After the fall of the Sunga and the Kanva dynasties, India had to face series of invasions from abroad. The Kushanas, Indo-Greeks, Indo-scythians, Indo-Parthians, and the Sakas were some of these foreign tribes that attacked India. Each of these sects established its empire in India and contributed substantially towards the spectrum that was India’s cultural life. 

It was the Tocharians coming from various parts of the present Turkmanistan and China who established the Kushana Empire spanning over a vast area from Tajikistan to the Caspian coast and from Afghanistan to the Gangetic plains and it lasted from the 1st century A .D. through the 3rd. 

Kanishka was the most famous emperor of this dynasty and he was an ardent propagator of Buddhism.