The Kirāta (Sanskrit: किरात) is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who lived in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and North-East India and who are postulated to have been Mongoloid in origin.[1][2] It has been theorized that the word Kirata- or Kirati- means people with lion nature.[3] It is derived from two words Kira (meaning Lion) and Ti (meaning people).[3] The reference of lion as well as them staying in the Himalayan Mountains may suggest their possible relation to the mythical lion-headed tribe called Kimpurusha.
They are mentioned along with Cinas (Chinese), and were different from the Nishadas.[4] They are first mentioned in the Yajurveda (Shukla XXX.16; Krisha III.4,12,1), and in the Atharvaveda (X.4,14) . In Manu's Dharmashastra (X.44) they are mentioned as degraded Kshatriyas,[5] but outside the ambit of Brahminical influence. It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of a Sino-Tibetan tribal name, like that of Kirant or Kiranti of eastern Nepal.[6]
Mythology gives an indication of their geographical position. In the Mahabharata, Bhima meets the Kiratas to the east of Videha, where his son Ghatotkacha is born; and in general the dwellers of the Himalayas, especially the eastern Himalayas, were called Kiratas.[7] In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike the Nishadas or the Dasas, who were dark.[8]
In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of kirAteneva vAgurA, "a trap [laid] by Kiratas", so about BCE Xth Century, they were thought of as jungle trappers, the ones who dug pits to capture roving deer. The same text also speaks of King Suraghu, the head of the Kiratas who is a friend of the Persian King, Parigha.
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There is evidence that the Kiratas were devotees of Lord Shiva.[9] The Mahabharata narrates that Arjuna assumed the appearance, nationality and name of a Kirata for a period to learn archery and other arts of war from Shiva, who was the ruling deity of the Kiratas.[10]