The Kushanas were members of one of the five clans of the Yueh-chi tribe and were also called Tocharians. They followed the Parthians in the north-west of India and gradually extended their rule in northern India. They also displaced the Shakas in Bactria. The Kushana rule consisted of two successive dynasties.
The first dynasty ruled for 28 years from about 50 ad and had two kings-Kadphises I (Kujula Kadphises) and Kadphises II (Vima Kadphises). Kujula Kadphises took over Kashmir and Kabul by defeating the Parthians. Vima Kadphises, son of Kujula Kadphises, succeeded his father and expanded the territorial extent of the empire by annexing Taxila, Punjab and probably Mathura.
The second dynasty began with Kanishka. It is not clear how Kanishka was related to the kings of
the first dynasty. Kanishka’s reign has been dated between 78-144 AD. Based on 78 AD an era called the Shaka Era has been attributed to Kanishka. Hsuan Tsang mentions Kanishka’s capital as Purushapura (modern Peshawar).
Kanishka’s territories extended from Candhara and Sue Vihar to Awadh and Banaras and also included Kashmir. Kanishka’s rule lasted for twenty- three years and he was succeeded by Vasishka who had a short reign. Huvishka succeeded Vasishka, and he probably extended his empire to the west of Kabul.
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The last great Kushana king was Vasudeva I. His last known date is 176-177 ad. There is no clear evidence relating to the exact limit of Vasudeva’s empire, probably it was contained within parts of modern Uttar Pradesh.
No orderly account of his successors-Kanishka III (ruled for 30 years) and Vasudeva II (circa ad 210-230)-is available.
The Kushan empire in Afghanistan and in the areas west of the Indus was supplanted in the mid- third century ad by the Sassanian power, which arose in Iran. But Kushan principalities continued to exist in India for about a century.
The Kushan authority seems to have lingered in the Kabul Valley, Kapisa, Bactria, Khorezma and Sogdiana in the third- fourth centuries. Many Kushan coins, inscriptions and terracottas have been found in these areas.
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Especially at a place called Toprak-Kala in Khorezma a huge Kushan palace of the third-fourth centuries has been unearthed. It housed administrative archives containing inscriptions and documents written in Aramaic script and Khorezmian language.