The notion of kingship projected by the Kushana rulers is best evidenced through which of the following?

The correct answer is D, Coins and sculpture. The Kushanas, who ruled a vast empire from Central Asia to the Ganga valley in the first centuries CE, presented their kings as god-like figures, and the clearest evidence of this comes from their coins and statues. Their gold coins show rulers such as Vima Kadphises and Kanishka in heavy Central Asian dress, sometimes with flames rising from their shoulders, and they used titles like devaputra, son of god. Colossal statues of Kushana kings found at a shrine at Mat near Mathura, and similar images in Afghanistan, show the same idea of divine kingship. Option A is wrong because identification with deities is the idea itself, not the evidence through which historians see it. Option B is wrong because grants to religious institutions show patronage, not how the kings pictured themselves. Option C is wrong because long inscriptional praise poems, or prashastis, are typical of later rulers such as Samudragupta, not the main Kushana source. Exam tip: Kushana divine kingship is seen in coins, the Mat statues and the title devaputra.