were Hellenic in
inspiration. Some coins used the portrait, name
and title of the Indo-Greek king Hermaeus on the
obverse, indicating Kujula's wish to relate himself
to the Indo-Greek king. Since the Kushans and
their predecessors, the Yuezhi, were conversant
with the Greek language and Greek coinage, the
adoption of Hermaeus cannot have been
accidental: it either expressed a filiation of Kujula
to Hermaeus by alliance or simply a wish to show
himself as heir to the Indo-Greek tradition and
prestige, possibly wanting also to accommodate
Greek populations.
These coins bear the name of Kujula with
representations of the Greek demi-god Heracles
on the back, and titles presenting Kujula as a
"ruler" (not an actual king), and Buddhist
("Dharmathidasa", follower of the Dharma). Later
coins, possibly posthumous, did describe Kujula
as "Maharajasa", or "Great King". Centuries later
the emperor Kanishka became great patron of
Buddhism and as the Kushan empire expanded
southward toward the Indian subcontinent, the
deities of their later coinage came to reflect its
new Hindu majority.
A direct road from Gandhara to China remained
under Kushan control for more than a century,
encouraging travel across the Karakoram and
facilitating the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to
China.
The term Kushan art refers to a variety of artistic
expressions that developed under the rule of the
Kushan dynasty during the first three centuries of
the Common Era on a territory spreading broadly
between north of the Oxus River and the
Gangetic plain in North India. Artistic
productions fall mainly into two branches: works
in the service of the dynasty and works in the
service of religion, principally Buddhism, but also
Brahmanism and Jainism. Certain scholars might
find the expression “art of the Kushan period”
more adequate than that of “Kushan art.”
Nevertheless, these heterogeneous artistic
expressions reflect a common pattern in that they
all result from the assimilation and re-elaboration
of an eclectic cultural and artistic repertoire.
The Gandhara region at the core of the Kushan
empire was home to a multiethnic society tolerant
of religious differences. Desirable for its strategic
location, with direct access to the overland silk
routes and links to the ports on the Arabian Sea,
Gandhara had suffered many conquests and had
been ruled by the Achaemenids, Alexander the
Great, his Indo-Greek successors (3rd-2nd
centuries B.C.), and a combination of Scythians
and Parthians (2nd–1st centuries B.C.). The
fusion of populations, traditions and religious
beliefs produced an eclectic culture, vividly
expressed in the visual arts produced during the
Kushan period. Initially themes deriving from the
Greek mythology were very common, while later,
the Buddhist imagery became dominant, with
some of the first representations of the Buddha in
human form dating to the Kushan era, as do the
earliest depictions of bodhisattvas.
- (SF.088)
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