UNIT 5
THE KUSHAN DYNASTY

The Kushan Dynasty ruled over a broad section of northwest and northern India between approximately 70 A.D. and the late 3rd century A.D. The Kushans were foreigners, originally from northwest China or Central Asia. The dynasty had two main centers of artistic production: Gandhara, in the northwest Indic region in what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Mathura, in northern India. The art of the Kushan rulers is predominantly Buddhist, and the Kushans were instrumental in the propagation and spread of the faith from Gandhara to Central Asian and China. In Part I of this unit we will like at the Buddhist art of Gandhara, and in Part II we will examine art of the Mathura region made during the Kushan period. The regions are marked by distinct sculptural styles although there are commonalities of subject matter.