The crossroads empire of Central Asia and northern India — built by nomads turned kings, enriched by the Silk Road trade between Han China and Rome, and remembered above all as the patron that helped carry Buddhism north and east across Asia.
On their gold coins, the Kushan kings printed gods from many worlds at once: Greek, Iranian, and Indian deities and the Buddha himself, all labelled in Greek letters. Few ancient states advertised their mixture so openly. The Kushans were nomads who became emperors, straddling the mountains between China and the Roman world, and they grew rich taxing the caravans that passed through. Their lasting mark was not a conquest but a passage. Under their rule, and along their roads, monks and merchants began carrying Buddhism out of India toward the rest of Asia.