Komedes
Encyclopedia
Komedes is an ethnonym
recorded by Ptolemy
. Ptolemy notes that the Komedes inhabited "the entire mountainous land of the Saka
s", placing them in eastern Scythia
(Transoxania).
uses the name "Kumuda-dvipa" for Kusha-dvipa. Kumuda is also a Puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of Mount Meru
, also known as Sumeru (Pamirs). It extended between headwaters of Oxus and Jaxartes. In anterior Epic Age, Kumuda was also the name given to high "table-land" of the Tartary
located to north of the Himavata from which the Aryan
race may have originally pushed their way southwards into the Indian peninsula and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship (Thompson). Thus, the Kumuda-dvipa lay close to the Pamirs and, in fact, name Kumuda-dvipa applied to southern territory of Shakadvipa or Scythia. It lay north to Hemavata (Hindukush) and probably comprised Badakshan, Alay Valley
/Alay Mountains
range, Tien shan, Kerategin and probably extended northwards as far as Zeravshan
valley and Fargana.
as Komdei. Ptolemy refers to the people of Komdei as Komedes. Ptolemy also refers to one tribal people whom he variously calls Komoi (=Kamoi) or Komroi/Khomroi or Komedei and locates them in the mountainous regions of Sogdiana
as far as Jaxartes. In fact, as per Ptolemy’s evidence, the Komedes (people) inhabited the entire land of the Sakas. Julius Honorius
’ Cosmography
too mentions the Komedes people as Traumeda (from Caumedes) and also mentions Mt Caumedes as the source of river Oxus. Per evidence of Ptolemy and of Julius Honorius
, Mt Caumedes or Komedes extended from the head-waters of Oxus to Jaxartes. Ammianus Marcellinus
too calls the Sogdian mountainous regions as Komadas
writers, Kiumiche of Wu'k ong, Kumi of T'ang and Cambothi, Kambuson and Komedon of some other Greek writings. Al-Maqidisi, in his book Al-Muqhni, calls the people of this territory as Kumiji which seems equivalent to Sanskrit
Kamboji or Kambojas
. Numerous scholars have connected Komedes/Komedei of classical writings with the Kambojas of Iranian affinities.
The classical sources further indicate that the south-western section of the Komedes (people) living within Mt Hemodos were known as Homodotes. Thus, Homodotes were a section of the Komedes living within Mt Hemodos or Emode, a part of Hindukush or Pamirs.
As the name itself indicates, the Komedes people occupied Kumuda-dvipa or Kumuda region of India
n tradition
s. The various classical sources indicate that Komedes, Traumeda/Caumedae, Homodotes/Homodoti/Homodontes, Komoi, Komroi/Khomroi are the variant names of the same people inhabiting this region. The Komoi of Ptolemy apparently refers to Kamboi—a vulgo variant of Kamboja/Kambojika, Kamboika, Kamboy or Kambo. Other classical sources call the Komedes people also as Asii
/Asio while the Chinese equivalent was Xiuxun/Sai etc. etc. On the north of Kumuda-dvipa was the mainland of the Sacarauloi/Saraucae (Sacaraucae) and probably of the Pasiano in Fargana, Tashkant and Issyk-kul etc. The Indian text Mahabharata
indicates that the southern parts of Shaka-dvipa was the habitat of the Lohas, Parama Kambojas and Rishikas etc.
Thus Parama Kambojas of Mahabharata apparently occupied what has been referred to as the Kumuda or Kumuda-dvipa in the Indian texts and Komedei/Komedes/Caumedes in classical writings.
attests that verb shavati in the sense "to go" was used only and only by the Kambojas. It has been proven that the modern Pamir languages
of Wakhi
, Shughni
, Sarikoli, Zebaki, Sanglichi, Ishkashimi
, Munji, Yidgha, mainly spoken in Pamir Mountains
and countries on the head-waters of Oxus, still use terms derived from ancient Kamboja shavati in the sense "to go". The Yagnobi dialect spoken in Yagnobe valley around the headwaters of Zeravshan in Sogdiana, also still contains a relic from ancient Kamboja shavati in the sense "to go". Further, the former language of Badakshan was also a dialect of Galcha which has been replaced by Persian
only in the last few centuries.
The above linguistic evidence indicates that ancient Kamboja probably included the Pamirs, Badakshan, and parts of Tajikstan extending as far as the source of Zarafshan, to the north of Pamirs and separated from them . On the east it was bounded roughly by Yarkand and/or Kashgar
, on the west by Bahlika (Uttaramadra
), on the northwest by Sogdiana, on the north by Uttarakuru
, on the southeast by Darada
, and on the south by Gandhara
. Further, Prof Tomaschek has stated that of all the dialects of Galcha, the Munjani is most closely related to the language of Zend
Avestan of the ancient Iranians Scholars connect name Munjan/Munjani to ancient 'Mujavat' (people/region) which name has been referred to in Atharvaveda
and Mahabharata. Term shiya in Munjani/Munji dialect of Galcha, used in the sense 'to go' , still shows very marked influence of ancient Kamboja verb shvati. According to other version, Munjan is derived from root 'Murg' of Amyurgio Sacae (Haumavarga Saka of Persian inscriptions), which according to scholars, translates into Soma-twisting Sakas (Dr Michael Witzel). This again connects Munjan with Mujavat, the home of Haoma/Soma i.e. Pamirs/Hindukush.
The foregoing discussion indicates that the ancestors of Munjani people were speakers of Kamboja language and belonged to the Parama Kamboja domain. This also shows that the Komedes of the classical writings translates into Parama Kamboja of the Mahabharata tradition.
), Lohas and Rishikas (Tukharas?) also fell into the Scythian region, said to belong to Amyurgian Scythians of Herodotus
. Majavat, the land of Soma, apparently fell within the domain of Parama Kambojas in Pamirs (Munjan or Muztagh Atta?). Like other Scythian clans, the Parama Kambojas also may have practiced Soma cult and thus they fell within the Persian/Herodotean definition and scope of Haumvargas/Amyurgios. Otherwise, they were a distinct tribe from the Sakas but were undoubtedly Scythian if one follows the classical definition of Megasthenes
, Diodorus, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder
and Strabo etc. No doubt, that the linguistic
traces of ancient Kamboja language have been seen in several modern languages of the Pamirs, Khotan
and Sogdiana. The Parama Kambojas were obviously living within Scythia of the classical writers or the Shakadvipa of the Indian texts. Their land was also alternatively known as Kumuda-dvipa. And they were known by other names like Asii (from Aswa), Homodites (from Mt Hemodos, Emode, Oimode/Oemeda) of classical and, Xiuxun, Wai- etc. of the Chinese
writings. They have been lumped together with other tribe
s of south-east Scythia and all called by the general name Sacae by Greeks
and Sakas by the Iran
ic sources. They were known as Shakas in Indian texts.
It is worth noting that many scholars describe the Kambojas as a Royal Clan of the Sakas or Scythians. This also seems to be confirmed from Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions of Mahaksatrapa Rajuvula and the Rock Edict XIII of King Aśoka
and Sugugda and then further to Helmond
valley. The later distribution of Komedes who are mentioned in the itinerary of Maes Titianus (1st century CE) used by Ptolemy in his treatise on Geography attest this fact. Ptolemy gives a relatively full account of this people: the Komedes inhabited the entire mountainous land of the Sakas, whereas formerly, they are known to have been confined to only Pamirs, its northern valleys and Badakshan.
Scholars believe that the land of Parama Kamboja of Indian texts was taken over during second c by the Tukharas, and as a result, some sections of their population had dispersed to other places while other population stayed put there and became subjects of the Tukharas. The former Parama Kamboja thus became Tukharistan.
According to Strabo, Greek
Bactriana was taken over by nomad
s like Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, Tokhario and Sakarauloi who had originally come from country from other side of Jaxartes. In fact, there seems to be a factual error in Strabo's statement since only Sacaraulois i.e. the proper Amyurgian Sakas appear to have come from the Jaxartes and the northern Fargana regions. The Asii or Asio (Parama Kambojas) belonged to the Pamirs/Alay Valley
and southern parts of Fargana. Similarly, the Pasianois also belonged to Fargana or about region. They had joined the displaced Sacaraulois in their south-westerely movements or else they were also displaced by the invading hordes of the Ta Yue-chis.
Some scholars tend to link the Rishikas
of Mahabharata with the Tukharas and the latter with the Kushanas and the Ta Yue-chis themselves. If one accepts this connection, then the Tukharas or Tusharas ( => Rishikas => Kushanas = > Yue-chis) had controlled the eastern parts of Bactria country (Ta-hia) while the combined forces of the displaced Sakarauloi, 'Asii/Asio' (horse people = Parama Kambojas) and the 'Pasinoi' of Strabo etc. had occupied its western parts after being dislocated from their original homes in Issyk-kul, Fargana, the Alay Valley
and Tien shan by the Ta-Yuechis. The Ta-hia of the Chinese
records is taken to mean Tukhara/Tokhara which also is believed to have included Badakshan, Chitral
, Kafirstan and Wakhan
which districts had formed eastern parts of Bactria. The Kambojas of Trans-Hindukush territories (i.e. Parama Kambojas) again come into limelight and find important references in 5th century Sanskrit play Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa; in the itineraries of 7th century Chinese
pilgrim Hiun Tsang; in the victories of 8th century king Lalitadutya Muktapida of Kashmir; as well as in the writings of Arabic geographer Al-Idrisi (1099-1166 CE) etc. These Kambojas apparently were the descendants of that section of the Kambojas who, instead of leaving their ancestral land during second c BCE under pressure from Ta Yue-chi, had rather compromised with the invaders and had decided to stay put in their ancestral land instead of moving to Helmond
valley or to the Kabol valley. According to other scholars, it were the Scythian horde
s alone (i.e. Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, and Sakarauloi) who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria
Interestingly, Mahabharata attests that the Rishikas were closely allied or affiliated to the Parama-Kambojas. George Rawilson observes that: "The Asii or Asiani were closely connected with the Tochari and the Sakarauli (Saracucse?) who are found connected with both the Tochari and the Asiani". If the Rishikas were indeed the Tukharas, then the observation from Dr Rawilson is in line with the Mahabharata statement (2.27.25-26) which too closely allies the Parama Kambojas (=Asii/Asio) with the Rishikas, and locates them both in the Shakadvipa.
However, based on the syntactical construction of the Mahabharata verse 5.5.15, outstanding Sanskrit scholar Prof Ishwa Mishra states that the Rishikas were also Kambojas. Dr V. S. Aggarwala also identifies the Parama Kambojas with the Rishikas and locates them in Sakadvipa (or Scythia) . According to Dr B. N. Puri, the Kambojas were a branch of the Tukharas. Based on the above Rishika-Kamboja connections, some scholars also claim that the Kambojas were a branch of the Yuezhi themselves. Dr Moti Chander also sees a close ethnic relationship between the Kambojas and the Yuezhi .
Dr H. W. Bailey lists several classes of the Kamboja horses and states that their haya- and javana- breed ( 'swift horse') implies the famous horses of the Farghana breed. Praja Bhata, a Kashmiri Sanskrit poet and author of the fourth Rajatarangini, while writing about history of Moghul dynasty
in India, addresses emperor
Babur
as a Yavana king hailing from Kambhoja. Since Vabur (Babur) was native of Fargana (in Kyrgyzstan
of Central Asia
), this Indian reference seems to extend the Kamboja boundaries i.e the Parama Kamboja domain almost as far as to Fargana. Obviously, the Alay valley, north of Pamirs, had formed important part of Parama Kamboja.
Thus, the foregoing discussion sufficiently proves that the territory of the Parama Kambojas lied within and beyond Mt Hemodos or Imaos or Himalaya/Hindukush and that during second c BCE major parts of it were occupied by the Tukharas. The displaced Kambojas (Asii/Asio) in alliance with Sacaraulois and Pasianois had moved to Bactria and put an end to Greek kingdom there. Little later, these mixed hordes were over-powered by Parthia
n rulers and thus became their subjects and settled in Drangiana
in Helmond
valley and about region. This settlement became known as Sakasthana (modern Seistan) after the appellation of the dominant clan i.e. Sakas. Later, these mixed hordes entered south-western Indian sub-continent
via Bolan Pass
and spread into Sindhu, Sovira, Gujarat, Rajputana
, Malwa, Maharashtra
, Punjab
, UP
and eastern, central and southern India as well.
, the Sakai (i.e. the Sakas) were, in truth, the Amurgio Skuthai i.e. the Amyurgian Scythians. Herodotus’s Amyurgians or Amyrgians are the Saka Haumavarga of the Persian inscriptions. Amyrgians apparently got their name from their association with Haoma (Sanskrit Soma). 'Haumavarga Sakas' literally means Soma pressing Sakas. The ancient Indo-Iranians
made use of Haoma
(Indic
Soma). The leaves of the plant were pressed/squeezed and the juice so produced was mixed with milk or water and consumed. The place famous for Soma/Haoma plant was Mujavata or Munjavata parvata. According to Atharvaveda
, it lay close to Bahlika and Gandhara
in the north-west (Central Asia). Mahabharata (14.8.1) also locates Mujavat in the snow-laden mountains (Himavata) of north-west.
The Bahlikas are undoubtedly the Bactrians. Scholars have determined that the Mujavat (the land of Soma) refers to Hindukush-Pamirs
According to Perspolis and Hamadan
inscriptions of Achaemenid Darius I, there were at least three major settlements of the Sakas viz. Saka Haumavarga, Saka Tigrakhauda and Saka Taradarya. In the days of Achaemenid Darius I (522 BCE - 486 BCE), the Sakas Haumavarga lived 'beyond Sogdiana' (para-Sugudam) which when seen from Perspolis (the seat of power of king Darius, the royal author of these inscriptions), seems to point to Tashkant, Fargana, Alai Mountains, Tian Shan
, Kashgar and the regions about. But according to Mahabharata, the Transoxian Pamirs and regions north of it as far as Fargana are known to have been the habitat
of the allied tribes of the Lohas, the Parama Kambojas, the Rishikas etc. Thus, broadly speaking, the Persian term Haumavarga applied probably to the Saka proper as well as the Lohas and Parama Kambojas and Rishikas tribes settled north of Oxus etc. In all probability, this settlement of the Haumavarga Sakas finds numerous references as Shakas in ancient Indian texts and are known to have been closely associated with the Kambojas (or Parama Kambojas) etc. This was same the people who had formed the constituent of the Kamboja army of Kamboja Sudakshina in Mahabharata war. And undoubtedly, this was people who had become the target of the tribal aggression of the Ta Yue-chi
or Great Yue-chi.
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
recorded by Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
. Ptolemy notes that the Komedes inhabited "the entire mountainous land of the Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
s", placing them in eastern Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
(Transoxania).
Kumud-dvipa
The author of Vayu PuranaVayu Purana
The Vayu Purana is a Shaiva Purana, a Hindu religious text, dedicated to the god Vayu , containing about 24,000 shlokas.-Date:Banabhatta refers to this work in his Kadambari and Harshacharita...
uses the name "Kumuda-dvipa" for Kusha-dvipa. Kumuda is also a Puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of Mount Meru
Mount Meru (Mythology)
Mount Meru is a sacred mountain in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology as well as in Jain cosmology, and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes...
, also known as Sumeru (Pamirs). It extended between headwaters of Oxus and Jaxartes. In anterior Epic Age, Kumuda was also the name given to high "table-land" of the Tartary
Tartary
Tartary or Great Tartary was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate the Great Steppe, that is the great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited mostly by Turkic, Mongol...
located to north of the Himavata from which the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
race may have originally pushed their way southwards into the Indian peninsula and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship (Thompson). Thus, the Kumuda-dvipa lay close to the Pamirs and, in fact, name Kumuda-dvipa applied to southern territory of Shakadvipa or Scythia. It lay north to Hemavata (Hindukush) and probably comprised Badakshan, Alay Valley
Alay Valley
The Alay Valley is a broad, dry valley running east-west across most of southern Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan. . It is about 180km east-west and about 40km north-south and 2500-3500m in altitude. The north side is the Alay Mountains which slope down to the Ferghana Valley...
/Alay Mountains
Alay Mountains
The Alay or Alai Mountains is a mountain range that extends from the Tien Shan mountain range in Kyrgyzstan west into Tajikistan. It is part of the Pamir-Alay mountain system. The range runs approximately east to west. Its highest summit is Pik Tandykul , 5544 m. The southern slopes of the range...
range, Tien shan, Kerategin and probably extended northwards as far as Zeravshan
Zeravshan
Zeravshan River is a river in Central Asia. Its name, "sprayer of gold" in Persian, refers to the presence of gold-bearing sands in the upper reaches of the river. To the ancient Greeks it was known as the Polytimetus...
valley and Fargana.
Kumuda
Ancient geographer Ptolemy calls the region fed by Jaxartes and its tributariesTributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
as Komdei. Ptolemy refers to the people of Komdei as Komedes. Ptolemy also refers to one tribal people whom he variously calls Komoi (=Kamoi) or Komroi/Khomroi or Komedei and locates them in the mountainous regions of Sogdiana
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
as far as Jaxartes. In fact, as per Ptolemy’s evidence, the Komedes (people) inhabited the entire land of the Sakas. Julius Honorius
Julius Honorius
Julius Honorius, also known as Julius Orator, a teacher of geography during the Dark Ages .He is known only by a single work, Cosmographia, which is a set of notes he had written down by one of his students while he lectured about a world map , and by references to this work by later writers such...
’ Cosmography
Cosmography
Cosmography is the science that maps the general features of the universe, describing both heaven and Earth...
too mentions the Komedes people as Traumeda (from Caumedes) and also mentions Mt Caumedes as the source of river Oxus. Per evidence of Ptolemy and of Julius Honorius
Julius Honorius
Julius Honorius, also known as Julius Orator, a teacher of geography during the Dark Ages .He is known only by a single work, Cosmographia, which is a set of notes he had written down by one of his students while he lectured about a world map , and by references to this work by later writers such...
, Mt Caumedes or Komedes extended from the head-waters of Oxus to Jaxartes. Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
too calls the Sogdian mountainous regions as Komadas
Komedes/Komoi or Kumiji
Ptolemian reference to Komdei or Komedes as a region probably alludes to Komdesh or Kamdesh Kambodesh (?), probably "Kambojdesh"). It is the Kiumito or Kumito of Hiun Tsang and Kumed or Kumadh of the MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
writers, Kiumiche of Wu'k ong, Kumi of T'ang and Cambothi, Kambuson and Komedon of some other Greek writings. Al-Maqidisi, in his book Al-Muqhni, calls the people of this territory as Kumiji which seems equivalent to Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
Kamboji or Kambojas
Kambojas
The Kambojas were a kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.They were an Indo-Iranian tribe situated at the boundary of the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time.The Kambojas...
. Numerous scholars have connected Komedes/Komedei of classical writings with the Kambojas of Iranian affinities.
The classical sources further indicate that the south-western section of the Komedes (people) living within Mt Hemodos were known as Homodotes. Thus, Homodotes were a section of the Komedes living within Mt Hemodos or Emode, a part of Hindukush or Pamirs.
As the name itself indicates, the Komedes people occupied Kumuda-dvipa or Kumuda region of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
s. The various classical sources indicate that Komedes, Traumeda/Caumedae, Homodotes/Homodoti/Homodontes, Komoi, Komroi/Khomroi are the variant names of the same people inhabiting this region. The Komoi of Ptolemy apparently refers to Kamboi—a vulgo variant of Kamboja/Kambojika, Kamboika, Kamboy or Kambo. Other classical sources call the Komedes people also as Asii
Asii
Asii, also written Asioi, were one of the nomadic tribes mentioned in Roman and Greek accounts as responsible for the downfall of the state of Bactria circa 140 BCE. These tribes are usually identified as "Scythian" or "Saka" peoples....
/Asio while the Chinese equivalent was Xiuxun/Sai etc. etc. On the north of Kumuda-dvipa was the mainland of the Sacarauloi/Saraucae (Sacaraucae) and probably of the Pasiano in Fargana, Tashkant and Issyk-kul etc. The Indian text Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
indicates that the southern parts of Shaka-dvipa was the habitat of the Lohas, Parama Kambojas and Rishikas etc.
Thus Parama Kambojas of Mahabharata apparently occupied what has been referred to as the Kumuda or Kumuda-dvipa in the Indian texts and Komedei/Komedes/Caumedes in classical writings.
Linguistic evidence
Nirukata (II.2) of YasakaYasaka
Yasaka may refer to:* Yasaka, Nagano, Japan * Yasaka, Shimane, Japan * Yasaka, Kyoto, Japan * Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, Japan...
attests that verb shavati in the sense "to go" was used only and only by the Kambojas. It has been proven that the modern Pamir languages
Pamir languages
The Pamir languages are a group of the Eastern Iranian languages, spoken by numerous people in the Pamir Mountains, primarily along the Panj River and its tributaries. This includes the Badakhshan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of eastern Tajikistan...
of Wakhi
Wakhi language
Wakhi is an Indo-European language in the branch of Eastern Iranian language family and is intimately related to other Southeastern Iranian languages in the Pamir languages group.-Classification and Distribution:...
, Shughni
Shughni language
Shughni is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan....
, Sarikoli, Zebaki, Sanglichi, Ishkashimi
Ishkashimi language
The Ishkashimi language is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan, Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan and Chitral region of Pakistan....
, Munji, Yidgha, mainly spoken in Pamir Mountains
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World" a probable...
and countries on the head-waters of Oxus, still use terms derived from ancient Kamboja shavati in the sense "to go". The Yagnobi dialect spoken in Yagnobe valley around the headwaters of Zeravshan in Sogdiana, also still contains a relic from ancient Kamboja shavati in the sense "to go". Further, the former language of Badakshan was also a dialect of Galcha which has been replaced by Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
only in the last few centuries.
The above linguistic evidence indicates that ancient Kamboja probably included the Pamirs, Badakshan, and parts of Tajikstan extending as far as the source of Zarafshan, to the north of Pamirs and separated from them . On the east it was bounded roughly by Yarkand and/or Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
, on the west by Bahlika (Uttaramadra
Uttaramadra
The Uttaramadra was the northern branch of the Madra people who are numerously referenced in ancient Sanskrit and Pali literature.In Aitareya Brahmana , the Uttarakuru and the Uttaramadra tribes are stated to be living beyond Himalaya...
), on the northwest by Sogdiana, on the north by Uttarakuru
Uttarakuru
Uttarakuru is the name of a dvipa in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The Uttarakuru country and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings.-Vedic literature:Aitareya Brahmana makes first...
, on the southeast by Darada
Daradas
Daradas were a people who lived north and north-east to the Kashmir valley. This kingdom is identified to be the Gilgit region in Kashmir along the river Sindhu or Indus. They are often spoken along with the Kambojas...
, and on the south by Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
. Further, Prof Tomaschek has stated that of all the dialects of Galcha, the Munjani is most closely related to the language of Zend
Zend
Zend can mean:*Zend, commentaries on the Avesta, the sacred texts of the Zoroastrian religion.**In older texts, Zend can refer to the Avestan language*Salla Zend, a character in Star Wars*Zend Technologies, a PHP-focused company...
Avestan of the ancient Iranians Scholars connect name Munjan/Munjani to ancient 'Mujavat' (people/region) which name has been referred to in Atharvaveda
Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda"....
and Mahabharata. Term shiya in Munjani/Munji dialect of Galcha, used in the sense 'to go' , still shows very marked influence of ancient Kamboja verb shvati. According to other version, Munjan is derived from root 'Murg' of Amyurgio Sacae (Haumavarga Saka of Persian inscriptions), which according to scholars, translates into Soma-twisting Sakas (Dr Michael Witzel). This again connects Munjan with Mujavat, the home of Haoma/Soma i.e. Pamirs/Hindukush.
The foregoing discussion indicates that the ancestors of Munjani people were speakers of Kamboja language and belonged to the Parama Kamboja domain. This also shows that the Komedes of the classical writings translates into Parama Kamboja of the Mahabharata tradition.
Parama Kambojas vs Haumavarga Scythians
As seen from the foregoing discussion, the clans of the Parama Kambojas (AsiiAsii
Asii, also written Asioi, were one of the nomadic tribes mentioned in Roman and Greek accounts as responsible for the downfall of the state of Bactria circa 140 BCE. These tribes are usually identified as "Scythian" or "Saka" peoples....
), Lohas and Rishikas (Tukharas?) also fell into the Scythian region, said to belong to Amyurgian Scythians of Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
. Majavat, the land of Soma, apparently fell within the domain of Parama Kambojas in Pamirs (Munjan or Muztagh Atta?). Like other Scythian clans, the Parama Kambojas also may have practiced Soma cult and thus they fell within the Persian/Herodotean definition and scope of Haumvargas/Amyurgios. Otherwise, they were a distinct tribe from the Sakas but were undoubtedly Scythian if one follows the classical definition of Megasthenes
Megasthenes
Megasthenes was a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indica.He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria possibly to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain...
, Diodorus, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
and Strabo etc. No doubt, that the linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
traces of ancient Kamboja language have been seen in several modern languages of the Pamirs, Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
and Sogdiana. The Parama Kambojas were obviously living within Scythia of the classical writers or the Shakadvipa of the Indian texts. Their land was also alternatively known as Kumuda-dvipa. And they were known by other names like Asii (from Aswa), Homodites (from Mt Hemodos, Emode, Oimode/Oemeda) of classical and, Xiuxun, Wai- etc. of the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
writings. They have been lumped together with other tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
s of south-east Scythia and all called by the general name Sacae by Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
and Sakas by the Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ic sources. They were known as Shakas in Indian texts.
It is worth noting that many scholars describe the Kambojas as a Royal Clan of the Sakas or Scythians. This also seems to be confirmed from Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions of Mahaksatrapa Rajuvula and the Rock Edict XIII of King Aśoka
Migration of Komedes
During second quarter of second c BCE, the Homodotes/Komedes or Asii (Parama Kambojas) appear to have participated in the tribal migration to BactriaBactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
and Sugugda and then further to Helmond
Helmond
Helmond is a municipality and a city in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands.- Quarters and Neighbourhoods :*Quarter 11 Inner City**Neighbourhood 0 Centrum**Neighbourhood 2 Leonardus**Neighbourhood 3 Heipoort...
valley. The later distribution of Komedes who are mentioned in the itinerary of Maes Titianus (1st century CE) used by Ptolemy in his treatise on Geography attest this fact. Ptolemy gives a relatively full account of this people: the Komedes inhabited the entire mountainous land of the Sakas, whereas formerly, they are known to have been confined to only Pamirs, its northern valleys and Badakshan.
Scholars believe that the land of Parama Kamboja of Indian texts was taken over during second c by the Tukharas, and as a result, some sections of their population had dispersed to other places while other population stayed put there and became subjects of the Tukharas. The former Parama Kamboja thus became Tukharistan.
According to Strabo, Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
Bactriana was taken over by nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
s like Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, Tokhario and Sakarauloi who had originally come from country from other side of Jaxartes. In fact, there seems to be a factual error in Strabo's statement since only Sacaraulois i.e. the proper Amyurgian Sakas appear to have come from the Jaxartes and the northern Fargana regions. The Asii or Asio (Parama Kambojas) belonged to the Pamirs/Alay Valley
Alay Valley
The Alay Valley is a broad, dry valley running east-west across most of southern Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan. . It is about 180km east-west and about 40km north-south and 2500-3500m in altitude. The north side is the Alay Mountains which slope down to the Ferghana Valley...
and southern parts of Fargana. Similarly, the Pasianois also belonged to Fargana or about region. They had joined the displaced Sacaraulois in their south-westerely movements or else they were also displaced by the invading hordes of the Ta Yue-chis.
Some scholars tend to link the Rishikas
Rishikas
Rshikas were an ancient tribe living in the northern division of ancient India. They find references in the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Brhat Samhita, Markendeya Purana etc. Ashtadhyayi of Pāṇini does not mention the Rishikas, but Mahabhasya of Patanjali does make reference to this people. Mahabharata...
of Mahabharata with the Tukharas and the latter with the Kushanas and the Ta Yue-chis themselves. If one accepts this connection, then the Tukharas or Tusharas ( => Rishikas => Kushanas = > Yue-chis) had controlled the eastern parts of Bactria country (Ta-hia) while the combined forces of the displaced Sakarauloi, 'Asii/Asio' (horse people = Parama Kambojas) and the 'Pasinoi' of Strabo etc. had occupied its western parts after being dislocated from their original homes in Issyk-kul, Fargana, the Alay Valley
Alay Valley
The Alay Valley is a broad, dry valley running east-west across most of southern Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan. . It is about 180km east-west and about 40km north-south and 2500-3500m in altitude. The north side is the Alay Mountains which slope down to the Ferghana Valley...
and Tien shan by the Ta-Yuechis. The Ta-hia of the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
records is taken to mean Tukhara/Tokhara which also is believed to have included Badakshan, Chitral
Chitral
Chitral or Chetrar , translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River , in Pakistan. The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, high...
, Kafirstan and Wakhan
Wakhan
Wakhan or "the Wakhan" is a very mountainous and rugged part of the Pamir and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakhan District is a district in Badakshan Province.-Geography:...
which districts had formed eastern parts of Bactria. The Kambojas of Trans-Hindukush territories (i.e. Parama Kambojas) again come into limelight and find important references in 5th century Sanskrit play Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa; in the itineraries of 7th century Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
pilgrim Hiun Tsang; in the victories of 8th century king Lalitadutya Muktapida of Kashmir; as well as in the writings of Arabic geographer Al-Idrisi (1099-1166 CE) etc. These Kambojas apparently were the descendants of that section of the Kambojas who, instead of leaving their ancestral land during second c BCE under pressure from Ta Yue-chi, had rather compromised with the invaders and had decided to stay put in their ancestral land instead of moving to Helmond
Helmond
Helmond is a municipality and a city in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands.- Quarters and Neighbourhoods :*Quarter 11 Inner City**Neighbourhood 0 Centrum**Neighbourhood 2 Leonardus**Neighbourhood 3 Heipoort...
valley or to the Kabol valley. According to other scholars, it were the Scythian horde
Horde
Horde may refer to:* Ordo * a clan or army of steppe nomads . See Orda * the Blue and White Horde, formed 1226, 1227* the Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s...
s alone (i.e. Asii/Asio, Pasianoi, and Sakarauloi) who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria
Interestingly, Mahabharata attests that the Rishikas were closely allied or affiliated to the Parama-Kambojas. George Rawilson observes that: "The Asii or Asiani were closely connected with the Tochari and the Sakarauli (Saracucse?) who are found connected with both the Tochari and the Asiani". If the Rishikas were indeed the Tukharas, then the observation from Dr Rawilson is in line with the Mahabharata statement (2.27.25-26) which too closely allies the Parama Kambojas (=Asii/Asio) with the Rishikas, and locates them both in the Shakadvipa.
However, based on the syntactical construction of the Mahabharata verse 5.5.15, outstanding Sanskrit scholar Prof Ishwa Mishra states that the Rishikas were also Kambojas. Dr V. S. Aggarwala also identifies the Parama Kambojas with the Rishikas and locates them in Sakadvipa (or Scythia) . According to Dr B. N. Puri, the Kambojas were a branch of the Tukharas. Based on the above Rishika-Kamboja connections, some scholars also claim that the Kambojas were a branch of the Yuezhi themselves. Dr Moti Chander also sees a close ethnic relationship between the Kambojas and the Yuezhi .
Dr H. W. Bailey lists several classes of the Kamboja horses and states that their haya- and javana- breed ( 'swift horse') implies the famous horses of the Farghana breed. Praja Bhata, a Kashmiri Sanskrit poet and author of the fourth Rajatarangini, while writing about history of Moghul dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
in India, addresses emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
as a Yavana king hailing from Kambhoja. Since Vabur (Babur) was native of Fargana (in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
), this Indian reference seems to extend the Kamboja boundaries i.e the Parama Kamboja domain almost as far as to Fargana. Obviously, the Alay valley, north of Pamirs, had formed important part of Parama Kamboja.
Thus, the foregoing discussion sufficiently proves that the territory of the Parama Kambojas lied within and beyond Mt Hemodos or Imaos or Himalaya/Hindukush and that during second c BCE major parts of it were occupied by the Tukharas. The displaced Kambojas (Asii/Asio) in alliance with Sacaraulois and Pasianois had moved to Bactria and put an end to Greek kingdom there. Little later, these mixed hordes were over-powered by Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
n rulers and thus became their subjects and settled in Drangiana
Drangiana
Drangiana or Zarangiana was a historical region of the Achaemenid Empire. This region comprises territory around lake Hâmûn, wetlands in endorheic Sīstān basin on the Irano-Afghan-Pakistan border, and its primary watershed Helmand river in nowadays southwestern Afghanistan and the "Nok Kondi" of...
in Helmond
Helmond
Helmond is a municipality and a city in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands.- Quarters and Neighbourhoods :*Quarter 11 Inner City**Neighbourhood 0 Centrum**Neighbourhood 2 Leonardus**Neighbourhood 3 Heipoort...
valley and about region. This settlement became known as Sakasthana (modern Seistan) after the appellation of the dominant clan i.e. Sakas. Later, these mixed hordes entered south-western Indian sub-continent
Subcontinent
A subcontinent is a large, relatively self-contained landmass forming a subdivision of a continent. By dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent, or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision...
via Bolan Pass
Bolan Pass
The Bolan Pass is a mountain pass through the Toba Kakar Range of Balochistan province in western Pakistan, 120 kilometres from the Afghanistan border....
and spread into Sindhu, Sovira, Gujarat, Rajputana
Rajputana
Rājputāna was the pre-1949 name of the present-day Indian state of Rājasthān, the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. George Thomas was the first in 1800 A.D., to term this region as Rajputana...
, Malwa, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
, UP
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
and eastern, central and southern India as well.
Amyurgians
According to HerodotusHerodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, the Sakai (i.e. the Sakas) were, in truth, the Amurgio Skuthai i.e. the Amyurgian Scythians. Herodotus’s Amyurgians or Amyrgians are the Saka Haumavarga of the Persian inscriptions. Amyrgians apparently got their name from their association with Haoma (Sanskrit Soma). 'Haumavarga Sakas' literally means Soma pressing Sakas. The ancient Indo-Iranians
Indo-Iranians
Indo-Iranian peoples are a linguistic group consisting of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples; that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family....
made use of Haoma
Haoma
Haoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology. The Middle Persian form of the name is hōm, which continues to be the name in Modern Persian and other living Iranian languages.Sacred haoma...
(Indic
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
Soma). The leaves of the plant were pressed/squeezed and the juice so produced was mixed with milk or water and consumed. The place famous for Soma/Haoma plant was Mujavata or Munjavata parvata. According to Atharvaveda
Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda"....
, it lay close to Bahlika and Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
in the north-west (Central Asia). Mahabharata (14.8.1) also locates Mujavat in the snow-laden mountains (Himavata) of north-west.
The Bahlikas are undoubtedly the Bactrians. Scholars have determined that the Mujavat (the land of Soma) refers to Hindukush-Pamirs
According to Perspolis and Hamadan
Hamadan
-Culture:Hamadan is home to many poets and cultural celebrities. The city is also said to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.Handicrafts: Hamadan has always been well known for handicrafts like leather, ceramic, and beautiful carpets....
inscriptions of Achaemenid Darius I, there were at least three major settlements of the Sakas viz. Saka Haumavarga, Saka Tigrakhauda and Saka Taradarya. In the days of Achaemenid Darius I (522 BCE - 486 BCE), the Sakas Haumavarga lived 'beyond Sogdiana' (para-Sugudam) which when seen from Perspolis (the seat of power of king Darius, the royal author of these inscriptions), seems to point to Tashkant, Fargana, Alai Mountains, Tian Shan
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....
, Kashgar and the regions about. But according to Mahabharata, the Transoxian Pamirs and regions north of it as far as Fargana are known to have been the habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
of the allied tribes of the Lohas, the Parama Kambojas, the Rishikas etc. Thus, broadly speaking, the Persian term Haumavarga applied probably to the Saka proper as well as the Lohas and Parama Kambojas and Rishikas tribes settled north of Oxus etc. In all probability, this settlement of the Haumavarga Sakas finds numerous references as Shakas in ancient Indian texts and are known to have been closely associated with the Kambojas (or Parama Kambojas) etc. This was same the people who had formed the constituent of the Kamboja army of Kamboja Sudakshina in Mahabharata war. And undoubtedly, this was people who had become the target of the tribal aggression of the Ta Yue-chi
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
or Great Yue-chi.