Kamboja-Janapada

Kamboja-Janapada [kamboja-janapadah] / By Dr. V. S. Agrawala; B. H. U. / 221-229

There has been a difference of opinion amongst the scholars about the exact location of Kamboja since the time of Lassen who placed the Kambojas in the region of the Pamirs, I am glad the question has been taken up again by learned scholars who are specialists in the geography of ancient India, since it opens out a possibility of our getting nearer to the truth in this matter. I am grateful to Dr. D. C. Sircar and Sri K. D. Sethna who have taken interest in the topic. It is time that some of the points in the controversy should be restated as being basic in a recent consideration of the arguments :- (1) The ancient Bhuvanakosa description of Bharatavarsha acquaints us with the boundaries of the country towards the north by including the river Vankshu or the Oxus which is so well-known as the most conspicuous geographical feature equal in significance to the Indus and the Ganga as the landmark for demarcating boundaries. The Oxus as the northernmost limit of the geographical territories once included in Bharatavarsha seems to have been a real fact in the political history of ancient India. The Oxus is a long river starting from its source in the Pamirs and flowing westward upto Bahlik or Bactria whence it takes, a northerly course. The Oxus obviously is the most well-defined geographical feature of delimiting the boundaries in this area. (2) Both Dr. Sircar and Sri Sethna rightly accept the Oxus as the ideal Chakravarti-Kshetra of Bharatavarsha. It was therefore right for Kalidasa to refer to the Oxus as the limit of the northern conquests of Raghu. (3) There is no difference of opinion about the position or identification of Bahlika in the western area of the Oxus. My viewpoint is that its eastern part was the region of Kamboja. (4) Both Bahlika and Kamboja are mentioned in the list of Janapadas included in Bharatavarsha. If the location of Kamboja is insisted upon somewhere in south Afganistan the eastern tract

222 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 1 of the Oxus river would remain unaccounted for as part of Bharatavarsha as required by the Oxus being mentioned as the outermost boundary on that side. (5) The strongest and incontrovertible testimony to which we cannot close our eyes is furnished by Kalidasa. He first takes his conquering hero Raghu to the banks of the Vankshu or Oxus where a fierce battle was fought with the Hunas. This was a fact of political history which Kalidasa knew as a contemporary event and he also learnt from other sources that the Hunas about the end of fourth century had advanced upto the Oxus and were threatening the regions south of it. The scene of these events was Bactria. Either we accept that the Hunas were checkmated in reality by the military strengh of the Gupta emperors on the banks of the Oxus, or we merely take the description of Kalidasa as that of an ideal digvijaya of a Chakravartin; in both cases the fixed geographical point is Bahlika on the Oxus where Kalidasa describes a major military action in which the Hunic forces met with complete disaster. Kalidasa had such intimate knowledge of the Hunas as enabled him to describe their particular customs by which the bewailing Huna women on the death of their husbands pricked their cheeks with sharp-pointed knives or needles' so as to make the blood flow and mingle with their tears. This is implied in the sentence: 'Kapola-patanadesi babhuva Raghu-cheshtitam' (Raghu, 4.68). Charitravardhana, Vallabhadeva, Sumati-Vijaya and Dharmameru support the reading 'patanadest' in their commentaries and Charitravardhana and Sumati-Vijaya go to the extent of explaining that it was the custom of their country that the Huna women made lamentations in their grief by pricking their cheeks and breasts (Huna-yoshitah kucha kupola-vidarana-purvam rudantiti taddesacharah). I have cited this to show that Kalidasa was not writing about these places and facts from imagination, but had at his disposal firm knowledge about the Hunas, their military advances, reverses and their country-customs. It is therefore naturally to be expeed that as in the case of the other contemporary geography of India and the frontiers his THE KAMBOJA JANAPADA 223 Jan., 1964] knowledge of facts and events along the Oxus was also perfectly. reliable and in conformity with what was actually happening in that area. Having recorded in some detail the events on the western side of the Oxus he, it appears, was careful to mention what happened in the eastern parts of that territory so far as the ideal frontiers of Bharatavarsha were indicated. This is in conformity with the whole burden of the ideal Chakravartin's digvijaya that is described in the Raghuvamsa. He mentions the conquest of Lauhitya and Pragjyotisha on the east, India's farthest limits towards the NEFA side, of the southern ocean upto the mouths of the Cauvery and the region of the pearl-fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar, and of the frontiers of India touching the country of the Parasikas towards the west. What the Poet's words naturally imply is that the Kambojas, following the reverse of the western Hunas, did not give battle to Raghu (Kambojah samare sodhum tasya viryam anisvarah, Raghu, 4. 69), but by discretion as better part of valour sent their embassies with presents of excellent horses and paipilika gold to sue for peace. Sri Sethna recognises the force and implication of this description of Kalidasa, and, I think, agrees with me that the sequence of the Poet's description about the relative positions of the Hunas and the Kambojas cannot be construed otherwise, except along the banks of the Oxus in its western and eastern portions respectively. Kalidasa did not stop with this description of the two great peoples and of the events along the Oxus, but goes a step further in giving clear indications of the route after the settlement with the Kambojas. He says that the cavalry forces of Raghu ascended the passes of the Himalayas (tato gaurigurum sailamarurohasvasadhanah, Raghu, 4. 71), The ascent on the Himalayas is a significant statement and if we look to the map of this whole area from the Karakoram to the Hindukush it can hold good only in the case of the route from the Pamirs through the passes of the Karakoram which are used even today as the direct route from Central Asia leading to India. If we place Kamboja in the region of Kandhahar the route of making an ascent on the Himalayas becomes rather an impracticable proposition,

224 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 1 In this connection Kalidasa himself has given additional details which throw light on the route taken by Raghu. Whether the conqueror actually travelled along the route is not the point, but there is hardly any doubt that Kalidasa had in mind the route which descending from the Pamirs in Central Asia, through Karakoram, Leh-Ladakh, and Western Tibet, and touching the region of Trigarta (Kulu-Kangra), and the Kinnara country skirted the Himalayas upto the Kamarupa country. The sloka under consideration is as follows: bhurjesu marmaribhutah kicakadhvanihetavah | gamgasikarino marge marutastam sisevire || (Raghu, 4. 73) Here the Poet has mentioned the marga or route in which three characteristic phenomena were experienced by the travellers at three points of the route, viz. its beginning, middle point and the terminal point. The starting point is indicated by the word kichaka-dhvani-hetavah, i.e. the winds blowing in a region where the land abounded in the forests of the kichaka bamboos which produced a flute-like sound by the passage of air through their holes. The reference to the kichaka bamboos is a material point in the data. The word kichaka was borrowed from the Chinese as the name of a large thick variety of bamboos growing in Central Asia in the valley of the Sailoda river and in the region of the Pamirs or the Meru mountains which were also known as dirghavenu in Sanskrit. The gold brought from this region was called vainava gold as given in the Arthasastra. The MahabharataSabhaparva (48. 2-3) and the Ramayana-Kishkindhakanda (43.37) make mention of the forests of kichaka bamboos growing along the Sailoda river between the Meru and Mandara mountains. The Sailoda is identified with the Jade river, the Meru with the Pamir and the Mandara may be Altai Tag. The land of the kichakas was thus situated between the Pamirs on one side and the Altai Tag on the other, and the river-valleys between the two were overgrown with the forese kichaka bamboos. The route mentionned by Kalidasa started from this region of the kichakas in Central Asia. Jan., 1964] THE KAMAOJA JANAPADA 225 Passing through the Pamirs and the Karakoram the route descended into the eastern parts of Kashmir including the LehLadakh and the Kashtwar regions which were overgrown with the birch-bark trees (bhurjeshu marmari-bhutah, Raghu, 4. 73) which was the middle point of the journey. The terminal point of the route is indicated by the head-waters of the Ganga in Garhwal (Ganga-sikarinah marge marutas tam kishevire, Raghu, 4.73). The Poet combines imagination with hard geographical facts in the statements that the cold Himalayan winds blowing from the north to the south along this great route from Central Asia to Garhwal proved for the delectation of the travellers marching along this ancient and often frequented route. If we have interpreted rightly the informatian about the three punctuating points followed by Raghu we may be permitted to add that the triple phenomenon stated by Kalidasa hold, good in the case of the eastern route along which Kamboja was also located and there seems to be no justifiable possibility of its being explained somehow with reference to the geography of Kandhahar and southern Afghanistan. In spite of the overwhelmingly clear evidence furnished by Kalidasa about the geographical position of Kamboja, it is not clear why Dr. Sicar should observe that "in my opinion, the Raghuvams does not prove anything at all." It is unfortunate that a scholar of great discriminating ability like Dr. Sircar should make Raghu march from the Sassanian capital on the Tigris to the Oxus. This has never been stated by me, nor by Kalidasa, nor it is in accordance with any other known fact of history. As we might all agree, Kalidasa makes the conquering hero advance by the land route upto the frontiers of the Sassanian and the Gupta empires, and thereafter makes the hero take a northerly course and this must have been along a well-established route. I have clearly stated that this route was from the ancientmost times along the banks of the river Indus. To my mind even Mohenjo-daro was situated on this route which, as stated in the Pali literature, started from Dvaravati in Saurashtra and terminated at the capital of the Kamboja country. 29

226 puranam - PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 1 If Kamboja, as Dr. Sircar believes, was somewhere in the Kandahar region, then we would have to presume that the route terminated at Kandhar. To my mind there seems no reason to suppose so against all evidence that the trade route coming from Tamralipti-Pataliputra on the one side and from Dvaravati on the other had its destination in Kamboja via Bahlika on the Oxus as is the fact even to the present day. According to the justifiable canons of interpretation I have understood the evidence of the Mehrauli Inscription of King Chandra and the literary evidence of the Raghuvamsa as both referring to the same facts and supporting each other. Whatever others may say to brush aside the statements made in the Mehrauli Inscription, I have no doubt that the resounding victories of the four directions painting a picture of the Chaturanta-Vijaya of a Chakravartin King, do hold good only in the case of Chandragupta Vikramaditya. Here the seven mouths of the Indus are clearly mentioned which only reasonably implies that the delta of the Indus formed part of the route towards the western frontiers of India along which both merchants and military leaders travelled since the most ancient times as it is even upto now. Both the Inscription and the Raghuvamsa speak of a conquest of the Balhika country then occupied by the Hugas. To this Kalidasa adds also the country of the Kambojas. About the conquest of the eastern regions by the Guptas both the Raghu vamisa and Meharauli epigraph are in agreement. Similar is the case with the conquest of the southern regions, but the Meharauli Inscription is more factually worded in stating that the waters of the southern sea were made fragrant by the breezes overladen with the aroma of King Chandra's valour. There is no mention here of actual warfare. Historically speaking, Samudragupta has given us an account of his southward expedition, but it seems that soon after him all the southern states asserted their independence and stopped payment of tributes which had been exacted by Samudragupta. It then became necessary for his son and successor, Chandragupta Vikramaditya, to pla afresh the military compaigns relating to western and southern India. In THE KAMBOJA JANAPADA 227 Jan., 1964] the west he exterminated the Saka rule and extended his empire up to Saurashtra. In the case of the southern conquest he marched upto Vidisa and from there he negotiated a settlement with the southern states not in terms of conquest but by restoring to them the rights of sovereignty and also relinquishing his claims of exacting tributes as from feudatories. Kalidasa refers to this twofold policy by a subtle implication. He says that previously the kings had been made to pay tributes (praty kam attasvataya babhuvuh, Raghu, 7.34) but later they were won over by the mild policy of Prasvapana, (Raghu, 7.61) which has a twofold meaning, the latter political meaning being the freedom restored to them with regard to the payment of monetary tributes which previously they had been forced to pay, i.e. the policy of Atta-svata was changed to that of Prasvapana. I have mentioned this in order to show that the Meharauli Inscription applies only to the achievements of an all-India Emperor like Chandragupta Vikramaditya and that the details of world-conquest recorded in it tally with those given by Kalidasa. In further support of the Meharauli Inscription and Kalidasa we wish to invoke the evidence from a new source, viz. reference to Chandragupta Vikramaditya under the veiled name of King Pramati in Chapter 144 of the Matsya Purana. It is stated there that Pramati as sovereign king brought under his control the seven divisions of India. His sphere of conquest, Chakra, included the kings of Dravidas, Sinhalas to the south, and Gandhara, Parada, Pahlava, Yavana, Saka, Tushara, Barbara, Darada, Khasa, Lampaka, Sveta-Halika (probably White Hepthalites) to the north (Matsya, 144 55-58). It is stated that the king reigned for thirtytwo years (cf, Chandragupta's reigning period from 380 to 412 A.D.) and that he was engaged in military campeigns for twenty years, Prakranto vimsatih samah). He was an incarnation of Vishnu, pointing to the paramabhagavata epithet. This would indicate that the predominent fact of the victories of the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II, were quite well known to his contemporaries and are verified from both literary and epigraphic sources. (See my Matsya Purana-A Study, pp. 228-230).

228 puranam- PURANA [Vol. VI., No. 1 While considering the location of the Kambojas we must take into account the evidence furnished by Yaska in his Nirulta as to the linguistic peculiarity. Sir Yaska is very specific in stating that the root sava in the sense of 'to go' is current only amongst the Kamboja people. George Grierson pointed out that this is still a fact in the Ghalchaspeaking tracts of the upper Oxus in the Pamir regions (JRAS. 1911, p. 802). He further pointed out that 'The whole subject of the Kambojas had been previously worked out by Prof. E. Kuhn on pp. 213. ff. of the First Series of Avesta, Pahlavi and ancient Persian Studies, in honour of the late Shamas-ul-ulma Dastoor Peshotanji Behramji Sanjana. (Strassburg and Leipzig, 1904). (JRAS, 1912, p. 255). The full evidence about the various conjugations of the root Sava as a dialetical peculiarity of the Pamir-region in the upper Oxus valley, has been recorded by Grierson in the Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. X, pp. 468, 473. 474, 476, 500, etc. (Jai Chandra Vidyalankar, Bharata-Bhumi, pp. 297-303). (12) The list of Janapada States in ancient India as recorded in the Bhuvana-Kosha chapters are purposeful and require greater attention with reference to their possible location in the light of available evidence from other sources. It was from this point of view that I had indicated the names of 12 Janapadas which occupied the stretch of territory from Jammu-Duggar in the cast to Harahuraka in the west and Bahlika-Kamboja in the north. Some of these names are beyond question, e. g. Darva (Jammu, Duggar), next to that being Abhisara (Punch-Rajauri), next to that Urasa (Hazara). South of Hazara was the Maha Janapada of Gandhara with its eastern capital at Taxila and the western at Pushaklavati (modern Charsadda) at the junction of the Swat and Kabul rivers, to the north-west was the Kapisa Janapada (Kohistan, Kafaristan) and beyond it was Bahlika or Bactria on the Oxus. In between there were 10 Mandalas of Lohita or Loha, the ancient name of Central Afganistan and also the smaller Janapadas of Nagarahara (Jalalabad) and ampaka (Laghman). In the south-west of Afganistan in the valley Jan., 1964] THE KAMBOJA JANAPADA 229 of the Argandhab river was the Harahuraka Janapada. The Arghandab represents the ancient Sarasvati which became known as Haravaiti in the Avesta from which were derived Araghand and Arachosia. The word Harahura was also from the same original name which form occurs in the Artha-sastra of Kautilya together with Kapisayana. My submission is that Harahuraka was a Janapada in the Arghandab valley and Kapisi another Janapada in Central Afganistan beyond the Hindukush on the route which was leading to Balkh or Bahlika. Thus there was a scheme in the relative positions of ancient Janapadas. It does not seem possible to find some narrow corner in the midst of these Janapadas for a Maha-Janapada like Kamboja, as the same was included in the list of 16 Maha-Janapadas. Kamboja was no ordinary element in the geographical scheme of ancient India, since in the list of the 16 Maha-Janapadas as stated in the Anguttara Nikaya in the whole north-west only two namely, Gandbara and Kamboja are mentioned which shows that even Bahlika and Harahuraka and Kapisi were considered to be of lesser importance. As shown in the Jataka and Avestic literature Kamboja was a centre of ancient Iranian civilization as evidenced by the peculiar customs of the country (JRAS, 1912, p. 56; the Jataka edited by Fausball, Vol. VI, p. 210). (13) As regards the existence of two Kambojas the other under the name of Parama Kamboja I am not in a position at present to give my opinion on this point, since I am inclined to think that it was only one country under two variant names. To prove the location of Kamboja on the basis of the find-spot of an Asokan inscription is, to say the least, inadmissible, since as pointed out by Shri Sethana, Asokan epigraphs in Aramiac script have been found at widely separated centres namely Kandhar, Lampak and Taxila for which no such linguistic argument as pleaded by Dr. Sircar can be reasonably put forward. In view of all the facts and arguments I think there is all the possibility of the identification proposed by Lassen of placing Kamboja into Pamir region, which was reinforced by Grierson's linguistic argument and supported by Pt. Jai Chandra.