Where Kamboh Live

The Kamboja people, where-ever they went, gave their own name to the places or the areas they occupied or colonized… Their descendents are found in the modern Kambohs of the Northern India. ". (Ref: The Cultural Heritage of India Vol II, p 512 by Dr. C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer Vice Chancelor, Banars Hindu University, UP, India).

Kamboja people are a very ancient and historical people belonging to the famous Indo-Aryan or better still, to the Indo-Iranian Aryan race (Dr Keith, Dr McDonnell: in Vedic Index, Dr Donald N. Wilber: Afghanistan, its People, its Culture, its Society etc etc), now living quite numerously in the plains of East and West Panjab, Haryana and U. P parts of India, as well as around the mountains of Hindukush, northern-eastern parts of Afghanistan, including its Badakshan province, and modern Tajikstan across the Amu Darya (Oxus river) as well as in southern-eastern parts of Iran.

The modern Taijk people of Tajikstan and Afghanistan are the modern descendents of the ancient Kambojas (ref: Dr Jai Chander Vidyalankar, Dr Moti Chander, Dr Suniti Kumar Chaterjee, Ph.D, D.Lit, Dr Radha Krishnan, 2 nd Presdent of India etc etc).

And these Tajiks of Ghur, Afghanistan, even provided the Ghurid dynasty of Delhi in the thirtienth century AD. In the fortieth century, another Tajik dynasty, the Karts, established themselves for a brief period in Herat and attained almost a virtual independence (1332-1370) from the Mongols (Ref: Afghanistan, its People, its Culture, its Society 1964, page14, 44 by Donald N. Wilber ). The Gouri as well as the Abdali tribes of Afghanistan (from this Abdali tribe sprang the famed military general Ahmad Shah Abdali alias Ahmad Shah Durani) are the modern representatives of the ancient Gouraens Kambojas of Panjkora/Konar valley and the ancient Heytali, Heftali, Zabuli or Abdali clan of the Param Kambojas of the trans-Oxian region respectively. Possibly, the modern Turana clan of the Gilzai Afghans and Turna clan of the Kambojas of east/west Panjab have a common lineage as has been specifically pointed out by K. S. Dardi (These Kamboj People 1979 page 169-174).

The Turana tribe of Afghans and Turna clan of the Panjabi Kambojas are a possible offshoot from king Turman or Torman of Param Kamboja whose clan had invaded Afghanistan from across the Oxus and had settled around Gazni around 4/5 th century A.D. This same region later came to be called Zabulstan or Abdal and the people were called Abdal or Abdali, Heftalis or Heytalis. These people also had raided interiror India around 5 th century A.D. and their king Turman (also called Turana: ref: 'Studies in Asian History' page 38 by Dr Ahmad Ali Kohzad, Director, History Deptt, Afghanistan) and his successor king Mehrokole (from whose name possibly started the Mehroke gotra of the 52 division of the modrern Kambojas. Also ref to These Kamboj People 1979 by K. S. Dardi page 174) had established a powerful empire in northern and central India. Later, their descendents continued to rule in Zabulstan till approximately 870 AD when their rule was terminated by Yakub Bin Leh, founder of the Safard Vamsa of Iran. T

The Aspins of Chitral, the Mashkuns of Gilgit, the Isaps, Asaps, Pachais or Yusufzais Pashtuns living across north-west of river Sindh, as also the turbulent Afridis of the historical Khyber pass (mentioned in classical writings of the Greek historian Arrian, Diodoros, Curtius as the Aprytae or Afrikes or Erixes: Dr Fauja Singh, Dr L. M. Joshi, Dr J. L. Kamboj, K. S. Dardi etc etc) are the modern descendents of the famous ancient Ashvaka/Asva Kambojas of Sanskrit and Pali texts or Assakenois/Aspasios Kambojas of the classical writings of the Greeks. The Asvas/Ashvakas of Sanskrit and Pali texts and Aspasios and Assakenois people of the classical writings, according to medern historians, were the (Vedic Indian) Kamboja people living in the Paropamisadea region, lying to the south/east of Hindukush (Ref: Dr E. Lammotte, Dr K. P. Jayaswal, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukherjee, Dr Buddha Parkash, Dr L. M. Joshi, Dr Fauja Singh, Dr McCrindle, Dr J. L. Kamboj, Dr R. C. Majumdar, Dr A. D. Pusalkar, K. S. Dardi, Dr Romila Thapar etc etc

The Afrikes tribe was an offshoot of the famed Assakenois or Ashvaka tribe (Ref Dr H. C. Raychaudhry, The Political History of Ancient India, 1996 page 217). The brave Ashvak Kambojas of Kunar/Swat valleys and their valiant women, had given toughest fights to Alexandrian forces and had fought the Macedonian army tooth and nail at Massaga (modern Mashkine of N.W.F.P of Pakistan). "………..They (Assakenia Kambojas) finally met with glorious death which they preferred to lives of disgrace.", says Greek historian Diodoros Siculus (ref: Diodoros in McCrindle page 270).

The modern fiercest, most intractable, warlike and most dreaded kafir tribes (modern Nuristanis) variously called as Kamoz, Kamtoz, Kaum,Kams, Kom, Caum, Camoje, Camojee tribes etc (ref: Ref: Elphinstone, An account of the kingdom of Cabol, Vol II, page 375-377; Political History of Ancient India 1996, page 133 by Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee, Sidhant Kaumdei Arathparkashika 1966, page 20-22 by Acharya Radha Raman Pandey,

The Kafirs of the Hindukush 1895 by Sir George Scott Robertson etc) of Kamdesh of Bashgul, Kati or Katir (ancient Katawers) valleys of modern Nuristan province of Afganistan and N.W.F. Province of Pakistan are the undoubted descendents of the ancient Kambojas who had been living since ancient times in the so called Kapisha region which then had comprised Begram, Kaubol and the adjoining areas of Afghanistan (Ref: The Greeks in Bacteria and India 1966 p 170, 461, by Dr W. W. Tarn).

A mixed version of Aryo-Mongol Kamboja people are the Khmers of the modern Cambodia or Kampuchea or Kambujia (the name Kampuchea is derived from Kambuja or Kamboja. The Persian inscriptions relating to the Achemenian Kamboja kings use the word Kambujia which is the Iranian equivalent of Sanskrit Kamboja/Kambuja/Kambujana and the Greek Cambysis/Kambysis).

We can also find some traces of Kamboja blood coursing through the veins of some population of Sri Lanka (Kaboja, Kamboja per Sinhalese epigraphic inscriptions), Tibetat, Assam, Malaysia, Indonesia, south-west parts of China comprising the famous Pamirs as well as in Vietnam, where-in the ancient Kamboja people went, colonized, held sway and finally got mixed with the local population. Brama Purana also makes a mention of the presence of Kambojas in Assam and Tamralipiti regions. Per Paag-Saam-Jone-Jang… a Tibetan Religious Book, the geographical region of northern-eastern India between Bengal and Brahma was also called Kampotse in early middle age. Dr Fouche is of the opinion that Tibet was the Ancient Kamboja and Tibetan Language was the ancient Kamboja language. Dr R. P. Chanda and Dr S.K Chatterjee agree with Dr Fouche. But Dr P. C. Bagchi says that Kambojas were a nomadic tribe living on the northern of Himalya in the Central Asia, from where, one of their section occupied the eastern Tibet and another one migrated to Mekong Valley of Indo-China (Cambodia). According Dr. P. C. Bagchi, the ancient Kumud Davipa (as mentioned in Sanskrit Text Vayu Purana) comprising the Sogdiana and Bukhara regions of Central Asia had been a part of the Ancient Kamboja.

The descendents of ancient Kamboja people are now scattered widely but sparsely in Indian subcontinent, Iran, Afghanistan and Indo-china etc. They are found as Hindus, Moslems, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists or even Christians by religion. They are chiefly engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, business and services for their living. But only some of their descendents living in UP, Haryana, East and West Panjab have preserved their old Kamboja name till date. Also the turbulent and warlike earstwhile Kafir tribes………..the turbulent and rebellious modern Nuristanis of Nuristan Province of Afghanistan and the N.W.F.P of Pakistan have also retained their ancient Kamboja name in the modern form as Kam or Kaam, Kom, Camojee, Camoje, Kamoz, Kamtoz etc ((Ref: Elphinstone, An account of the kingdom of Cabol, Vol II, page 375-377; Political History of Ancient India 1996, page 133 by Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee, Sidhant Kaumdei Arathparkashika 1966, page 20-22 by Acharya Radha Raman Pandey, The Kafirs of the Hindukush 1895 by Sir George Scott Robertson etc).

The play of time, space and local circumstances have led rest of the Kamboja descendents to change or drop their Kamboja indentity in rest of the geographical areas they had once colonized and ruled. But still, as we will see, numerous relics or remanents of their tribal name, their culture and their language are abundantly found in the countries or places they had settled in and ruled in the olden times.

Surprisingly, and by twists of times and history, these once an extremely famous and powerful warlike and scholarly class of royal and proud Indo-Iranian Aryan people of ancient India and Iran, by all accounts and reckonings, are now living as a little known people these times! And it is extremely painful to see them in their present state of degeneration and degradation. These famous Vedic and Avestan Aryan people of the bygone era once ruled supreme in southwest Asia. They dictated terms for sure, and talked and acted from positions of strengths as is amply and repeatedly evidenced from numerous and copious ancient literatures and epigraphic inscriptions of India, Persia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, China and classical writings Sanskrit and of Greek historians etc.

According to authentic and dedicated researches of Dr J. Lal Kamboj of Delhi University, "undoubtedly, every inch of the Afghanistan soil stands trampled under the hooves of the world famous Kamboja horses of the war expert Kamboja cavalry".

Furthermore, these Kamboja people have also been known in history as Ashav-Yudh_Kushlah (expert cavalary soldiers) in ancient Sanskrit and Pali religious literature. (Ref: Hindu Polity, A Constitutional History of India, Vol I & II by Dr K. P. Jayaswal). Their sub-clans were found as Asvakas/Asvakan, and Asvas/Asvayan of the Sanskrit and Pali texts and Assakenois and Aspasios of the classical Greek writings. "The people whom the Kamboja people helped and supported in their warfares used to be extremely proud of their friendship with these war-loving Kamboja people".(Also Ref to: These Kamboj People 1979 by K. S. Dardi page 9. Also vide Mahabharata 7 parava,). These warlike people (whom Dr Govind Krishan Pilley has rightly styled as the war loving Kambojas, vide his Traditional History of India, page 300; also refer to Mahabharta 7/119/13-15) had helped in establishing and maintaining some of the famous empires in ancient world history. They were once a royal and scholarly class of people ruling in Kamboja, Param Kamboja, and later in Iran, Tibet, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka etc etc at different times in history, besides ruling in eastern and northern Afghanistan as Kamboja Mahajanapadans and later as numerous Kamboja hyparchs/kinglets/republicans in a dozen small territories in southern-eastern parts of the Hindukush mountain range such as Qandhar, Gazni, Kabol, Kapisa, Alishang valley, Kunar valley, Panjkora valley, Swat & Buner valleys, Ora, Bazira, Hazara, Punch, Abhisar/Rajaori, Srinagar etc. Numerous times, they have subjugated and ruled over various interior parts of India like Mathura, Ayudhya, Gujrat, Bengal/Bihar/Orisa, (Gaur Desha) etc as is witnessed by ancient and medieval Indian Sanskrit and Pali literature, Nepalese and Tibetean religious chronicles as well as various epigraphic inscriptions in Khroshti, Aramaic and Sanskrit language.(Also please ref to Kambojas in Bengal by Dr Jia Lal: Vishal Kamboj, June 1999). They have left their indelible traces and footprints in the Kamaon hills of the Himalyan foothill spurs, where they once held their own and undoubtedly gave their own name to it. Over the centuries, the standard Sanskrit name Kamboja has, as expected, changed to its present Prikritized form (Kamaon), like the same Kamboja changed to modern Kamboh, Kambo, Kabo, Kammo, Kamo etc in the plains of India like Panjab, Haryana & UP; and to modern Kaam, Kammah, Caumoh, Camojee/Camoj/Camoz/Kamoz etc in eastern parts of Afghanistan.

Famous historian Dr Benjamin Walker, while referring to the Kamboja people's rule in Bengal and Bihar (Gauddesha), states that the ancient Kambojas who were the neighbors of Gandharahs had migrated to Bengal from north-western India along the foothills of Himalayan, and accordingly, according this historian, we can find their mention in the Tibetan and Nepalese religious and political chronicles. He further says that Kambojas' descendents are still found in modern Bengal (Ref: Hindu World Vol I, P 510 by Dr. Benjamin Walker). In this case please also ref to 'Some Kashatrya Tribes of ancient India' by Dr B. C. Law, who quotes Dr R. P. Chandra and arrives at the same conclusions and information about the Kambojas of Bengal. Also please ref to Early History of India by Dr V. A. Smith. Several Epigraphic inscriptions relating to Kamboja people have also been located as far as Sri Lanka which is strong indication that these people had also reached as far as Sri Lanka and had established their kingdom in this island (for full details please refere to Kamboja People and the Country 1979 by Dr J. Lal Kamboj of Delhi University)..