History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c37.s1.t2.6

v1.c37.s1.t2.6

Indo-Scythian Kuṣāns in the first century B.C. penetrated north eastern Iran as far as the Caspian sea and ruled in what is now known as Afghanistan. Sir Aurel Stein, the famous British Archaeologist excavating in the Takla Makan desert of Chinese Turkistan, found vast quantities of documents on wood and leather, preserved almost like new and written in Kharosthi, a first-century A.D. Indian script of the Kusans. While two headless but inscribed statues of King Kaniska (2nd century A.D.) depict this Kuṣān monarch wearing a belted tunic and what appears to be a cloak but might be a full skirted coat slung over the shoulders; he has baggy riding trousers gathered at the ankle and tied under his boots by straps. One statue was found by the fire temple constructed by Kaniṣka at Surkh Kotal in northern Afghanistan, Kabul Museum. The other was found at Mathura in India and both portray a costume that obviously developed from the Scythians and Parthians and was the forerunner of the typical Sasanian riding dress. At Bamian, the famous valley of the Buddha, a number of the painted frescoes on the walls and ceilings of the Buddhist cave monasteries depict figures wearing typically Sasanian costume.