Komedes
{{short description|Ethnic group in Central Asia}}
{{synthesis|date=September 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
File:Thomas Porcacchi. Tavola Settima Dell'Asia Tabula Asiae VII. Padua 1620.jpg, from a 1620 Italian edition of Ptolemy's Geography.]]
Komedes is the ethnonym of an ancient people in Central Asia. They were mentioned by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy in Geography ({{circa|150}} CE).{{cite web|last=P’iankov|first=I.|title=History of Iran – The Ethnic of Sakas (Scythians)|url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/ethnic_of_sakas.php|publisher=Iran Chamber Society|access-date=23 November 2010}} Traditional Hindu and Indian spellings included Kumuda, Kumuda-dvipa, and Parama Kambojas; and ancient Greek and Roman spellings included Komedes, Komedei, Traumeda, Caumedae, Homodotes, Homodoti, or Homodontes.{{ref|B|B}}
In ancient & medieval texts
= Ancient Greece and Rome =
The Greek geographer Ptolemy uses the name Komdei for the region fed by the Jaxartes river (modern Syr Darya) and its tributaries.{{cite book|last=McCrindle|first=J.W.|title=McCrindle's Ancient India as described by Ptolemy|type=Reprint|publisher=Chuckervertty, Chatterjee and co.|editor-last=Majumdar|editor-first=R.C.|editor-link=R. C. Majumdar|year=1927}}{{page|275}} Ptolemy refers to the people of Komdei as Komedes who "inhabited the entire land of the Sacae."{{cite book|last=Ptolemy|first=Claudius|title=Geography|translator-last1=Berggren|translator-first1=J. Lennart|translator-last2=Jones|translator-first2=Alexander|year=2002|publisher=Princeton University Press|pages=6.12.2, 6.13.3}}{{ref|D|D}} He also refers to a tribal people from the mountainous regions of Sogdiana as far as Jaxartes whom he variously calls Komoi/Kamoi, Komroi/Khomroi or Komedei.{{rp|268, 284}} Ptolemy's references to the Komdei or Komedes region may allude to the Hindu toponyms Komdesh, Kamdesh, and Kambodesh (or Kamboi-desh).{{cite book|title=Central Asiatic Provinces of the Mauryan Empire|last=ue Seth|first=H.C.|page=403|url={{Google books|lXRPyQEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}}}}{{cite book|title=Prācīna kamboja, jana aura janapada|language=hi|publisher=Īsṭarana Buka Liṅkarsa|last=Kāmboja|first=Jiyālāla|type=Reprint|oclc=976510633}}{{rp|49, 155}}{{note|C|C}} Ammianus Marcellinus also calls the Sogdian region Komadas.{{rp|326}} Julius Honorius’ Cosmographia mentions a people called Traumeda and a mountain called Caumedes as the source of the river Oxus (modern Amu Darya).{{cite book|title=La Cosmographia di Giulio Onorio : un exceptum scolastico tardo-antico|last=Honorius|first=Julius|editor-last=Monda|editor-first=Salvatore|year=2008|publisher=Aracne|language=it|page=A.7}} Classical sources{{who|date=August 2022}} further indicate that the Komedes living in "Mt Hemodos or Emode" were known as Homodotes.
=Hindu texts=
Hindu texts{{which|date=August 2022}} from the about 1000 BCE refer to a high tableland north of Himavata (Hindukush or the Himalayas in general) as Kumuda. From here, Indo-Aryan peoples may have pushed their way southwards towards India, preserving the name of their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Mahabharata indicates that the Kambojas (specifically the Parama Kambojas, along with the Lohas and Rishikas, lived in the southern parts of Shakdvipa.{{cite book|title=Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva|last=Chandra|first=Moti|year=2019|type=Reprint|publisher=Cosmo Publications|isbn=978-8130718811|page=2.27.25}}{{cite book|title=India as Known to Panini|last=Agrawala|first=V.S.|year=1953|publisher=University of Lucknow|url=https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.4695}}{{rp|70}} The Vayu Purana uses the name Kumuda-dvipa as an alternate for Kushadvipa, one of seven dvipa mentioned in Hindu topology.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/VayuPuranaG.V.TagarePart1|title=Vayu Purana|translator-last=Tagare|translator-first=G.V.|year=1960|volume=1|pages=I.48.34–1.48.36}} In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa), Kumuda is a puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of Mount Meru, also known as Sumeru and possibly Pamirs.{{cite book|title=Bhagavata Purana: Canto 5: The Creative Impetus|last=Vyasa|first=Veda|language=en|url=https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/}}{{rp|at=Ch17, Ch16 V11}} The Kumuda here extended between the headwaters of what are now the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. It may have comprised Badakshan, the Alay Valley, Alay Mountains, Tienshan, Karotegin (Rasht Valley, in modern Tajikistan) and possibly extended as far north as the Zeravshan and Fergana valleys.{{cite report|title=Proceedings and Transactions of the ... All-India Oriental Conference, Part I|year=1930|publisher=All-India Oriental Conference|url={{Google books|9BRXAAAAMAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|pages=102–119}} On the east, it likely bordered modern Yarkand and/or Kashgar; to the west by Bactria; to the north-west by Sogdiana; to the north by Uttarakuru; to the south-east by Darada; and to the south by Gandhara.{{rp|49, 155, 237}}
=China=
=Islamic geographers=
In Al-Mughni, Al-Maqidisi calls the people inhabiting the Kumed or Kumadh the Kumiji, perhaps equivalent to the Sanskrit word Kamboji or Kambojas.{{note|A|A}} In Iran, the Kambojas region may have been the equivalent to the Komedes.{{cite book|title=India and Central Asia|last=Bagchi|first=K.N.|url=https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.4816|year=1955|publisher=National Council of Education|page=25}}{{rp|48-49, 155, 300}}{{cite book|title=Studies in Indian history and civilization|last=Prakash|first=Buddha|year=1962|publisher=Shiva Lal Agarwala|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/6740796|page=351}}{{cite book|title=India and the World|year=1964|last=Prakash|first=Buddha|page=71}}
Modern languages
Linguistic traces of the ancient Kambojas have been suggested{{who|date=August 2022}} in several modern languages of the Pamir Mountains, Khotan and Sogdiana.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} Languages of this region have shown influence{{according to whom|date=August 2022}} from the Kambojan verb shavti, meaning "to go."{{cite book|title=The Nirukta : with commentaries|author1=Yāska|author2=Bhaṭṭācāryya Satyavrata Sāmaśramī|language=sa|publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal|year=1882|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/668237918|oclc=668237918|page=II.2}}{{ref|E|E}} For example, modern Pamiri or Ghalchah languages, spoken in and around the Pamir Mountains, also use the word shavti to mean "to go."{{cite report|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/lsi/|title=Linguistic Survey of India|editor-last=Grierson|editor-first=George Abraham|publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing|volume=5|pages=456ff, 468, 473, 474, 476, 500, 511, 524}}{{rp|49}}{{cite book|title=Geographical Data in the Early Puranas, A Critical Study|last=Singh|first=M.R.|year=1972|publisher=Punthi Pustak|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/736935|oclc=736935}}{{rp|164}}{{cite book|title=Bharat Bhumi Aur Usake Nivasi|last=Vidhyalnkar|first=Jaychandra|language=hi|year=1987|pages=297–305}}{{rp|37}}{{rp|127–28, 167, 218}} Wilhelm Tomaschek has stated that, of all the Ghalchah/Pamiri languages, "Munjani is most closely related to the language of Zend Avestan".{{cite book|title=Centralasiatische Studien. II, Die Pamir-Dialekte|last=Tomaschek|first=Wilhelm|year=1880|language=de|publisher=in Kommission bei Carl Gerold's Sohn|oclc=491201127 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/491201127}}{{page needed|date=August 2022}}{{cite book|title=Bharatiya Itihas Ki Mimasa|last=Vidyalankar|first=Jaychandra|language=hi|year=1960|url=https://archive.org/details/jaychandra-vidyalankar|pages=471, 480–481}}{{rp|217}} Michael Witzel connects the ethnolinguistic term Munjan to the Mujavat of the Hindu Atharvaveda and Mahabarata.{{cite book|title=Early Eastern Iran and the Atharvaveda|last=Witzel|first=Michael|publisher=Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten|year=1980|url={{Google books|82t-oAEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|pages=105, fn16}} Other scholars{{who|date=August 2022}} claim Munjan is directed from the root Murg of Amyurgio Sacae, meaning "Soma-twisting Sakas." The Yaghnobi language, spoken in the Yaghnob Valley, also use the verb shavati.{{cite book|title= Bhartiy Itihas Ki Rooprekha|last=Vidyalankar|first=Jaichandra|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280148|year=1933|language=hi|pages=229–301}}{{rp|128}}
See also
Notes
:1.{{note|A|A}} The Kumiji tribesmen of the Buttamn Mountains were in the upper Oxus near Khuttal and were considered a predatory people.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
:2.{{note|B|B}} Dr V. S. Aggarwala observed: "The name Rishika occurs in Mahabharata as a part of 'Shakadvipa'. Arjuna had conquered Rishikas across the Vakshu (Oxus) which flowed through the Shaka country." Since the Parama Kambojas, Lohas and the Rishikas were all neighborly tribes and were allied together in their fight against Arjuna. As such, the Transoxian Lohas and Parama Kambojas may have also been located in the Shakadvipa or Scythia.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
:3.{{note|C|C}} Ashoka's Rock Edicts V and XII at Shahbazgarhi and the Jaina Canon Uttradhyana-Sutra (11/16), both write Kamboya for Kamboja.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
:4.{{note|D|D}} Robert Shafer reported that the Shakas, Kambojas, Pahlavas, and Sugudas were the left-over population of the Indo-Iranian Aryans after the latter had moved from their original home in Central Asia to Iran and India.{{cite book|title=Ethnography Of Ancient India|last=Shafer|first=Robert|year=2017|publisher=Andesite Press|isbn=978-1376158519|page=43}}
:5.{{note|E|E}} Believed to be from the 3rd or 7th century BCE.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Shava, the root of the word shavati, was used by the Indo-Aryans.