Kambojas
The Kamboja () was a kingdom of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature. The early Kamboja "janapada" coalesced to become one of the "shodhasha" (sixteen) Mahajanapadas (great kingdoms) of ancient India mentioned in the "Anguttara Nikaya". Duryodhana's wife Bhanumati was daughter of Magadha King Chitranga and Queen Chandramundra.The Kambhoja king Sudakshina was defeated by Karna. While historical boundaries of the Kambojas are varied, scholarly accounts altogether place the northern and western borders in present-day Tajikistan and eastern Uzbekistan, with eastern borders in present-day Jammu and Kashmir, and southern borders in present-day  Iran and southern Afghanistan. Etymology. The name "Kamboja" may derive from ("Kam + bhoj" "Kamma+boja"), referring to the people of a country known as "Kum" or "Kam". The mountainous highlands where the Jaxartes and its confluents arise are called the highlands of the Komedes by Ptolemy. Ammianus Marcellinus also names these mountains as "Komedas". The "Kiu-mi-to" in the writings of Xuanzang have also been identified with the "Komudha-dvipa" of the Puranic literature and the Iranian Kambojas. Scholars, such as Ernst Herzfeld, have suggested etymological links between some Indo-Aryan ethnonyms and some geonyms used by Iranian-speaking  peoples of the Caucasus Mountains and Caspian basin. In particular, Kamboja somewhat resembles the hydronym "Kambujiya" – the Iranian name for the Iori/Gabirri river (modern Georgia/Azerbaijan). "Kambujiya" is also the root of Cambysene (an archaic name for the Kakheti/Balakan regions of Georgia and Azerbaijan) and the Persian personal name Cambyses. (A similar link is suggested between the Kura River, which is near the Iori, and the name of the Kurus and Kaurava mentioned in vedic literature.) Geography. The historical boundaries detailing the confederation of the Kambojas is varied. All scholarly and literary accounts encompass a large area at  a crossroads between South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia. Scholarly accounts. D. C. Sircar supposed the Kambojas to have lived in various settlements in the wide area lying between Punjab, Iran, to the south of Balkh. The territory of the Parama-Kamboja, meanwhile, are thought to be farther north in the Trans-Pamirian territories comprising the Zeravshan valley, towards the Farghana region, in the Scythia of the classical writers. Other scholars have also located the Kambojas and the Parama-Kambojas in the areas spanning Balkh, Badakshan, the Pamirs and Kafiristan. Similarly, the mountainous region between the Oxus and Jaxartes  in present day Tajikistan is also suggested as one location of the ancient Kambojas by other scholars. Separate scholarly pieces by Gankovski (1971) and Rashid (2002) mention the confederation of the Kambojas may have stretched from the valley of Rajouri to the regions of Kabul, Ghazni and Kandahar. The central region is estimated to be in Paropamisadae, a region north-east of present-day Kabul, between the Hindu Kush and the Kunar River, and included the Kapisa. Literary accounts. The "Mahabharata" locates the Kambojas on the near side of the Hindu Kush as neighbors to the Daradas, and the Parama -Kambojas across the Hindu Kush as neighbors to the Rishikas (or Tukharas) of the Fergana region. Origins. The earliest reference to the Kambojas is in the works of Pāṇini, around the 5th century BCE. Other pre-Common Era references appear in the "Manusmriti" (2nd century) and parts of the "Mahabharata", both of which described the Kambojas as former kshatriyas (warrior caste). Their territories were located beyond Gandhara in present day eastern Afghanistan, where Buddha statues were built during the reign of Ashoka and the 3rd century BCE. The "Edicts of Ashoka" refers to the area under Kamboja control as being  independent of the Mauryan empire in which it was situated. The two Kamboja settlements on either side of the Hindu Kush are also substantiated from Ptolemy's Geography, which refers to the "Tambyzoi" located north of the Hindu Kush on the river Oxus in Bactria, and the "Ambautai" people on the southern side of Hindukush in the Paropamisadae. Scholars have identified both the Ptolemian "Tambyzoi" and "Ambautai" with Sanskrit "Kamboja". Ethnicity and language. The ancient Kambojas were probably of Indo-Iranian origin. They are sometimes specifically described as Indo-Aryans and sometimes as having both Indian and Iranian affinities. The  Kambojas are also described as a royal clan of the Sakas. Kambojas as Manusmriti. The Manusmriti predominantly discusses the code of conduct (dharma rules) for the Brahmins (priestly class) and the Kshatriyas (king, administration and warrior class).The text mentions Shudras, as well as Vaishyas, but this part is its shortest section. Sections 9.326 – 9.335 of the Manusmriti state eight rules for Vaishyas and two for Shudras. In section 10.43 - 10.44 Manu gives a list of Kshatriya tribes who, through neglect of the priests and their rites, had fallen to the status of Shudras. These are: Pundrakas, Codas, Dravidas, Kambojas, Yavanas , Sakas, Paradas, Pahlavas, Chinas, Kiratas and Daradas.So Kambojas is one of them who fall under shudra varna. History. The capital of Kamboja was probably Rajapura (modern Rajauri). The Kamboja Mahajanapada of Buddhist traditions refers to this branch. Kautiliya's "Arthashastra" and Ashoka's Edict No. XIII attest that the Kambojas followed a republican constitution. Pāṇini's Sutras tend to convey that the Kamboja of Pāṇini was a "Kshatriya monarchy", but "the special rule and the exceptional form of derivative" he gives to denote the ruler of the Kambojas implies that the king of Kamboja was a titular head ("king  consul") only. One king of Kamboja was King Srindra Varmana Kamboj. The Aśvakas. The Kambojas were famous in ancient times for their excellent breed of horses and as remarkable horsemen located in the "Uttarapatha" or north-west. They were constituted into military "sanghas" and corporations to manage their political and military affairs. The Kamboja cavalry offered their military services to other nations as well. There are numerous references to Kamboja having been requisitioned as cavalry troopers in ancient wars by outside nations. It was on account of their supreme position in horse ("Ashva") culture that the ancient Kambojas were also  popularly known as "Ashvakas", i.e. horsemen. Their clans in the Kunar and Swat valleys have been referred to as "Assakenoi" and "Aspasioi" in classical writings, and "Ashvakayanas" and "Ashvayanas" in Pāṇini's "Ashtadhyayi". Conflict with Alexander. The Kambojas entered into conflict with Alexander the Great as he invaded Central Asia. The Macedonian conqueror made short shrift of the arrangements of Darius and after over-running the Achaemenid Empire he dashed into today's eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. There he encountered resistance from the Kamboja "Aspasioi" and "Assakenoi" tribes. The Ashvayans (Aspasioi) were also good cattle breeders and agriculturists. This  is clear from the large number of bullocks that Alexander captured from them – 230,000 according to Arrian – some of which were of a size and shape superior to what the Macedonians had known, and which Alexander decided to send to Macedonia for agriculture. Migrations. During the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, clans of the Kambojas from Central Asia in alliance with the Sakas, Pahlavas and the Yavanas entered present-day India, spreading into Sindhu, Saurashtra, Malwa, Rajasthan, Punjab and Surasena, and set up independent principalities in western and south-western India. Later, a branch of the same people took Gauda  and Varendra territories from the Palas and established the Kamboja-Pala Dynasty of Bengal in Eastern India. There are references to the hordes of the Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, and Pahlavas in the Bala Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana. In these verses one may see glimpses of the struggles of the Hindus with the invading hordes from the north-west. The royal family of the Kamuias mentioned in the Mathura Lion Capital are believed to be linked to the royal house of Taxila in Gandhara. In the medieval era, the Kambojas are known to have seized north-west Bengal ("Gauda" and  Radha) from the Palas of Bengal and established their own Kamboja-Pala Dynasty. Indian texts like "Markandeya Purana", "Vishnu Dharmottari" "Agni Purana", Eastern Kambojas. A branch of Kambojas seems to have migrated eastwards towards Nepal and Tibet in the wake of Kushana (1st century) or else Huna (5th century) pressure and hence their notice in the chronicles of Tibet ("Kam-po-tsa, Kam-po-ce, Kam-po-ji") and Nepal (Kambojadesa). The 5th-century "Brahma Purana" mentions the Kambojas around Pragjyotisha and Tamralipta. The last Kambojas ruler of the Kamboja-Pala Dynasty Dharmapala was defeated by the south Indian Emperor  Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty in the 11th century. Mauryan period. The Kambojas find prominent mention as a unit in the 3rd-century BCE Edicts of Ashoka. Rock Edict XIII tells us that the Kambojas had enjoyed autonomy under the Mauryas. The republics mentioned in Rock Edict V are the Yonas, Kambojas, Gandharas, Nabhakas and the Nabhapamkitas. They are designated as "araja. vishaya" in Rock Edict XIII, which means that they were kingless, i.e. republican polities. In other words, the Kambojas formed a self-governing political unit under the Maurya emperors. Ashoka sent missionaries to the Kambojas to  convert them to Buddhism, and recorded this fact in his Rock Edict V.