Essays on Indic History by Sharma Vijender

Author:Sharma, Vijender [Sharma, Vijender]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indic History
Published: 2020-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

The trans-national kingdom

The Kushan rule proved to be a boon, especially for the cities in modern-day Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Geographically, these regions lie in the desert and xeric shrublands biome. This means they receive very scant rainfall, crucial for agriculture. These regions have two major rivers, the Oxus (modern Amu Darya) and the Jaxartes (modern Syr Darya) and some minor rivers, which join these and ultimately flow into the Aral Sea. Areas around these rivers are suitable for agriculture but traditionally a majority of the population in these regions were nomadic.

The Kushans embarked upon an ambitious task of bringing in new areas under cultivation. In the case of the Indian subcontinent, agricultural land was reclaimed from forests by either cutting down the trees or by burning them. The abundance of glacial rivers and monsoon then provided enough water for agriculture. The conditions in Central Asian regions was exact opposite. There were no thick forests to cut down to create arable land. The land was plenty but the problem lay in getting water to these parched areas.

The Kushans built canals from the rivers of the region to take water to new areas. The works on new canals in the southern regions along the Oxus created new agricultural oases and large commercial centres in the region. The canal work was also carried out in the north along the Zeravshan River, feeding Samarkand. Some of these canals extended up to a hundred kilometres [48] . A direct impact of such extensive irrigation projects was felt on the nomadic tribes of the region. Many of them, with advent of assured irrigation, shifted to agriculture. A larger population now depended on state funded project for subsistence and trade. This helped the Kushans to consolidate their power over the local population and earn legitimacy.

The extent of increase in settlement along the new irrigation projects can be estimated by the number of archaeological remains that have been excavated in the area. An estimated 117 archaeological monuments have been excavated in the Surkhan Darya Province in Uzbekistan [49] . A large network of such canals indicate that the Kushans probably had amassed wealth by collecting taxes from trade. These canals must have used considerable amount of money and manpower to be built. It is estimated that on an average 6,000 – 7,000 [50] labourers were employed for maintenance works of a single canal.

The foot hills in the region were also brought under cultivation by using small sized reservoirs [51] . These reservoirs were between 1,000 and 1,200 m3 in volume and were built on slopes of terraces to catch water from a gorge or a spring. The masonry of these reservoirs was simple. Stones were arranged in oval or rectangular form and plastered with turf. Some evidence of construction of aqueducts to carry water from mountainous regions has also surfaced.

A major advantage that the Kushans had was the strategic location of their Central Asian provinces. The cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent all sat right on the Silk Road.

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