Rabatak Inscription
composition: secure
witness: the inscribed stone found near Rabatak, Afghanistan, in 1993, now known chiefly through photographs and a cast rather than the original
A single inscribed stone found near Rabatak lets Kanishka I state his own genealogy, territorial claims, and religious patronage in the Bactrian language, in his own words, across a multilingual Central Asian empire.
- the fullest surviving statement of Kushan royal genealogy and territorial claims, in the king's own voice
- written in Bactrian with a Greek-derived alphabet, the empire's own chancery language
- supplied the fullest internal chronology presently known for the early Kushan dynasty, though its absolute calibration remains debated
- found near Rabatak, Afghanistan, in 1993; portions of the text are damaged or debated
An inscription on a stone block found near Rabatak, in northern Afghanistan, in 1993, composed in the Bactrian language written with a Greek-derived alphabet, the everyday chancery language of the Kushan Empire alongside Sanskrit, Prakrit, and other regional tongues. Speaking in Kanishka I's own voice, it records his genealogy back through several named predecessors, claims sovereignty over cities across a vast territory spanning parts of Central Asia and South Asia, and describes his foundation of a sanctuary housing images of gods including Nana. It supplied the fullest internal chronology presently known for the early Kushan dynasty, though the absolute calibration of that chronology remains debated, and established, more firmly than any previous evidence, that Bactrian rather than a South Asian language was the empire's own administrative tongue. Portions of the text are damaged, and details of its religious program remain debated.
Commentary
Readers' notes on this work. No account needed - be scholarly, or at least civil.
Loading commentary…