Forget the Kushans. The amount of coins found belonging to him is small compared even to regional satraps like Nahapana.
Nahpana has more silver coins than han dynasty so he becomes richer than han dynasty.
India never was a great source of metals. In the Kushan age, much of the metal used in making coins was imported. The Kushans acquired gold from Scythia and Transoxiana and silver and copper from Afghanistan. They also imported massive quantities of bullion from the Roman Empire in the course of their commercial dealings. The equivalent of 500 million sestertii worth of gold was being imported into India in the 1st century C.E. from the Roman Empire(see Intercourse between India and the Western World by H.G. Rawlinson, pg.103).
where are you contesting me? I did say it depends on metallic stock available to a dynasty and as the kushanas controlled zarafshan valley, it is proving my point.
Pliny complained of 100 million sestertii being exported to arabia, india an china so how do you get at 500 million figure?
Indian mathematics had almost zero practical usage. It was Arabs and especially Europeans who truly applied Indian mathematics and made the most out of the Indic numeral system. India was great at abstract mathematics but its engineering abilities were second-rate. Tell me what practical applications of these mathematics were made during Gupta period or later? What great inventions were made that could compare to Chinese or Greek inventions, let alone those of Renaissance Europe? I think Indian astronomy might have led to more precise calendars, which in turn led to more consistent agricultural yields. Besides this, I don't know what applications Indian astronomy was used for.
Gupta age Iron Pillar which compares to anything before 1750 in
1, being rust resistant
2. being forged of such height and weight .
Rest of your post does not take into account that advances in maths during gupta age that indian education was better in this period than other eras.
why is it that africa has no literature ? Because it was a hunter gatherer society and it shows general backwardness even though literature is useless.
similarly maths on its own is not useful but it shows general advancement of a society. If a society can produce an Aryabhatta, it is more advanced than a society producing nothing as the case was with kushan era where not a single maths text was produced.
BTW, chinese inventions too are useless as they do not make us wealthy.
How did chinese printing make chinese farmers wealthy? how did chinese gunpowder make them wealthy or even protected them as it is after invention of gunpowder that mongols swept chinese areas with masscres in millions.?
It is the end result that matters not the beginning arab maths was based on aryabhatta just as 19th century cannons owed a ;lot to song age gunpowder.
