Kambojas in Indian Literature - Epilogue

Epilogue

The foregoing references sufficiently demonstrate that the Kambojas were living on either side of the Hindukush. The cis-Hindukush division was called Kamboja. The trans-Hindukush Kamboja division was known as Parama Kamboja. Thus, like the Uttara-Kurus and Uttara-Madras, the Parama-Kambojas were also located in the trans-Himalayan (paren himavantam..) regions, and were neighbors both to the Uttara Kurus as well as the Uttara Madras. The author of Vayu Purana uses the name Kumuda-dvipa for Kusha-dvipa. 'Kumuda is also a Puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of the Mount Meru (i.e. Pamirs). In anterior Epic Age, Kumuda was the name given to high table-land of the Tartary located to north of the Himalaya range from which the Aryan race may have originally pushed their way southwards into Indian peninsula and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship' (Thompson). Thus, the Kumuda-dvipa lay close north to the Pamirs. Lying in the Transoxiana (in Saka-dvipa), this Komuda or Kumuda-dvipa of the Puranic texts is often identified as the ancient Kamboja land which corresponds to the Parama Kamboja referred to in the Sabha Parava of Mahabharata.

Ptolemian Komdei is Komed or Komdesh or Kamdesh (?); from Kambodesh (?), probably "Kambojdesh". It is Kiumito or Kumito of Hiun Tsang and Kumed or Kumadh of the Muslim writers, Kiumiche of Wu'kong, Kumi of T'ang and Cambothi, Kambuson and Komedon of Greek writers. Al-Maqidisi in his book Al-Muqhni calls the people of this territory as Kumiji which apparently is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboj. The root Kam of the Sanskrit name Kamboja is also reflected in the Kama valley, a region lying between the Khyber Pass and Jalalabad; in the place names like Kama-daka, Kamma-Shilman, Kama-bela of Kabol; in the Kamdesh or Kambrom, Kamich, Kama and Kamu & Kamatol of the Kunar and Bashgul valleys; and also in the vast expanses of region called Kazal-Kam and Kara-Kam lying on either side of the Oxus, north of Hindukush in parts of Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan. Thus, the Ptolemian terms Kamoi and Komdei or Hiun Tsang's Kiumito exactly also refer to the Trans-Hindukush territories which region is what Mahabharata refers to as Parama Kamboja i.e. a Kamboja lying beyond the Kamboja of Kabol valley.

Aitareya Brahmana further attests that the trans-Himalyan Uttara Madra and Uttara Kuru nations were republican. As the Param-Kamboja (i.e. the original Kamboja) was a close neighbor both to the Uttaramadras as well as the Uttarakurus in trans-Himalyan territories, it can, therefore, be fairly conjectured that the Parama-Kambojas were also a republican people, most probably following a Rajashabdopajivin (king consul) type of republicanism, where the king was only a title for the commander-in-chief of the military confederation. Several republics of the Kambojas are attested in the Mahabharata. Kautiliya also attests the Kamboja Sanghas and Corporations. The Kambojas were also a self-governing political unit (republic) under the Maurya Emperors.