Within Buddhist mythology, Sadashkana (Kharosthi: 𐨮𐨿𐨐𐨞𐨆‎𐨯𐨡 Sa-da-ṣka-ṇa, Sadaṣkaṇa[1]) according to the gold plate inscription of Senavarman, mentions Sadashkana as the Devaputra (son of god), son of maharaja rayatiraya Kujula Kataphsa (Kujula Kadphises):

"Maharaja rayatiraya Kuyula Kataphsaputra Sadashkano devaputra"
"The son of god Sadashkano, son of the Great king and king of kings, Kujula Kaphises"

He was the son of the founder of Kushan empire and his brother was Sadaṣkaṇa, their next generation was Kanishka. The Chinese Book of Later Han 後漢書 chronicles gives an account of the formation of the Kushan empire based on a report made by the Chinese general Ban Yong to the Chinese Emperor c. 125 AD:

More than a hundred years later [than the conquest of Bactria by the Da Yuezhi], the prince [xihou] of Guishuang (Badakhshan) established himself as king, and his dynasty was called that of the Guishuang (Kushan) King. He invaded Anxi (Indo-Parthia), and took the Gaofu (Kabul) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda (Paktiya) and Jibin (Kapisha and Gandhara). Qiujiuque (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yangaozhen [probably Vema Tahk (tu) or, possibly, his brother Sadaṣkaṇa ], became king in his place. He defeated Tianzhu [North-western India] and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang [Kushan] king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi.

— Book of Later Han.[2][3]

The Kushans were one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation,[4][5] a possibly Iranian[6][7] or Tocharian,[8][9][10][11][12][13] Indo-European[12][14][15][16] nomadic people who migrated from Gansu and settled in ancient Bactria.[5] Ban Gu's Book of Han tells us the Kushans (Kuei-shuang) divided up Bactria in 128 BC. Fan Ye's Book of Later Han "relates how the chief of the Kushans, Ch'iu-shiu-ch'ueh (the Kujula Kadphises of coins), founded by means of the submission of the other Yueh-chih clans the Kushan Empire, known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of Empire of the Indo-Scythians."[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Harold Walter Bailey, A Kharoṣṭrī Inscription of Seṇavarma, King of Oḍi, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 1 (1980), pp. 21-29
  2. ^ Hill (2009), p. 29.
  3. ^ Chavannes (1907), pp. 190–192.
  4. ^ Runion, Meredith L. (2007). The history of Afghanistan. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-313-33798-7. 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.
  5. ^ a b Liu, Xinrui (2001). Adas, Michael (ed.). Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical history. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-56639-832-9.
  6. ^ Enoki, Koshelenko & Haidary 1994, pp. 171–191
  7. ^ Girshman, Roman. "Ancient Iran: The movement of Iranian peoples". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 May 2015. At the end of the 3rd century, there began in Chinese Turkistan a long migration of the Yuezhi, an Iranian people who invaded Bactria about 130 bc, putting an end to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom there. (In the 1st century bc they created the Kushān dynasty, whose rule extended from Afghanistan to the Ganges River and from Russian Turkistan to the estuary of the Indus.)
  8. ^ Pulleyblank 1966, pp. 9–39
  9. ^ Mallory 1989, pp. 59–60
  10. ^ Mallory 1997, pp. 591–593
  11. ^ Mallory & Mair (2000), pp. 270–297.
  12. ^ a b Loewe & Shaughnessy 1999, pp. 87–88
  13. ^ Benjamin, Craig (October 2003). "The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia". Transoxiana Webfestschrift. 1 (Ēran ud Anērān). Transoxiana. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  14. ^ "Zhang Qian". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  15. ^ West 2009, pp. 713–717
  16. ^ "They are, by almost unanimous opinion, Indo-Europeans, probably the most oriental of those who occupied the steppes." Roux, p.90
  17. ^ Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. pp. 32. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9.


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