King vima kadphises is a devotee shaivite
Double stater Vima Kadphises. Obverse: diademed and crowned figure of Vima Kadphises seated facing on stool with ornate legs, head left, feet on footstool, holding laurel branch in raised right hand. Corrupted Greek language legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΟΟΗΜΟ ΚΑΔΦΙϹΗϹ ("Basileus Ooimo Kadphisis"): "King Vima Kadphises". Afghanistan. Guimet Museum, MG24356
Vima Kadphises with ithyphallic Shiva. Obv: Bust of king emerging from a cloud, with a crested helmet and holding a club. Corrupted Greek language legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΟΟΗΜΟ ΚΑΔΦΙΣΗΣ ("Basileus Ooimo Kadphisis"): "King Vima Kadphises". Rev: Shiva, with a long trident in right hand, and the skin of a tiger in the left. Left, monogram of Vima Kadphises. Right: Buddhist triratna symbol (or possibly Nandipada). Kharoshthi legend: MAHARAJASA RAJADIRAJASA SARVALOGA ISVARASA MAHISVARASA VIMA KATHPHISASA TRADARA "The Great king, the king of kings, lord of the World, the Mahisvara (lord of the earth), Vima Kathphisa, the defender."
Vima Kadphises in long coat. Legend in corrupted Greek script: ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ BACIΛEWN CWTHP MEΓAC ΟΟΗΜΟ ΚΑΔΦΙϹΗϹ ("Basileus Basileuon Soter Megas Ooemo Kadphises"): "King of Kings Vima Kadphises the Great Saviour". British Museum.
Bronze coin of Wima Kadphises with camel, found in Khotan.
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eastern Iran and Northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath, near Varanasi, where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great.
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)
