Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 497. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Ancient] INDIA, Kushans. Kanishka I. Circa 100-126 AD. AV Quarter Stater (1.78 g, 12h). Kanishka standing facing, holding standard, sacrificing over altar to left; trident to left / BODDO, nimbate Buddha standing facing, raising hand in gesture of abhaya mudra and holding robe; tamgha to right. MK 73; Donum Burns -; MACW -. Fine, traces of earlier mounting. Extremely rare; the fourth published example. ($5000)

Ex Morton & Eden 10 (23-24 November 2004), lot 687.

Only three other Buddha gold quarter staters of Kanishka I are known: Göbl, Kushan 73 = BN Paris; a specimen from the Skanda Collection, the cover coin in Spink-Taisei 9, Singapore 1991, no. 18 (where it realized $140,000); and one in a private collection.

The name Kushan comes from the Chinese Kouei-chouang, a term used to describe one branch of the Yuëh Chi, a loose confederation of Indo-Europeans living in northwestern China until the Turko-Mongol Hsiug-nu drove them west about 170 BC. The Yuëh Chi reached Baktria, dividing the country into five chiefdoms which by the following century were united under Kujula as their king. Gradually wresting control of the area from the Scytho-Parthians, the Yuëh Chi moved south into the northwest Indian region of Gandhara, today parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Establishing a capital near Kabul, the Kushans were soon acknowledged as great a power as China, Rome, and Parthia. They had adopted a form of the Greek alphabet and initially made coins directly copying Baktrian Greek and Parthian issues. Kujula's son Kadphises II was the first Indian ruler to strike gold coins reminiscent of the Roman aurei circulating along the caravan routes.

Under Kanishka, the third king, the Kushans reached their greatest extent, controlling a territory ranging from central Asia into northern India as far east as Benares and as far south as Sanchi. Their empire was administered from two capitals: Peshawar near the Khyber Pass, and Mathura in northern India. The discovery of the Rabatak inscription has helped confirm Cribb's hypothesis that the Kanishka era started between 100 AD and 120 AD. It was a period of great wealth marked by extensive mercantile activities, seagoing trade, and commerce along the Silk Route to China. This multi-ethnic empire, tolerant of religious differences, produced an eclectic culture vividly expressive in the visual arts. Coin reverses as well as artifacts from the Gandhara and Mothura schools of art exhibit deities of Greek, Roman, Iranian, and Hindu mythologies.

Kanishka, a fervent Buddhist, is best remembered today for sponsoring the first great Buddhist conference at Kanish Vihar, that led to the adoption and promotion of Mahayana Buddhism, a school of thought that revered the life of Buddha as much as his spiritual teaching. The great bronze plaques that recorded the conference proceedings have never been found, but we are fortunate to have a report of the conference from the Chinese scholar Hien Tsang. The Buddha coinage was probably struck as a special issue in conjunction with the conference, and the image of Buddha would have made a stunning impact at the time. Buddha had previously only been represented in symbolic form, but under Kanishka the fusion of Greek and Indian culture led to the portrayal of Buddha in human form. Kanishka’s coins were among these first representations and provide the earliest firmly datable images of the Buddha in any artistic medium.