The Kushan Empire originally formed in the early 1st century CE under Prince Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the Oxus River in what is now northern Afghanistan; southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

During the 1st and early 2nd centuries CE; the Kushans expanded rapidly across the northern part of the Indian subcontinent at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares) where inscriptions have been found dated to the first few years of the era of the most famous Kushan ruler; Kanishka; which reportedly began about 127 CE.

The Kushan kings were a branch of the Yuezhi confederation (possibly intermarried with local families) and they had diplomatic contacts with Rome; Persia and Han China. The empire declined from the 3rd century and fell to the Sassanid and Gupta empires.