The specific epithet kamboja is in reference to the Kamboja tribe of ancient India literature who settled the area now called Khambat and formerly called Cambay.
Kambojas |
Raghuvamsha tells of a war expedition of king Raghu (Chandragupta Vikramaditya) against the Parasikas (Sassanians), Hunas and the Kambojas located in northern division or Uttarapatha.
The Vayu Purana, Brahmanda Purana and Vamana Purana mention the Daradas with the Kambojas, Chinas, Tusharas and the Bahlikas etc.
•
Mahabharata also notifies that the Daradas, Sakas, Kambojas, Yavanas etc. were originally Kshatriyas but were slowly sank to the status of vrishalah or degraded Kshatriyas due to the wrath of the Brahmanas.
Saraiki and Lehndi, spoken by Rai Sikhs, Kambojas and migrants from Sahiwal (Pakistan)
According to numerous Puranas, the military corporations of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas and Paradas, known as "five hordes" (pānca-ganah), had militarily supported the Haihaya and Talajunga Kshatriyas in depriving Ikshvaku king Bahu (the 7th king in descent from Harishchandra), of his Ayodhya kingdom.
These Kambojas apparently were the descendants of that section of the Kambojas who, instead of leaving their ancestral land during the 2nd century BCE under pressure from Ta Yue-chi, had rather compromised with the invaders and had decided to stay put in their ancestral land instead of moving to Helmond valley or to the Kabol valley.
•
During the second quarter of the 2nd century BCE, the Homodotes/Komedes or Asii (Parama Kambojas) appear to have participated in the tribal migration to Bactria and Sugugda and then further to Helmond valley.
Like the Shakas, Pahlavas, Kambojas, Paradas, a section of the Rishikas had also migrated to west/south-west India prior to Christian era.
But the Udyoga-Parva of Mahabharata groups the Pahlavas with the Sakas, Paradas and the Kambojas-Rishikas and locates them all in/around Anupa region in western India.
Numerous Puranic literature groups the Yavanas with the Sakas, Kambojas, Pahlavas and Paradas and refers to the peculiar hair styles of these people which were different from those of the Hindus.