The Indo-Scythians, also known as Indo-Sakas, were a group of nomadic people of Iranic Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into the present-day regions of Afghanistan, eastern Ira
Sculpted head of a Saka warrior, enemy of the Yuezhi, from Khalchayan in northern Bactria (Afghanistan), first century BCE.
Detail of one of the Orlat plaques, apparently representing Scythian soldiers
Asia in 100 BCE, showing the Saka and their neighbors
A coin of the Indo-Scythian king Azes
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the early 1st century CE. Initially based in the Bactrian territories, it spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, India, P
Indo-Scythian Kingdom
…extended their supremacy over the north-western subcontinent, conquering the Indo-Greeks and other local peoples. They were apparently subjugated by the Kushan Empire's Kujula Kadphises or Kanishka. The Saka continued to govern as satraps, forming the Northern Satraps and Western Satraps. The power of the Saka rulers…
Yuezhi nobleman and priest over a fire altar. Noin-Ula.
The ethnonym "KOϷϷANO" (Koshshano, "Kushan") in Greek alphabet (with the addition of the letter Ϸ, "Sh") on a coin of the first known Kushan ruler Heraios (1st century AD).
Head of a Yuezhi prince (Khalchayan palace, Uzbekistan)
The first king to call himself "Kushan" on his coinage: Heraios (AD 1–30)