Kambuja

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The probable Kamboja trail.
The probable Kamboja trail.

Kambuja was the ancient name of Cambodia. This name is obviously derived from Sanskrit Kamboja, the name of a well-known ancient tribe of Indo-Iranian affinities, still living as Kamboj & Kamboh in northern India and Pakistan.

The "Kamboja" frequently referenced in ancient Sanskrit literature always refers to Kamboja located in the Uttarapatha of the South Asia, and not to Trans-Gangetic Kambuja or Kamboja located in Indochina, as is erroneously supposed by some writers. However, the later (Medieval) Pali chronicles Chamadevivamsa, Jinakalamali, Mulasasna etc., composed in Chiangmai (Thailand), all used Kamboja to refer to the Indochinese Kambuja.

The alternative names Kampuchea or Kampuchia for Cambodia are also clearly derived from the ancient Kambuja.

Intermarriages and blood mixing

The colonists and the ruling families of Kambuja who originally came from north-west Kamboja, for reasons of convenience, married with the local elites and thus there apparently occurred a blood mixing between the original population and the new colonists, at least, at the surfacial layer. This possibility has also been accepted by redoubtable, G Coedes and other schollars on this subject.


[edit] See also

Look up Kambuja in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.