Around 2,000 years ago, the second capital of the Kushanas in India was:

Around 2,000 years ago, the Kushanas had two major centres of power: Peshawar (Purushapura) in the north-west, and Mathura in the Ganga region, which served as their second capital.

NCERT on the Kushanas:

• NCERT notes that the Kushanas ruled over Central Asia and north-west India around 2,000 years ago, and that their two major centres of power were Peshawar and Mathura.
• Taxila was also included in their kingdom.

Mathura under the Kushanas:

• It was an important political, commercial and cultural centre.
• It was located on major trade routes connecting the north-west, the Ganga valley and western India.
• It became a great centre of art, known as the "Mathura school" of sculpture, which developed in this period.
• Mathura sculptors used the local spotted red sandstone, and made images of the Buddha, the Jain Tirthankaras, and Hindu gods and goddesses.
• The Mathura school produced some of the earliest images of the Buddha in human form, with a shaven head, a smiling face and a robe covering one shoulder.
• Colossal statues of Kushana kings, including a headless statue of Kanishka, were found at Mat, near Mathura, in a shrine dedicated to the kings ("devakula").
• Mathura was also an important centre of Jainism; the Kankali Tila site has many Jain sculptures and inscriptions.

The Kushana empire:

• The Kushanas were a branch of the Yuezhi people of Central Asia.
• Their empire extended from Central Asia to the Ganga valley.
• Their greatest ruler was Kanishka, who ruled in the late 1st and early 2nd century CE.

Peshawar (Purushapura):

• It was the main capital of Kanishka.
• He built a great stupa there, which Chinese pilgrims described as one of the tallest buildings in the world.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Taxila was an important city in the Kushana kingdom, but not its second capital.
• ✗Pataliputra had been the capital of the Mauryas and later the Guptas.
• ✗Ujjain was a centre of the Shakas (Western Kshatrapas).