Kujula Kadphises

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Kujula Kadphises

Kujula Kadphises, reigned (30-80 CE) (Kushan language: ???????? ?adf????, also ?????a ?adafe?, Pali

Páli

P?li is a village in Gyor-Moson-Sopron county, Hungary.External links...
: Kujula Kasasa, Ancient Chinese:???, Qiujiuque) was a Kushan prince who united the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people.They are believed by most scholars to have been an Indo-European people, and may have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians of Classical sources....
confederation during the 1st century CE, and became the first Kushan emperor.

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Kujula Kadphises, reigned (30-80 CE) (Kushan language: ???????? ?adf????, also ?????a ?adafe?, Pali

Páli

P?li is a village in Gyor-Moson-Sopron county, Hungary.External links...
: Kujula Kasasa, Ancient Chinese:???, Qiujiuque) was a Kushan prince who united the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

Rabatak inscription

The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan....
, he was the grandfather of the great Kushan king Kanishka I

Kanishka

Kanishka was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, ruling an empire extending from Bactria to large parts of India in the 2nd century of the common era, famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements....
.

History

The origins of Kujula Kadphises are quite obscure, and it is usually considered he was a descendant of the Kushan ruler Heraios

Heraios

Heraios was a clan chief of the Kushans , one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi confederacy in Bactria in the early first century CE, roughly at the time when the Kushans were starting their invasion of India....
, or even identical with him. Interestingly however, Kujula shares his name (Kushan: ???????? on some of his "Hermaeus" coins, or ?????a on his "Augustus" coins) with some of the last Indo-Scythian rulers, such as Liaka Kusulaka

Liaka Kusulaka

Liaka Kusulaka was an Indo-Scythian satrap of the area of Chukhsa in the northwestern South Asia during the 1st century BCE.He is mentioned in the Taxila copper plate inscription , dated between 90 and 6 BCE, as the father of Patika Kusulaka, and is characterized as a "kshaharata" and as kshatrapa of Chukhsa....
(Greek: ??a?a ???????), or his son Patika Kusulaka

Patika Kusulaka

Patika Kusulaka was an Indo-Scythian satrap in the northwestern South Asia during the 1st century BCE.He is mentioned in the Mathura lion capital....
, which might suggest some family connection.

The rise of Kujula Kadphises is described in the Chinese historical chronicle Hou Hanshu:

"More than a hundred years later (after the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
), the prince [xihou Ch: ??] of Guishuang, named Qiujiuque [Ch: ??? = Kujula Kadphises], attacked and exterminated the four other xihou. He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishuang. He invaded Anxi [commonly used for Arsacid Parthia but it seems to indicate Indo-Parthia here] and took the Gaofu [Kabul] region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda and Jibin [Ch: ?? = Kapisa and Gandhara

Gandhara

Gandhara is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River....
]. Qiujiuque [Kujula Kadphises] was more than eighty years old when he died."

In the process of their expansion eastward, Kujula Kadphises and his son Vima Takto seem to have displaced the Indo-Parthian kingdom, established in northwestern India by the Parthia

Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
n Gondophares

Gondophares

Gondophares was the first king of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. He seems to have ruled from 21 Common Era for at least 26 years. He took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab region area from the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises....
since around 20CE:

"His son, Yangaozhen [Ch:??? = Wima Tak(tu)], became king in his place. He conquered Tianzhu

Tianzhu

Tianzh? is the pronunciations of the Chinese character ??, the main pre-modern name for India....
[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."

This invasion of Kujula Kadphises is though to have occurred during the reign of Abdagases and Sases

Sases

Sases, Gondophares II, also Gondophares-Sases was an Indo-Parthian king who ruled in northwestern parts of India in modern Pakistan....
, the successors of Gondophares

Gondophares

Coinage

Most of Kujula's coins were Hellenic in inspiration. These coins used the portrait, name and title of the Indo-Greek king Hermaeus

King Hermaeus

Hermaeus Soter "the Saviour" was a Western Indo-Greek king of the Eucratid Dynasty, who ruled the territory of Paropamisade in the Hindu-Kush region, with his capital in Alexandria of the Caucasus ....
on the obverse, indicating Kujula's wish to relate himself to the Indo-Greek king. Since the Kushans and their predecessors the Yuezhi

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people.They are believed by most scholars to have been an Indo-European people, and may have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians of Classical sources....
were conversant with the Greek language and Greek coinage, the adoption of Hermaeus cannot have been accidental: it either expressed a filiation of Kujula Kadphises to Hermaeus by alliance (possibly through Sapadbizes

Sapadbizes

Sapadbizes , also Sapalbizes, was a ruler of western Bactria, sometimes linked to the Yuezhi. He is known only from his coins . Two clues provide an approximate date for this ruler....
or Heraios

Heraios

Heraios was a clan chief of the Kushans , one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi confederacy in Bactria in the early first century CE, roughly at the time when the Kushans were starting their invasion of India....
), or simply a wish to show himself as heir to the Indo-Greek tradition and prestige, possibly to accommodate Greek populations. These coins bear the name of Kujula Kadphises in Kharo??hi, with representations of the Greek demi-god Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
on the back, and titles ("Yavugasa") presenting Kujula as a "ruler" (not actual king), and a probable Buddhist ("Dharmathidasa", follower of the Dharma

Dharma

The term , is an Indian Indian philosophy and Indian religions term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term....
). Later coins, possibly posthumous, did describe Kujula as "Maharajasa", or "Great King".

Greek script

The Greek script on the coins of Kujula (and all the Kushans with him) is barbarized. For example, S????SS? on his Hermaeus coins is thought to be a deformation of SO????S (Sotiros), the traditional title of Hermaeus on his coins. The Greek word for "king" is written ??????OS, with both a lunate sigma and a normal sigma (S) in the same word.

The Kushans also added one character to the Greek script: it is the letter ?, corresponding to the sound "Sh", as in "Kushan".

Buddha coins

Some coins of Kujula also represent a cross-legged seated figure, said to be one of the first known representations of the Buddha on a coin (Whitehead). Unfortunately, Whitehead's attribution of this coin to Kujula, and the claim that the seated figure on the obverse represents the Buddha, is now known to be incorrect. The correct attribution of this coin is to the Kushan king Huvishka

Huvishka

Huvishka was a Kushan emperor from the death of Kanishka until the succession of Vasudeva I about forty years later. His rule was a period of retrenchment and consolidation for the Empire....
, who was Kujula's great-great-grandson. The obverse shows Huvishka seated on a couch. The first known coins carrying a representation of the Buddha were issued by Kujula's Great-grandson (and Huvishka's father) Kanishka I

Kanishka

Roman-style coins

Some fewer coins of Kujula Kadphises also adopted a Roman style, with effigies closely resembling Caesar Augustus, although all the legends were then associated with Kujula himself. Such influences are linked to exchanges with the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
around that date.

Preceded by:
Heraios
Heraios

Heraios was a clan chief of the Kushans , one of the five constituent tribes of the Yuezhi confederacy in Bactria in the early first century CE, roughly at the time when the Kushans were starting their invasion of India....

(In Gandhara
Gandhara

Gandhara is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River....
and Punjab
Punjab region

Punjab , also Panjab , is a region straddling the border between India and Pakistan. The "Five Rivers" are Beas River, Ravi River, Sutlej, Chenab and Jhelum River; all these are tributaries of the Indus river, Jhelum being the biggest one....
:)
Indo-Parthian king
Gondophares
Gondophares

Gondophares was the first king of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. He seems to have ruled from 21 Common Era for at least 26 years. He took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab region area from the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises....

Kushan Ruler
(30-80 CE)

Succeeded by:

Vima Takto
Vima Takto

Vima Takto or Vima Taktu was a Kushan emperor around 80-90 AD.Vima Takto was long known as "The nameless King", since his coins only showed the legend "The King of Kings, Great Saviour", until the discovery of the Rabatak inscription helped connect his name with the title on the coins....