The most famous resident of Mathura museum is “the great King, the King of Kings, the Son of God, Kanishka.”
So says the kharosthi inscription on his tunic.
Carved from red and white spotted sandstone, the statue of the Kushan emperor Kanishka is dated at 2 CE, possibly coinciding with the king’s reign.
It was found in Mat site a shrine built during the Kushan reign as a southern parallel to the shrine at Surkh Kotal, Afghanistan.
Glad to have met the headless king after seeing this booted image so often in text books.
