Rishikas
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There is mention of Rishikas in the Mahabharata, Brhat Samhita, Markendeya Purana and Ramayana etc. Panini does not mention Rishikas, but Patanjali refers to them in his Mahabhasya. The Southern Rshikas are also attested as Saha.isikas, Saha.chaisika and Saha.vaisikyas in Puranic literature. The Prakrit form of Rishika is said to be Ishika/Isika, Eshika/Esika or Asika/Ashika (Dr Motichandra). The Prishakas of Al biruni, are stated to be same as the Rishikas. The Uttara Rishikas were the military allies as well as the cultural & geographical neighbors of the Parama Kambojas (MBH 2.27.25).
Some scholars hold that the Rishikas are same as the Yuezhis (Dr V. S. Aggarwala). Prof Stein thinks that the Tukharas or Tusharas were a branch of the Yue-ches (Yuezhi), where as Dr P. C. Bagchi holds that the Yue-ches, Tokharoi/Tokarai and the Tukharas/Tusharas were identical. Dr J. C. Vidyalankar believes that the Kushanas or Kanishkas are same as Rishikas. Thus, according to above several equations, the Rishikas are also indentifiable with the Tusharas/Kushanas. According to Dr B. N. Puri, the Kambojas were a branch of Tukharas (Buddhism in Central Asia, p 90).
The dialect of the Yue-ches was Arsi or Asica which term some scholars relate to Asii.
The Rishikas are also stated to be the Asioi or Asii of Strabo. This name Asioi/Asii alludes to their connections with Asva or Assa (horses) (cf: Aspasioi, Aspasii, Hippasii, Assa-seni, Aseni, Asscani---the names used by classical writers for the Kamboja clans of Swat/Kunar valleys). The Aspasios and Assakenois (q.v.) were important clans of the Kambojas exclusively engaged in horse culture. It is therefore highly likely that Asio/Asii or Aseni of Strabo referred to the people of Parama-Kamboja (the bigger and the further branch of the Kambojas living in Scythia or Shakadvipa, across the Hindukush/Himalaya) in Transoxiana region.
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[edit] Rishikas on Sarasvati/Greater Panjab
Matsya Purana makes us believe that the Rishikas were so called since they had descended from the Rishis or wisemen or learned parentage (Rishika.putra.rishikastu.. 145.86; See also: Vayu Purana 59.84-94; Geographical Data in Early Puranas, p 31).
Since Sarasvati, in ancient times, was connected with people of scholarly lineage, Dr Singh tends to locate the Rishikas of the Puranic accounts on Sarasvati in Haryana.
[edit] Rishikas in Saka-dvipa
The name Rishika occurs in Mahabharata as a part of Saka-dvipa (2.27.25; India as Known to Panini, p 64).
- Lohan. Parama. Kambojan. Rishikan.uttaranapi |
- sahita.nstanmaharaja vyajayatpakashasanih ||2.27.25||
These northern Rishikas have been addressed as Uttara Rishikas (i.e. Rishikan.uttaranapi) and are shown as very close neighbors of the northern division of the Kambojas i.e the Parama-Kambojas.
These allied forces of the Lohas, Parama-Kambojas and northern Rishikas had fought a fierce war with the forces of Pandava Arjuna during latter's Digvijay expedition against the tribes of Uttarapatha or northern division (MBH 2.27.25).
The Kishikindha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana also refers to these northern Rishikas and seems to locate them in Saka-dvipa in the neighborhood of the Sakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Bahlikas, Tanganas, Chinas, Parama-Chinas etc of the Central Asia (The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume 4: Kiskindhakanda, 151 by Rosalind Lefeber).
[edit] Rishikas in South-west India
The Saka invasion of India in second century BCE was a joint military venture in which the allied tribes of the Shakas, Pahlavas, Kambojas, Paradas, Rishikas etc seem to have participated. These tribes had spread into and occupied the parts of western and south-western India.
Thus, the Rishikas are attested in later literature as living in south-western/southern parts of India also.
Some verses in Karanaparava and Bhishmaparava of Mahabharata composed and added during post-Christian times refer to the Rishikas in Dakshinapatha or southern India and show them as neighbors to the Vidarbhas and the Ashmakas.
The Kishikindha Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana also refers to this second branch of the Rishikas and also place them in Dakshinapatha in the neighborhood of the Vidarbhas (Op cit., R. Lefeber, p 145).
Many scholars assume that the current version of the Valmiki Ramayana was creation of 200 BCE to 200 CE, hence this reference to the souhern Rishikas .
Post-Christian creation Markendeya Purana (Ch 58.20-28) also attests the Rishikas in Dakshinapatha or southern division.
Likewise, a sixth century creation Brhat Samhita by Varaha Mihira also attests the Rishikas in Dakshinapatha or southern division (Ch XIV.11-16).
The geographical location of these Rishikas is said to fall on river Krsnavena. Rshika country laid on south of Vindhya, north of Mulakas, north-east of Nasika, west of Vidharba and south of Anupa or Anupadesha.
Modern Khandesh is stated to have formed part of Rishika country.
It is notable that the same Brhat Samhita (XIV.17-19) and the Markendeya Purana (58.30-32) also attest some Kamboja and Pahlava settlements located in south-west India (Geographical data in Early Puranas, p 135). See also: [1].
The geographical location of these Kambojas and Pahlavas is thought to be around Gujarat/Maharashtra somewhere, thus in close neighborhood of the southern Rishikas.
The following evidence from Udyogaparava of Mahabharata associates the Rishikas with the Kambojas, Shakas and Pahlavas and states them all living around Anupa region or Anupadesha.
- Shakanam Pahlavana.n cha Daradanam cha ye nripah |
- Kamboja Rishika ye cha pashchim.anupakash cha ye ||5.5.15||
Translation: The kings of the Shakas, Pahlavas and the Daradas, and the Kamboja Rishikas live in the west in Anupadesa or regions.
The Daradas in the verse above appears to be a copyist's mistake for it is the Paradas, not the Daradas, who have, most often, been associated with the corporated military confederation of the Shakas, Kambojas and Pahlavas etc (Pānca-ganah or five hordes of the Puranas, for instance).
Anupadesha of Sanskrit traditions is stated to have comprised Doab of rivers Narbada and Tapti. It lied on east of Gujarat, north of Vindhya and south of the Avanti Janapada.
Whatever may be the context, these verses probably reflect on the post-Christian scenario when mass encroachment of interior India had occurred due to invasion of India by these foreign hordes.
[edit] On Kamboja Rishika Connection?
There are not enough references in ancient literature on Rishika clan. But it looks like there is somehow, a connection between the ancient Rishikas and the ancient Kambojas. Some notable observations follow:
(i) The Sabhaparava of Mahabharata portrays the Lohas, Kambojas and the Rishikas as very close neighborly and allied tribes and places them all in Saka-dvipa in trans-Himalayan territory (MBH II.27.25).
(ii) Adiparva of Mahabharata collates the Kambojas and the Rishikas together and views them both as despised people. Chandravarma, the king of Kambojas is branded as an incarnation of Daitya Chandra and also the sage Rishika (from the Rishika tribe), likewise is branded as an incarnation of Danva Arka. The Kambojas and Rishikas here are placed side-by-side in the same verse (MBH 1/67/31-32), thus implying them as possibly related or else closely connected together, geographically and culturally, at least.
(iii) The Udyogaparava of Mahabharata (5/5/15, see verse above) also connects the Kambojas and Rishikas together and treats them as if they are ONE PEOPLE (Kambojarishika). Based on the wording of this verse of Mahabharata, Prof Ishwa Misra, a very outstanding Sanskrit scholar and notable contributor on Indiancivilization forum [2], identifies the Rishikas as a sub-section of the Kambojas themselves. [3].
(iv) As noted above, both the Brahat Samhita as well as Markendeya Purana locate one section of the Rishikas in Dakshinapatha (south/south-west India), on river Krsnavena, in Khandesh (Maharashtra). Interestingly, the same two texts also locate one section of the Kambojas and the Pahlavas in south-west India, in Anupadesha, which region borders on this south-western Rishika country. All these people are obviously sections of the invading hordes who had come and settled in India in the wake of second century BCE Saka invasion of India.
(v) Scholars say that the tribal name Rishika implies scholarly class of people as Matsya Purana and the Vayu Purana would like us to believe. Thus Rishikas had either sprung from Rishis i.e. the scholarly parentage or else they, themselves, were a scholarly people. This compares well with the Kambojas who, in Dronaparava section of Mahabharata, are also portrayed as a scholarly people.
- Sanskrit:
- ye tvete rathino rajandrishyante kanchanadhvajah.|
- ete durvarana nama Kamboja yadi te shrutah.||43||
- shurashcha kritavidyashcha dhanurvede cha nishthitah.|
- sa.nhatashcha bhrisha.n hyete anyonyasya hitaishinah.||44||
- akshauhinyashcha sa.nrabdha dhartarahhtrasya bharata.|
- — (MBH 7.112.43-44)
- English Translation:
Those other car-warriors with golden standards, O king, whom you see, and who, like the wild elephants are difficult of being resisted, they are called the Kambojas. They are brave, a learned people (kritavidyash) and are firmly devoted to the science of weapons. Desiring one another's welfare, they are all highly united and mutually co-operative. They constitute a full Akshauhini of wrathful warriors.
(vi) And so forth and so on.
[edit] Conclusions
The firm ethnical connection between the ancient Rishikas and the Kambojas may not be easy to establish due to inadequacy of sufficient reliable references, but whatever limited evidence we have with us definitely points towards this connection and at least attest the fact that the ancient Rishikas and the Kambojas were culturally, militarliy, politically and geographically connected together. Therefore, it may be possible that the Rishikas were a furthermost tip of the Parama-Kambojas.
[edit] See also
Kambojas
Parama Kambojas
Uttara Madras
Kurus
Uttara Kurus
Indo-Scythians
Sakas
Scythians
Yona
[edit] References
- Mahabharata, Tans: Kisari Mohan Ganguli.
- Matsya Purana
- Vayu Purana
- Brhat Samhita of Varaha Mihira
- Markendeya Purana
- Mahabhasya of Patanjali
- India as Known to Panini, Dr V. S. Aggarwala
- Gographical Data in Early Puranas 1972, Dr M. R. Singh
- Ancient Kamboja, People and Country, 1981, Dr J. L. Kamboj.
- The Mahabharata, Volume 2 : Book 2; Book 3: 1981, J. A. B. Van Buitenen
- The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume 4 Kiskindhakanda 1994, Rosalind Lefeber.
