Kambojas - The Kambojan State

The Kambojan State

The evidence in the Mahabharata and in Ptolemy's Geography distinctly supports two Kamboja settlements. The cis-Hindukush region from Nurestan up to Rajauri in southwest Kashmir sharing borders with the Daradas and the Gandharas constituted the Kamboja country. The capital of Kamboja was probably Rajapura (modern Rajori). The Kamboja Mahajanapada of Buddhist traditions refers to this cis-Hindukush branch.

The trans-Hindukush region constituted the Parama-Kamboja country. It included the Pamirs and Badakhshan, sharing borders with Bactria in the west and Sogdiana in the north. The trans-Hindukush branch of the Kambojas remained culturally Iranian, but a large section of the Kambojas of cis-Hindukush appears to have come under Indian cultural influence.

In the Mahabharata, Kamboja is referred to as a republic or a kingless country where elected chiefs among the people ruled the country. It refers to several Ganah (or republics) of the Kambojas. Kautiliya's Arthashastra and Ashoka's Edict No. XIII also 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. A kingless country is otherwise called Arashtra or Aratta. This name is sometimes collectively used to denote many other western kingdoms like Madra, Kekeya and Gandhara. Another collective name denoting the western kingdoms is Bahika ( Vahika, Vahlika, Bahlika or Vahika) meaning outsider. This is to denote that their culture was outside or different from the Vedic culture, prevailing in the Kuru, Panchala and other kingdoms of the Gangetic plain.

A clan of tribes called Kinnaras were believed to be the Kamboja horse warriors. Kinnaras were described as "horse-headed humans". This could be an exaggeration of their extra ordinary skill in cavalry warfare. In Kali Yuga, Kambojas had many colonial states in central India, including the Asmaka or Aswaka of Maharashtra state.

During the reign of Cyrus (558-530 BCE) or in the first year of Darius these nations fell prey to the Achaemenids of Persia. Kamboja and Gandhara formed the twentieth and richest strapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus I is said to have destroyed the famous Kamboja city called Kapisi (modern Begram) in Paropamisade.