Kanishka as a generous patron of art as well as learning and literature.

Kanishka was one of the greatest rulers of ancient India. He rose the Kushana empire to great eminence through his mighty conquests and he was a great patron of the art and learning.

Kanishka as a generous patron of art can be seen through the following:

• Kanishka provided patronage to sculpture architecture. Gandhara and Mathura School of art flourished during his period.

o Gandhara school: The hybrid culture (Hellenistic and Indian) found expression in the sculptures. It has sculptures from Buddhism.

o Mathura School: It is mainly indigenous. It drew inspiration from the ancient Indian art of Bharhut and Sanchi. It has sculptures from Brahmanism, Jainism and Buddhism.

• Purushapura or Peshawar, the capital city was one of the beautiful cities of India. It was adorned with many noble edifices, lofty public buildings, monuments and Buddhist monasteries. Other important cities were Kashmir, Sarnath, Mathura, etc.

• He gave royal patronage to the new form of Buddhism called Mahayanism. He constructed a large number of statues and images of Lord Buddha, Buddha Viharas, monasteries and dwelling places for the Buddhist monks.

• His early coins bear the images of the Persian, Greek and Hindu gods. This indicates his tolerance towards the other religions. Kanishka was a great patron of learning and literature and brought philosophers, scientists and writers to his court, as explained below:

• In his court, he had Buddhist philosophers Asavaghosha, Parshva and Vasumitra. Asvaghosha wrote Buddhacharita and is the author of the first Sanskrit play, Sariputraprakarana. He composed Saundaryananda, a fine example of Sanskrit Kavya.

• Nagarjuna, the great exponent of the Mahayana doctrine and a Buddhist teacher adorned his court. He wrote the Madhyamika Sutra that deals with the theory of relativity.

• During his reign, the fourth Buddhist Council was convened at Kundalvana in Kashmir under the chairmanship of Asvaghosha and the “three pitakas” of the Buddhist literature were composed.

• During his time, the Sanskrit language, dealing with both religious and non-religious subjects, received a special patronage.

• The celebrated physician and medical scientist Charaka, who wrote “Charaka Samhita”, also flourished at Kanishka’s court.

• Mathara, a politician of unusual intelligence, was a minister of the Kushana emperor.

• The learned Greek engineer Agesilaus, designed and built a famous stupa in Kanishka’s capital of Peshawar, during Kanishka’s reign.

The time of Kanishka was a time of intense literary, philosophical, scientific and artistic activities. The royal patronage covered almost every branch of the social, cultural and economic life of India.