Kushan Empire

Kushan Empire, dynasty of northern India, Afghanistan, and central Asia, from A.D. 50 to the 3rd century. Emperors of the dynasty opened important trades routes between China and India and between India and Rome. Along these trade routes both goods and ideas were exchanged. The dynasty's greatest ruler and an important proponent of Buddhism, its chief religion, was Kanishka, who lived in the 1st century A.D. During his reign Buddhism probably first reached China, and influential artistic concepts from Greece and Rome were incorporated into Indian religious art.

See also: Kanishka.