[List II/46] Kuchan luggages

The luggage of my Kushan army is represented by a packing elephant. Two Scythian riders composing his crew gave the luggage the "Yuezhi" chrome characteristic of the Kouchanes riders.

The nomadic influence of the army is represented by the great number of quiver and gorytes carried.

Gandhara, Graeco-Buddhist art (1st to 5th century AD) Part of frieze in gray schist representing an elephant carrying a load on the back. Greco-Buddhist art is a synthesis of Greek and Indo-Buddhist styles that started in Gandhara (an ancient kingdom of Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan centered on the Swat and Kabul valleys, two tributaries of The Indus) when the Indo-Greek rulers, descendants of the companions of Alexander the Great, came into contact with Indian Buddhists, especially under Menander I (reign 160-135 BC), called Milinda Sanskrit.

    The relay of the Indo-Greeks was taken in the first century by the Kushan rulers whose zenith is under Kanishka I, another great protector of Buddhism.

    One of the notable aspects of Greco-Buddhist statuary is the figurative representation of the Buddha, formerly represented in symbolic form (wheel, footprint), which took the face of the Greek gods and especially of Apollo. The style of Gandhara flourished from the 1st century, under the Kushan dynasty, in the 5th century, when it disappeared with the invasion of the Shvetahūna, or white Huns. The Buddhas of Bamiyan, destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, were one of the most spectacular achievements of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.

Text above and photo below taken from the site of sale Proantic.com

"Shale elephant - Gandhara region (1st-5th c.) - Archeology"

 

[List II/46] Early Kûchana (Kushan indians) कुषाण circa 100AD

The Kushan, Kushan, Kushan, Kushan or Kusana are Indo-European, a fraction of the Yue Shi, which created an empire centered around Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India. It prospered between the 1st century and the 3rd century of the Christian era.

The name of Kushan is derived from the Chinese Guishuang, which described one of the five tribes of the Yue Shi, an unstructured confederation of Indo-European peoples, who probably spoke versions of the Tokharian language

 The most famous Kushan ruler was Kanishka I, who reigned from about AD 127 to 150 and promoted the expansion of Buddhism and, consequently, Greco-Buddhist art. The Taliban destroyed its statue, a unique piece of the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan in 2000.

Quote from Gérard Fussman:
"Kanishka is the sovereign we know best, and the Indian Buddhist sources, transmitted by Chinese or Tibetan translations, have preserved their memory and made him a protector of Buddhism, not exclusively. Bactrian inscriptions in the Greek alphabet from the great dynastic sanctuaries of Surkh Kotal and Rabatak - both located in northern Afghanistan - give us an idea of ​​his beliefs, his family and his activity, and he presents himself as a divine race , Invested with royalty by the goddess Nana and the gods of Mazdean Iran.

In the year I of his accession he instituted a new era and ordered to replace the Greek by the Bactrian in the official documents. Protectors of the dynasty and his ancestors, he erected at the top of hills a series of gigantic temples: Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan and Māt in India, near Mathurā, are two examples And there must have been many more. 

The Rabatak inscription confirms what the analysis of monetary findings indicated: the Kanishka Empire extended over Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the eastern part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, all of North India up to In Bengal and the Narmada. It is not known where his capital was. It seems that there was none: the capital followed the king in his displacements. But it is clear that Bactria, now largely Afghan, played an important role. The dynasty originated there. She talked about it and spread the language. It covered it with gigantic buildings and adopted as an official art an iranized variant of Greek art (...).

(...) Kanishka reigned from 98 to 101-or, if other chronologies were chosen, from 148 to 151. It seems that one does not possess the money of his son Vajheshka (102-106) Use of its name in dating formulas. On the other hand the mints in the name of Huvishka (106-138) and Vāsudeva (142-176) are abundant. It is possible, in fact, that there were two Huvishka and several Vāsudeva, and a Kanishka II had to be placed around 119 AD during the reign of Huvishka: there are suspicions of coups d'etat or civil wars, Does not subsist. The Kushan power crumbles under Vāsudeva, which loses control of gangetic and central India. The hundreds of thousands of bronze coins struck in his name are mostly local or posthumous strikes. As early as 226 according to A.D.H. Bivar, about 368 for R. Göbl, the Sassanids of Iran make the last kushan sovereigns their vassals. But very late, sometimes until the arrival of the Muslims, in the high valleys overlooking the Indian plains - Kabul, Swat, Kashmir, Gilgit, Himachal Pradesh region - wrenches will continue to adorn themselves with the kushan title of shahi, As a nomad costume the nomadic outfit and even to strike rare golden coins extending the imperial coinage."

King Kanishka

The figurines that I use to represent my Kouchanes elephants are Vendel miniature resin figurines (big 28mm). These pachyderms were attributed to Scythian horsemen as a crew. The army has an elephant in DBA version and three elephants in DBA big battle version.

The Kushan infantry consists of Indian combatants in difficult terrain. These troops are characterized by the wearing of colored turbans. The boudhic pattern of the wheel decorates a large number of shields.

 

The Kushan army originally included many Scythian light horsemen (the Yue zhi, the founders of the Kushan dynasty, being themselves a component of the Scythian people). The 12 light horsemen's plates of my Scythian army are all Naturally aligned when I play my Kouchanes. The figurines are posted in the article "Royal Scythes" but I also place them here for more readability.

 

 

[List II/3] and [List II/42] Hindu camp (Chola, Maurya pre Açoka etc)

It is a small camp that can be used generically for any ancient or medieval Hindu army. I did not choose to represent the cult of Kali but I still had in mind the song below when realizing the camp:

[List II/3] Maurya indians मौर्य राजवंश

Photograph of the army Maurya in DBA version with the complement of troops drawn from the army Chola:

It is not strictly speaking an army. These are specific figures (heavy tanks) which allow me, in addition to figures of the Chola army of Quentin, to align a DBA army of Indians Mauryas.

The Maurya are a dynasty that ruled over much of the Indian subcontinent from about 321 to 185 BC. BC Formed from the kingdom of Magadha and the town of Pataliputra in the Ganges plain by Chandragupta, this state later extended westward taking advantage of the retreat of the troops of Alexander the Great Grand, then, under the reigns of the two following rulers, Bindusara and Ashoka, to the south and east of the subcontinent, without ever dominating the latter in its totality. These sovereigns formed what is seen as the first great empire in Indian history, succeeding a period of division of the subcontinent between several rival kingdoms. However, this political construction, whose history is almost unknown, proved to be unsustainable. The empire gradually broke up, and its last sovereign was overthrown by the founder of the Shunga dynasty around 185 BC. AD

Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the dynasty

Undoubtedly by Indian tradition, probably because its rulers were not supporters of Hinduism, the Maurya empire was rediscovered by British and Indian historians essentially from three written sources: the Arthashastra, A political treaty attributed to Kautilya, who would be the prime minister of the founder of the dynasty; The Indica, an account of the journey to India from the beginnings of Maurya left by a Greek ambassador named Megasthenes; The rediscovery and translation of the edicts of King Ashoka. However, Maurya India remains very poorly known, despite the progress of archaeological research. Its administrative, social and economic organization remains obscure, and the architectural and artistic testimonies of this period are few.

Sharukh khan embodying King Açokha in the eponymous film.

OHe can nevertheless discover one of the most powerful empires of his time, founded by remarkable personalities, first and foremost Ashoka, who played a crucial role in the expansion of Buddhism and professed an original political ideology based on the rejection of violence. It became an important figure in Indian history, with the capital of the Sarnath pillar bearing the inscription of one of its edicts being chosen as the national emblem of India at independence.

Empire maurya at its peak (under Açokha)