Huvishka I 'Elephant' Medium AE Unit Bronze, 10.79 grams, 24.30 mm. 152 – 192 A.D. Obverse: King Huvishka holding ankus, riding elephant right. Bactrian legend. Reverse: Shiva with two arms holding trident; tamgha and legend. Almost very fine condition, uncleaned 'as found' state.
Huvishka I was a Kushan emperor from the death of Kanishka (assumed on the best evidence available to be in 140 AD) until the succession of Vasudeva I about forty years later. His rule was a period of retrenchment and consolidation for the Empire. In particular he devoted time and effort early in his reign to the exertion of greater control over the city of Mathura. Mathura represented the southernmost extent of the Empire and, like much of India/Pakistan, had been ruled via a series of subordinate rulers. These rulers, the ksatraps, maintained a certain amount of autonomy up under Kanishka, but they vanish from records in Huvishka's reign, while Huvishka patronised both Buddhist and Brahmin institutions in the town.
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