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Kushan Empire in India
Vima Takto Vima Takto (Soter Megas) – King, circa 80-100 A.D.
Bronze Tetradrachm 22mm (8.73 grams)
Reference: Göbl, Kushan pl. 176, 19.1 var. (bust left); Senior B17.1; Donum Burns 58; MACW 2928
No legend, radiate, diademed, and draped bust right, holding sceptre, three-pronged tamgha behind.
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΩΝ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΜΕΓΑΣ “Basileu Basileon Sotir Megas”: “The King of Kings, Great Saviour”., King riding right on horseback, holding sceptre; three-pronged tamgha symbol of Soter Megas before.
The Kushan Empire was founded by Kujulu Kadphises, whose son was Vima Takto. Kadphises and, initially, Vima Takto issued coins that were largely imitative of the peoples they conquered. One of the most recognizable coins of the period bears an obverse portrait and a horseman on the back. The legend reads only Soter Megas – the Great Savior, and the actual name of the issuing king long remained unknown. The discovery of the Rabatak inscription, though, changed Kushan history by providing evidence to verify the elusive identity of ‘Soter Megas’. His name was Vima Tak[to] (the last syllable is still uncertain).
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Vima Takto or Vima Taktu was a Kushan emperor reigned c. 80–90 CE.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.
Vima Takto’s empire covered northwestern India and Bactria towards China, where Kushan presence has been asserted in the Tarim Basin. Under his reign, embassies were also sent to the Chinese court.
He is mentioned in the Chinese Historical Chronicle of the Hou Hanshu, in relation to his father Kujula Kadphises:
“Qiujiuque (Ch: 丘就卻) [Kujula Kadphises] was more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yangaozhen (Ch:閻高珍) [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.”
The connection of Vima Takto with other Kushan rulers is described in the Rabatak inscription, which was written by Kanishka. Kanishka makes the list of the kings who ruled up to his time: Kujula Kadphises as his great-grandfather, Vima Takto as his grandfather, Vima Kadphises as his father, and himself Kanishka:
“… for King Kujula Kadphises (his) great grandfather, and for King Vima Taktu (his) grandfather, and for King Vima Kadphises (his) father, and *also for himself, King Kanishka” (Cribb and Sims-Williams 1995/6: 80)
A later inscription found at Vima’s sanctuary at Mat, also records that he was the grandfather of Huvishka.
Preceded by:
Kujula Kadphises |
Kushan Ruler
(80–90 CE) |
Succeeded by:
Vima Kadphises |
The Kushan Empire was an empire originally formed in the early 1st century CE under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of the former Greco-Bactrian Kingdom around the Oxus River (Amu Darya), and later based near Kabul, Afghanistan. The Kushans spread from the Kabul River Valley to also encompass much of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, from which they took their first official language (Greek),  Bactrian alphabet, Greco-Buddhist religion, coinage system, and art. They absorbed the Central Asian tribes that had previously conquered parts of the northern central Iranian Plateau once ruled by the Parthians, and reached their peak under the Buddhist emperor Kanishka (127–151), whose realm stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic Plain.
The Kushans were one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, a possibly Iranian or Tocharian, Indo-European nomadic people who had migrated from the Tarim Basin and settled in ancient Bactria. Their official language, the Indo-European Bactrian language, is closely related to the modern Afghan languages.
During the 1st and early 2nd centuries CE, the Kushans expanded across the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, which began about 127 CE Around 152 AD, Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains. They captured territories as far as Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkant, in the Tarim Basin of modern-day Xinjiang, China. A direct road from Gandhara to China was opened which remained under Kushan control for more than 100 years. The security offered by the Kushans encouraged travel across the Khunjerab Pass and facilitated the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to China.
The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sassanid Persia, Aksumite Empire and Han China. While much philosophy, art, and science was created within its borders, the only textual record we have of the empire’s history today comes from inscriptions and accounts in other languages, particularly Chinese. The Kushan control fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell to the Sassanians who targeted from the west. In the fourth century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Sassanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by the Hepthalites, another Indo-European people from the north.
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