The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c20.13

v1.c20.13

In the meantime, on the decline of the Maurya empire which must have set in soon after the death of the Emperor Açoka (c. 236 B.C.), the Punjab passed into the hands of foreign invaders—first, Greeks from the kingdom of Bactria to the north, and subsequently Scythians (Çakas) and Parthians (Pahlavas) from the kingdom of Parthia to the west. The kingdoms established by these new-comers in the Punjab were overwhelmed by still another wave of invasion from the north. The Kushāṇas, a people from the region of China who had driven the Çakas out of Bactria, began their Indian conquests with the overthrow of the kingdom of Kābul about the middle of the first century A.D., and extended their power until, in the reign of Kanishka (probably 78 A.D.), the patron of that branch of the Buddhist Church which is called the Mahāyāna, the Kushāṇa empire was paramount in N. India³.