Kanishka inaugurates Mahayana (Northern) Buddhism, AD 100 (litho)

Kanishka inaugurates Mahayana (Northern) Buddhism, AD 100. The Kushans were one of the chief Central Asian tribes that overran the country just beyond the frontiers of India in the century before Christ, and afterwards became a ruling race in Northern India itself. The greatest of the Kushans was the conqueror Kanishka (Kanerkes of the "Greek" coins), who did such great things for Buddhism by founding the Mahayana or popular gorgeously ritualistic form of it that his fame for ages has been spread from end to end of Asia. But he destroyed the philosophic Buddhism and substituted for it a superstitious polytheistic idolatry. Illustration for Hutchinson's History of the Nations (Hutchinson, c.1920). Note: Image has been digitally enhanced to facilitate repro.