Kambojas entering India during 2nd BC

Dr Buddha Parkash Observations:

“During 2nd c BC, along with Saka tribes, the Kambojas had also enterd India and spread into whole of north-west India including Punjab & UP etc. Mahabharata refers to Kambojas and Yavanas having conqureed Mathura (ref: MBH 12/102/5). Kambojas also find mention in Mathura Lion capitol Inscriptions of Saka Kasatrapa Rajuvala. The Kambohs are the descendents of the ancient Kambojas.” (ref: India and the World, p 154, Dr Buddha Parkash, Ancient Kamboja, People And the Country, pp 296-306, Dr J. L. Kamboj, These Kamboj People, 1979, p 144, K. S. Dardi).

We have also evidence from Buddhist Mudrakshas drama where Kambojas, Sakas, Paedas, Pahlavas, Yavanas etc entered army of Chander Gupta Maurya which had proceeded to Magadha and dethroned the king and installed Chander Gupta Maurya on Magdhan throne.

Asti tava Shaka-Yavana-Kirata-Kamboja-Parsika-Bahlika parbhutibhi:

Chankyamatipragrahittaishach Chander Gupt Parvateshvar

Balairudadhibhiriv parchalitsalilaih:

Samantad uprudham Kusumpuram

Dr A. D. Pusalkar & Dr R. C. Majumdar States: “The Mudrarakshasa Play as well as the Jain works Parisishtaparvan refers to Chandergupta's alliance with Himalayan king Parvatka. The Himalyan alliance gave to Chander Gupta a composite army made up of Yavanas, Kambojas, Sakas, Kiratas, Parasikas and Bahlikas as stated in the Mudrarakashasa” ( History and Culture of Indian People, Age of Imperial Kanauj, p 57).

Commenting on this, Dr J. L. Kamboj states that under Mauryas, the Kambojas, Sakas, Yavanas etc had an excellent opportunity to enter the army and move into & permanently settle in interior India.

These Kambojas, Sakas, Pardas, Pahlavas etc had embraced Hinduism in due course of time and therefore were inevitably absorbed in the Hinbdu society.

Also compare: “The Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas, Pardas were foreign tribes from west but they were evidently absorbed among the Kashatryas.

” ( History and Culture of Indian People, The Vedic Age, p 313-314, Dr R. C Majumdar, Dr A. D. pusalkar, Dr K. D. munshi ).

The Kambojas had always been a KASHATRYA or RAJANYA/RAJPUT tribe. There are numerous instances which shows that for long long time, the Kambojas have been a Kashatrya/ Rajput tribe….i.e. a tribe of ruling Kashatryas. In the olden times, their kings & republican chiefs were also known as RAJANS and the Kambojas as RAJANYAS as Panini has documented. But after 8th c AD, title RAJNYA was replaced by term RAJPUT but with similar connotations.

There is documented evidence available which shows that the Kamboja Kashatryas/Rajputs have been ruling in their principalities located in south-west India as well as in Bengal as late as 16th c AD which evidence comes to us from the Inscriptions and hence is considered indisputable.

Kamboja people are the only Vedic Kashatrya people amongst the numerous Kashatrya tribes participating in the great Mahabharata war who have especially been glorified in Mahabharata Epic as the Vedic scholars (Kritvidiashach), besides being applausively designated as fiercest & swiftest fighters, deadly warriors, wondrously armed braves, war-intoxcated, Death personified, dreadful as YAMA…the God of Death, elephants gone wild/mad, as deadly as cobras, expert archers, expert cavaliers and expert Mal-Yudh-Kushlah (expert duelists or wrestlers) etc etc (vide Mahabharta Paravas, 7/23/42-44, 7/112/43-44, 7/112/48-52, 12/101/5 etc etc). Also please refer to 'Kamboj Veeron Ki Kahani, Mahabharat Ki Zabani' by Dr J. Lal Kamboj as appeared in a fortnightly magazine Kamboj Samachar, published in 1975-77 from New Delhi, Kamboja People and the Country 1979, by Dr. J. Lal Kamboj, Ph. D, D. Lit, Delhi University, These Kamboj People 1979 by K. S. Dardi etc etc).

In the entire ancient world history, the honor of participating, fighting and then attaining supreme mass martyrdom in the active and hot battle field, and that too, against, Alexandra the Great, one of the greatest military generals the world has ever produced, goes only and only to the heroic Kamboja queen Kripya and the brave Kamboja women of the famous Assakenian Kamboja clan. They have the supreme honor of being martyred, not in a direct and straight fighting, but only through demeaning and unashamed treachery resorted to by none other than 'Alexander the Great' himself, who contemptuously threw to winds all terms of the agreement he had reached with the Assakenian Kambojas and had attacked the Kamboja soldiery from their rear, during the dead of night, when they were off-guard and unprepared and were leaving the Massaga fortress along with their families, per terms of the agreement they had reached with Alexandra. Alexandra's own historians have strongly condemned this dastardly and non-heroic act of Alexandra, stating that "by violating the peace treaty with the Assakenians (Kambojas), Alexandra has put on an indelible and infamous blot on his heroic name" (Ref: McCrindle in Plutarch, p 306).

Commenting on the final and conclusive battle fought at Massaka, between the Assakenian Kambojas and the Alexandrian forces, writes thus an Alexandra's own contemporary and famous historian, Diodoros Siculus: "…..Assakenian (Assakenois) Kamboja women were pouncing upon the fighting Greek soldiers with an elemental fury, (like ferocious lionesses?), and grappling with them and snatching away their swords, spears and shields…………………………..While the Assakenian (Kamboja) soldiers were crossing swords with the enemy, their wives were covering their fighting husbands with the shields they had snatched from the Macedonian army………………. And still other Kamboja women were picking up arms of those who had fallen or were wounded or cut …..and were fighting side by side with their husbands in the active field………. The Assakenois (Kambojas), who had fought valiantly along with their women, could not this time, frustrate the well trained and numerous army of Alexandra and thus met with a glorious death which they preferred to lives of disgrace….". (Ref: Diodoros Siculus in Macrindle p 270). Another glorious Kamboja heroine who had earlier fought valiantly against yet another greatest and proudest general of his times, king Cyrus II, the Great, who founded the great Achaemenian Kamboja empire (and who was a Kambojian himself), was the Assakenian queen Tummeya Kamboj (Tumaris of Greek historian, Herodotus), who after having lost her son (king of Assakenois) in the battle against this Persian Kambojian king, took to arms herself, fought valiantly and had Cyrus II killed in the fiercest and hottest battle of Massaga. The queen Tummeya or Tumaris ( from whom, the Tumme clan of the modern Kambojas took its family name, per K. S. Dardi, vide These Kamboj People 1979 page 88) is then reported to have herself cut Cyrus's head from his dead body and then grabbing it from his hair, said in a wailful and heroic avengeful crying tone: "Cyrus I give you the fill of your blood!" This evidence comes to us from none other than the famous classical historian Herodotus (Ref: Classical writings of the Greek historian Herodotus; Kamboja People and the Country 1979 by Dr J. L Kamboj; These Kamboj People 1979 by K. S. Dardi etc). We, all Indians, proudly salute to the splendid glory of our valiant and martyred Kamboja mothers and sisters of the olden era, of whose, we are the proud descendents. (for complete story, please turn to 'Alexandra of Macedonia and Kamboja People' at page 38 of this article).

These Kamboja Aryan people, the famous frontier highlanders of the by-gone era, had contributed greatly to the spread of Aryan culture in Ceylon, Cambodia and in ancient India & Iran.