Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of modern-day territory of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great. The founder of the dynasty, Kujula Kadphises, followed Greek religious ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition, and was also a follower of the Shaivite sect of Hinduism.

The Kushans used gold ingots as part of their monetary system. Kadaphises was the Kushan emperor, Vima Kadaphises who introduced the first gold coins of India. The Double Dinar can be considered as the first gold coin of the Indian subcontinent. In the coinage of the North Indian and Central Asian Kushan Empire (approximately 30–375 CE) the main coins issued were gold, weighing 7.9 grams.