History · Ch 2 — Kings, Farmers and Towns — Early States and Economies
Divine kings
Divine kings
The most direct way for a ruler to claim high status was to identify with gods. This strategy is seen most clearly with the Kushanas, who ruled from roughly the first century BCE to the first century CE. Their kingdom stretched from Central Asia into northwest India. Historians have reconstructed their history from inscriptions and textual traditions, but the best evidence of how they wanted to be seen as kings comes from their coins and sculpture.
Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in a shrine at Mat, near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Similar statues have also been found in a shrine in Afghanistan. Some historians argue that this practice — placing royal statues inside shrines — indicates the Kushanas considered themselves godlike. Many Kushana rulers also adopted the title devaputra, meaning "son of god". This title was possibly inspired by Chinese rulers, who called themselves "sons of heaven".
By the fourth century CE, larger states had emerged, including the Gupta Empire. These states depended heavily on samantas — men who maintained themselves through local resources, including control over land. Samantas offered homage and provided military support to rulers. A powerful samanta could become a king; conversely, a weak ruler might find himself reduced to a subordinate position.
Histories of the Gupta rulers have been reconstructed from literature, coins, and inscriptions. A particularly important source is the prashasti — a composition in praise of kings (and patrons in general) written by poets. Historians often try to draw factual information from these compositions, but it is important to remember that the people who composed and read them treasured them as works of poetry, not as literally true accounts.
The Prayaga Prashasti (also known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription) is a key example. It was composed in Sanskrit by Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta, arguably the most powerful of the Gupta rulers (c. fourth century CE). The inscription praises Samudragupta in extravagant terms:
- He is described as "without an antagonist on earth".
- He has "wiped off the fame of other kings with the soles of (his) feet".
- He is called Purusha (the Supreme Being), the cause of prosperity for the good and destruction for the bad.
- He is "incomprehensible", compassionate, and the giver of many hundred-thousands of cows.
- His mind has received ceremonial initiation for the uplift of the miserable, the poor, the forlorn, and the suffering. …
The coin in Figure 2.4 is a gold Kushana coin, and it has two sides — the obverse and the reverse — each carrying a deliberate message about kingship.
On the obverse, the coin shows King Kanishka standing. He is not shown as a distant, abstract ruler; he is depicted in full figure, often wearing a coat and boots, a style that reflects the Kushanas' Central Asian origins. The king is usually shown holding a spear or a standard, and sometimes making an offering at an altar. This is not a passive portrait — the king is active, performing a ritual or asserting his presence. The inscription on this side typically names the king in Greek or Kharosthi script, a reminder of the cultural mix the Kushanas ruled over.
On the reverse, the coin shows a deity. The deity is not a random figure — it is one of several gods the Kushanas chose to put on their coins, including Greek, Iranian, and Indian deities like Helios, Mithra, or Shiva. The choice of deity varied, but the message was consistent: the king's authority was linked to the divine. By placing his own image on one side and a god on the other, Kanishka was visually claiming that his rule was sanctioned by, or even shared in, divine power.
The coin is not just currency — it is a political statement. Every time someone used this coin, they handled an object that said: this king is powerful, and his power comes from the gods. This is exactly what the textbook section calls "divine kingship." The Kushanas were not the first to do this, but they did it on a grand scale, issuing coins across their vast empire from Central Asia to northwest India.
What the coin teaches
The coin shows how rulers used everyday objects — money — to project an image of themselves as godlike. The obverse says "this is the king"; the reverse says "this is the god who backs him." Together, they make a claim that the king is not just a mortal ruler but a figure with divine approval or even divine nature. …
The sandstone sculpture of a Kushana king is a colossal statue, meaning it is much larger than life-size. It was found installed in a shrine at Mat, near Mathura in present-day Uttar Pradesh. Similar statues have also been discovered in a shrine in Afghanistan. The statue shows the ruler standing in a standardised royal posture — a formal, stiff pose that was deliberately repeated across different images of Kushana kings. This posture, along with the sheer size of the statue, was meant to convey authority and power.
The fact that these statues were placed inside shrines — places normally reserved for gods — is significant. Historians interpret this as evidence that the Kushanas presented themselves as godlike. The rulers reinforced this claim by adopting the title devaputra, or "son of god", a phrase possibly borrowed from Chinese emperors who called themselves "sons of heaven". The sculpture thus visually communicates the same idea of divine kingship that the Kushana coins and inscriptions express in words. …
Source 4 — In praise of Samudragupta. This is an excerpt from the Prayaga Prashasti (the Allahabad Pillar Inscription), composed in Sanskrit by Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta:
He was without an antagonist on earth; he, by the overflowing of the multitude of (his) many good qualities adorned by hundreds of good actions, has wiped off the fame of other kings with the soles of (his) feet; (he is) Purusha (the Supreme Being), being the cause of the prosperity of the good and the destruction of the bad (he is) incomprehensible; … (he is) equal to (the gods) Kubera (the god of wealth), Varuna (the god of the ocean), Indra (the god of rains) and Yama (the god of death)… …