A syncretic empire of Yuezhi origin that bridged Central and South Asia, facilitating the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road and connecting Rome, Persia, and Han China through trade.
Defeated by the Sasanian Empire in the mid-3rd century CE, with western Kushan territories (Bactria, Gandhara) conquered under Shapur I c. 262 CE; a vassal Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom persisted until the Kidarite and later Hephthalite invasions in the 4th–5th centuries CE.
The atlas holds 3 border frames for Kushan Empire — the shape you scrub through changes in 30 · 127 · 226.
Situates the Kushan Empire within the Central Eurasian steppe-and-silk-road narrative.
Traces the Buddhist culture the Kushans patronized and spread along the Silk Road through Gandhara and into China — directly fleshes out this empire's central historical role.
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