KANIŠKA. — Most of the information from Chinese sources concerning the reign and life of K., the Kuṣāṇa “king of kings,” is devoid of historical value, and even the period in which he lived is disputed, since the dates proposed by the most authoritative historians differ from one another by centuries.
Excavations at the base of the great stūpa, or “mound,” of Peshavār unearthed a metal casket bearing the names of K. and Agesilaus, the Greek builder
of the monument, but no date. Hoernle’s opinion that K. reigned from approximately 225 to 152 seems the most plausible. The boundaries of K.’s vast empire, much of it outside India, whose capital was Purusapura (Peshavār), are not known with precision; it apparently extended northward as far as the Tarim Basin and included Gandhāra, the territory of present-day Afghanistan as far as the Oxus (Amu Darya), and the Indian provinces of the Panjab and Sind, to which K. also added Kašmīr. He was engaged in a trans-Himalayan campaign when he was killed by officers dissatisfied with him. He was succeeded by his son Huviška. In advanced age, K. Buddhism (v.), into which he was initiated by the elder Pārśvika. In the hours free from the cares of government, he carefully studied the sacred texts of Buddhism and Buddha (v.) by having the image of the Enlightened One stamped on his coins. To settle the disputes among the monks, which were causing schisms, and restore the Buddha’s doctrine to its purity, K. was persuaded to convene a council, the fourth since the foundation of the monastic Order. It was held in a monastery near Jālandhara, under the presidency of Pārśvika and Vasumitra, and, according to tradition, was attended by 500 monks. They did not subject the Canon to revision; they confined themselves to commenting on the Tripitaka. Husen Tsang relates that the three commentaries composed by the monks and engraved on copper plates at K.’s command were placed in a stone urn, over which a stūpa was erected in perpetual remembrance of the council. But the Chinese pilgrim wrote several centuries after K., and much of the information he gathered during his travels (630–44) has a fabulous character. Tradition also associates the memory of the Fourth Council with the name of Aśvaghoṣa, the author of the life of the Buddha (Buddhācārtha), which is the oldest artistic poem in Sanskrit literature. He is said to have taken part in the Council as vice-president. The celebrated Čaraka is also said to have lived at K.’s court as chief physician; to him is owed the oldest treatise on Indian medicine.