Kolkata coach Brendon McCullum was prepared to break the bank for Cummins, snaring the Australian to join fellow superstars Eoin Morgan, and Andre Russell at the Knight Riders.
Steve Smith and David Warner previously shared the record for Australian players in the IPL after they were this year retained for $2.5 million each — but Cummins' new deal with Kolkata is a new record price.
He will earn almost double the entire salary cap for each of the BBL franchises ($1.8 million in 2019-20).
The 2020 IPL will take less than two months and with each team playing 14 games, Cummins will earn around $225,000 per IPL match.
Thirty five Australian stars were hoping to secure a share of the record riches on offer when the 2019 IPL Auction began on Thursday night (AEDT).
338 players nominated for this year's auction after the league announced a salary cap rise of more than $600,000 per franchise.
The franchises had a staggering 207.65 Crore ($42.5 million) combined to splurge when the bidding began.
Maxwell and Cummins were joined by Aaron Finch ($900,000 with Bangalore) in plundering super deals in the first round of the auction.
The big money deals kept coming for Aussies in the second round with Nathan Coulter-Nile ($1.6 million with Mumbai Indians) and Alex Carey ($490,000 with Delhi Capitals) also cashing in.
However, fellow Aussie stars Adam Zampa and Andrew Tye failed to attract a bid at their reserve prices.
Fellow Aussies Shan Marsh, Josh Hazlewood, Kane Richardson, James Pattinson, Sean Abbott, Matthew Wade, Ben Dunk, Ben McDermott, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Moises Henriques, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner and Ben Cutting will all go under the hammer in later rounds of the auction.
South African legend Dale Steyn was the surprise snub of the Auction when he failed to attract a single bid at his reserve of 2 Crore. Kiwi quick Tim Southee also went without a nibble.
The night started terribly for Brisbane Heat star Lynn.
Lynn was last month released by Kolkata from his $1.86 million per-year deal, but after setting records in the Abu Dhabi T10 league recently, he was expected to be among the highest earning international players in the 2020 IPL, which begins in April.
Instead, as one of the first players auctioned off, Lynn did not attract any bids higher than his reserve of 2 Crore ($410,000).
Lynn was picked up by the Mumbai Indians for the bargain price — where he was the only Aussie on the team's playing roster at the start of the auction.
His flop was followed quickly Maxwell's staggering $2.2 million per-year deal.
Explosive hitter Maxwell surprised the cricketing world when he recently took a short break because of mental health issues.
He returned to club cricket last month and put his name in the IPL auction having played previously for Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals).
Maxwell has scored 1,397 runs in the IPL at an average of 22.9 at a rapid strike rate of 161.13.
Virat Kohli has the record as the highest paid player in the IPL, after he was retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a staggering 17 Crore or $3.5 million.
HIGH PROFILE STARS AT THE 2020 IPL AUCTION
Pat Cummins (Australia) — Kolkata, 15.5 Crore ($3.2m)
Glenn Maxwell (Australia) — Punjab, 10.75 Crore ($2.2m)
Christopher Morris (South Africa) — Bangalore, 10 Crore ($2m)
Sheldon Cottrell (West Indies) — Punjab 8.5 Crore ($1.7m)
Nathan Coulter-Nile (Australia) — Mumbai, 8 Crore ($1.6m)
Piyush Chawla (India) — Chennai, 6.75 Crore ($1.4m)
Sam Curran (England) — Chennai, 5.5 Crore ($1.1m)
Eoin Morgan (England) — Kolkata, 5.25 Crore ($1.1m)
Aaron Finch (Australia) — Bangalore, 4.4 Crore ($900,000)
Robin Uthappa (India) — Rajasthan, 3 Crore ($615,000)
Alex Carey (Australia) — Delhi, 2.4 Crore ($490,000)
Chris Lynn (Australia) — Mumbai Indians — 2 Crore ($410,000)
