According to the Book of Han, Kucha was the largest of the 'Thirty-six kingdoms of the Western Regions', with a population of 81,317, including 21,076 persons able to bear arms.
Kucha |
After a short rest, they retraced their steps through Tumxuk and arrived at Kucha, where they set up a base from which to investigate local sites including the Kizil Caves, Kumtura Caves, Duldulokur, and Subashi.
The Bower Manuscript is named after Hamilton Bower, the British Army intelligence officer who obtained it from a local inhabitant in Kucha early in 1890, while on a confidential mission for the government of British India.
The native name of the historical Tocharians of the 6th to 8th centuries was, according to J. P. Mallory, possibly kuśiññe "Kuchean" (Tocharian B), "of the kingdom of Kucha and Agni", and ārśi (Tocharian A); one of the Tocharian A texts has ārśi-käntwā, "In the tongue of Arsi" (ārśi is probably cognate to argenteus, i.e. "shining, brilliant").
Kumārajīva, a revered monk and translator, was born in the oasis city-state of Kucha, the son of a Kuchean princess and a Kashmiri Brahmin.