Kushan Empire Research Paper

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The Kushan Empire was from 20 to 280 AD. It started as a branch of the Yuezhi. Yuezhi is a confederation of culturally Indo-Europeans travelers who lived in Eastern Central Asia. Around the twentieth and thirtieth CE, the Kushan’s were the ancestors of the Huns. They established an independent empire in modern Afghanistan, Bactria, where they conquered the Scythians and the local Indo-Greek kingdoms. From that central location, the Kushan Empire became a wealthy trading focus between the peoples of Han China, Sassanid Persia, and the Roman Empire. The Kushan Empire incorporated religion and architecture to their customs of other cultures and integrated from other peoples’ customs into the Kushan Empire’s culture.
The Kushan Empire was multicultural in which it incorporated to their customs of other cultures. It established many ethnicities and religions living under common rule, abiding by common law. The Kushans had religious buildings such as Buddhist shrines, temples and cemeteries. Concentrations of religious buildings in the Kushan city played an important role as centres of ideological life. The city was encircled by a deep channel and surrounded by walls. Among the urban roads were …show more content…

Greek religion, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism were the four religions living peacefully together in it. The Kushan Empire not only influenced other cultures, but other cultures also influenced them. One of their biggest influencers was the Greeks. They adopted the Greek alphabets and made it their own. The Kushans also depicted Greek legends on their coins. They borrowed the knowledge of Zoroastrianism from the Iranians and adopted wrestling from they Scythian tribes. Mahayana Buddhism plays a huge effect on Asia today. They framed a lot of what India and some parts of China are today with their people and their ideas. Areas like Japan, China and Korea follow Mahayana

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