The Kushans had earlier moved into territory in the northern part of present-day Afghanistan and had taken control of Bactria.

Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushan rulers (r. ca. CE 120-60), extends his empire from Patna in the east to Bukhara in the west and from the Pamirs in the north to central India, with the capital at Peshawar (at this time Purushapura).

Kushan territories will eventually be overrun by the Huns in the north and taken over by the Guptas in the east and the Sassanians of Persia in the west.