Vol. 6, Issue 12, Part B (2020)

Abstract
Evidently, during the period of Kanishka Kashmir attained unprecedented prosperity. This is evident from the Kushan art treasures with Buddhist themes found in different nooks of the valley. Some sites are so distantly located that even today only an adventurer can reach to them. The huge quantity of Kanishka’s coins sofar retrieved in Kashmir further attests to this fact. No less significant evidence of Kashmir’s emergence as a famous place of Kushan empire is Kanishka’s decision to choose Kashmir as a venue for the third world Buddhist Conference in preference to any other place of the vast Kushan empire that Vasishka is also called as Vajheshka in the contemporary record and it is quite probable that he was known by this name in Kashmir which till the time of Kalhana came to be reduced to Juska in the local environment. Significantly enough Rajatarangni of Kalhana makes a special mention of him as besides clubbing the building activities of the three Kushana rulers (Kanishka, Jushka and Huska) and the efflorescence of Buddhism during their rule, Rajatrangni writes exceptionally about Juska “That wise king Juska, who built Juskapura with its Vihara, was also the founder of Jayasvamipura.”