FIRST COIN DEPICTION OF BUDDHA IN KUSHAN COINS ~~ GREEK SCRIPT

 

The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term Kouei-chouang, used to describe one branch of the Yueh Chi, a loose confederation of Indo-Europeans people who had been living in northwestern China until they were driven west by the Turko-Mongol Hsiug-nu, in about 170 BCE. The Yueh Chi reached Baktria, in the second century BC and by the first century AC were united under king Kujula. Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scytho-Parthians, the Yueh Chi moved south into the northwest Indian region of Gandhara, today parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they joined the Greeks. With its capital established near Kabul, the Kushan Empire were soon acknowledged as great a power as China, Rome and Parthia. They had adopted a form of the Greek alphabet and initially made coins directly copying Baktrian Greek and Parthian issues. 

Kanishka, a fervent Buddhist, sponsored the fisrt great Buddhist conference at Kanish Vihar, that led to the adoption and promotion of Mahayana Buddhism, a school of thought that revered the life of Buddha as much as his spiritual teaching.  The Buddha coinage was probably struck as a special issue in conjunction with the conference, and the image of Buddha would have made a stunning impact at the time.Along with the famous Hellenistic statues of Buddha by the artistic movement of Gandhara,  Kanishka's coins were among the first representations and provide the earliest firmly datable images of the Buddha.