The readings for this week were Czuma, Stanislaws J. with Rekha Morris.”Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India.” And “Migration and settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies.” By Xinru Liu which are once again made me wonder about a lot of things: history, art, culture, ethnicity and so forth. My perspective has changed dramatically since the beginning of the course .I used to think I know what those terms are, and I used to find history …boring. But now I see it all in a new ,different way. Every week’s reading brings up a new perspective it makes you think differently and inquire about every fact that you think you new about.
Reading about Yuezhi-Kushan tribe was once again very fascinating. It seems that we know so much about those people, but at the end so little. Well, not enough for many historians today to agree on chronologies and origins of Yuezhi.
From what I have gathered tribe and it’s migrations was an important part of the History of The Silk Road and cultural exchange of Eurasia. It made me think what would happened if there was no such tribe, or what if they would never migrate anywhere; where would we be right now(culturally, religiously, linguistically etc. )???Yuezhi, even though , they didn’t have much of their own culture or religion played an important role in developing of China, India and Bactria. For example, supplying China with horses made a great impact on its history and culture. What if they wouldn’t have those ‘heavenly horses’ ,would Chinese still have a dragon as their symbol???
Kushan empire was indeed a great empire at that time, it’s tolerance to religion boost the spread of Buddhism. Unfortunately, they didn’t leave much literature sources (on that we have to rely on Chinese or Indian writers) but, they left their “writings” in art form.It is fascinating that today we can look at work of art from many centuries ago and see a historical development of Kushans. The sculptures of Buddha or Kaniska king are what we have today to be able to “read” about Khushan empire. How from very basic sculptures or coins they progressed to more detailed look(snail-curled hair of Buddha), or how we can determine which region influence the other -by the look of Buddha garment and the drapery with folds arranged symmetrically. My favourite piece would be the BODDO coin dated AD 78-101, where on obverse we can see Kaniska king and on reverse Buddha wearing boots and his feet are pointing out (typical Kushan style due to horse riding) very cute :)
There is still a lot of mystery around the Yuezhi-Kushan people the chronology is too complicated due to multiple eras used for dating; plus lack of writings and archaeological evidence, but it is very clear migration of the tribes played a major role in variety of aspects in developing of sedentary, agricultural societies and it is obvious that migration is important to human kind.
Right now I feel like an old archaeologist or a historian who is anticipating for the next discovery like a missing piece of puzzle that will help to see the whole picture better.
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