The Kushana were a nomadic tribe who had split from the Yueh-chi tribes. (The Yueh-chi originally lived in Mongolia before they established themselves in Bactria.)

Kanishka enlarged the Kushana empire into Turkestan, Kashmir and North-east India. Although he honoured the Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanic deities, Kanishka is mostly remembered for convening the fourth great Buddhist council in Kashmir, which marked the beginning of pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism.