Tribes in Ancient India c5.83

c5.83

We thus find the Kāmbojas leading a large army to the field of Kurukṣetra and laying down their lives like the valiant Kṣatriyas. Afterwards it appears from the later sections of the *Mahābhārata*, viz. the *Śānti* and *Anuśāsanika parvans*, that their country had been overrun by barbarous hordes, so that the ancient Kṣatriya population was overwhelmed, and we find the Kāmbojas ranked with the Yavanas and looked down upon as one of the barbarous peoples. Thus a verse of the *Śāntiparvan* enumerates the Kāmbojas along with many peoples not included in what we may call ‘Indo-Aryan society’,⁵ and in another chapter they are placed among the barbarous peoples of the Uttarāpatha (northern regions).⁶ The *Anuśāsanika-parvan* (33, 21) speaks of the Kāmbojas as having been degraded to the rank of Śūdras for want of Brāhmaṇas in their country. These passages go to show that at the time when these parvans were added to the Epic, the Kāmbojas were losing touch with Brahmanical society, probably owing to admixture with uncivilised invaders from the North.