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Concept
Kushan art
Summary
Kushan art, the art of the Kushan Empire in northern India, flourished between the 1st and the 4th century CE. It blended the traditions of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, influenced by Hellenistic artistic canons, and the more Indian art of Mathura. Kushan art follows the Hellenistic art of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom as well as Indo-Greek art which had been flourishing between the 3rd century BCE and 1st century CE in Bactria and northwestern India, and the succeeding Indo-Scythian art. Before invading northern and central India and establishing themselves as a full-fledged empire, the Kushans had migrated from northwestern China and occupied for more than a century these Central Asian lands, where they are thought to have assimilated remnants of Greek populations, Greek culture, and Greek art, as well as the languages and scripts which they used in their coins and inscriptions: Greek and Bactrian, which they used together with the Indian Brahmi script.
With the demise of the Kushans in the 4th century CE, the Indian Gupta Empire prevailed, and Gupta art developed. The Gupta Empire incorporated vast portions of central, northern, and northwestern India, as far as Punjab and the Arabian Sea, continuing and expanding on the earlier artistic tradition of the Kushans and developing a unique Gupta style.
Some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the areas of Bactria and Sogdiana. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-I-Sangin, Surkh Kotal (a monumental temple), and the palace of Khalchayan. Various sculptures and friezes are known representing horse-riding archers and, significantly, men with artificially deformed skulls, such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan (a practice well attested in nomadic Central Asia).
Khalchayan
The art of Khalchayan at the end of the 2nd-1st century BCE is probably one of the first known manifestations of Kushan art. It is ultimately derived from Hellenistic art and possibly from the art of the cities of Ai-Khanoum and Nysa.
Official source
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