Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.36

c6.36

By the foregoing details it must have been evident by this time that the Kambojas were important people, but strange as it may look the Indologists are not at all unanimous in the location of this country. Lassen doubtfully places Kamboja in the south of Kāshgar and east of modern Kāfiristān (Ind. Alt., Map). According to Rhys Davids⁷⁹ it was a country in the extreme north-west of India with Dvārakā as its capital. Vincent Smith⁸⁰ seems to place it among the mountains of Tibet and Hindūkush perhaps in agreement with the view of Mr. Foucher who quotes for his identification the Nepalese tradition.⁸¹ Sylvain Levi as we shall see later on identifies it with Kāfiristān (J. A. 1923), Prof. H. C. Rāychowdhury,⁸² on the strength of a passage from the *Karṇaparva* (VIII. 4, 5) places Rājapura as contiguous to Kamboja. He identifies Rājapura of the *Karṇaparva* with the Rājapura of Yuan Chwang⁸³ placed in the south or south-east of Kashmir. Thus we can see that willow-the-wisp Kamboja has been shifting grounds from Tibet to Afghānistān and even south of Kashmir. Prof. Jayacandra⁸⁴ however has discussed the question afresh and he has on the basis of very strong evidences identified Kamboja with Badakshān and the Pāmīrs. He takes up the theory of Pro. Raychowdhury first and shows that the Kamboja country which according to Prof. Raychowdhury was the ancient name of the present Chibhāl country in the south or south-east of Kashmir and also Hazara District reaching to the western confines of Kāfiristān, could not represent Kamboja as the ancient names for this joint tract was Uragā or Urasā (the Arasces of the Alexandrian historians) for Hazara and Abhi-sāra for the modern Chibhāl. He then takes up the references from Yāska which assigns *śavati* in the sense ‘to go’ to the language of the Kambojas and shows that the Ghalcha language of the Pamirs and the countries on the head waters of the Oxus mostly contain the root *śavati* in the sense ‘to go’. He also quotes the *Mahābhārata* to show that Kamboja and Vāhlīka were often used as *Dvandva* compound and therefore their countries were contuminous. As in our opinion Prof. Jayacandra has hit at the right identification his arguments need a little more elucidation and support.