Successors of Kanishka I
Kanishka’s rule lasted for twenty-three years. His immediate successor was Vasishka, who had a short reign and was succeeded by Huvishka. The empire of Huvishka was not less extensive than that of theHuvishka gold coin traditional patron of Asvaghosha.
It may have spread farther to the west, as a record of his reign has been unearthed at Wardak to the west of Kabul. Mathura, was now a great centre of Kushan power and it was adorned with monuments by Huvishka as the city of Peshawar had been embellished by Kanishka. For some time Huvishka had apparently a colleague or rival in Kanishka of the Ara inscription, who is described as a son of Vajheshka, possibly the same as Vasishka, and receives in addition to the titles of great king, the king of kings, son of heaven (devaputra) assumed by his predecessors, the novel title of Kaisara, “Caesar”.
In Kalhana’s Chronicle we have a reference to the rule of “Hushka, Jushka and Kanishka”, apparently identical with Huvishka, Vajheshka and his son. They were the reputed founders of three cities in Kashmir named after them. Kanishka of this passage may have reference to the predecessor of Vasishka, but it is more probable that the king referred to by Kalhana is identical with his namesake mentioned in the Ara inscription.
The last great Kushan king was Vasudeva 1, who ruled from about the year 67 to 98 of the Kanishka era. Vasudeva circaMost of his inscriptions have been found at or near Mathura, and his coins usually bear the God Siva and rarely any Iranian deity. It is not improbable that, he gradually lost touch with the north-western provinces. The decline of the Kushan power in the north-west was hastened by the rise of the Sassanian dynasty of Persia. In the third century AD, we find references to four separate kingdoms all dependent on the Yue-cbi. This possibly suggests territorial disintegration though the nominal suzerainty of the
