View source for 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|thumb|280px|The "Seventh Asian Map", by [[Tomaso Porcacchi Castilione]], 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 (Ptolemy)|Geography]]'' ({{circa|150}} CE).<ref name="P’iankov">{{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}}</ref> 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 [[tributary|tributaries]].<ref name=mccrindle>{{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}}</ref>{{page|275}} Ptolemy refers to the people of Komdei as Komedes who "inhabited the entire land of the [[Saka|Sacae]]."<ref name=ptolemy>{{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>{{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.<ref name=mccrindle/>{{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).<ref name=seth>{{cite book|title=Central Asiatic Provinces of the Mauryan Empire|last=ue Seth|first=H.C.|page=403|url={{Google books|lXRPyQEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref><ref name=ancientkamboja>{{cite book|title=Prācīna kamboja, jana aura janapada|language=hi|publisher=Īsṭarana Buka Liṅkarsa|last=Kāmboja|first=Jiyālāla|type=Reprint|oclc=976510633}}</ref>{{rp|49, 155}}{{note|C|C}} [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] also calls the Sogdian region Komadas.<ref name=mccrindle/>{{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]]).<ref name=ptolemy/><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 [[Epic Age|1000 BCE]] refer to a high [[Table (landform)|tableland]] north of [[Himavat]]a ([[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]].<ref name=chandra>{{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}}</ref><ref name=panini>{{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}}</ref>{{rp|70}} The ''[[Vayu Purana]]'' uses the name Kumuda-dvipa as an alternate for [[Kushadvipa]], one of seven [[dvipa]] mentioned in Hindu topology.<ref>{{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}}</ref> In the ''[[Bhagavata Purana|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)]]'', Kumuda is a puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of [[Mount Meru (mythology)|Mount Meru]], also known as Sumeru and possibly Pamirs.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bhagavata Purana: Canto 5: The Creative Impetus|last=Vyasa|first=Veda|language=en|url=https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/}}</ref>{{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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> On the east, it likely bordered modern [[Yarkant County|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 [[Daradas|Darada]]; and to the south by [[Gandhara]].<ref name=ancientkamboja/>{{rp|49, 155, 237}}
===China===
The Chinese equivalent to the name may have been ''[[Xiuxun]]''. [[Xuanzang]] also mentioned the Kiumito and Kumito; Wu'k ong mentioned Kiumiche; and T'ang mentioned Kumi.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
===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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=seth/><ref name=ancientkamboja/>{{rp|48-49, 155, 300}}<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=India and the World|year=1964|last=Prakash|first=Buddha|page=71}}</ref>
==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."<ref name=nirukta>{{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>{{ref|E|E}} For example, modern [[Pamir languages|Pamiri or Ghalchah]] languages, spoken in and around the [[Pamir Mountains]], also use the word shavti to mean "to go."<ref name=survey>{{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}}</ref><ref name=panini/>{{rp|49}}<ref name=singh>{{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}}</ref>{{rp|164}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Bharat Bhumi Aur Usake Nivasi|last=Vidhyalnkar|first=Jaychandra|language=hi|year=1987|pages=297–305}}</ref><ref name=chandra/>{{rp|37}}<ref name=ancientkamboja/>{{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 [[Avestan|Zend Avestan]]".<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=ancientkamboja/>{{rp|217}} Michael Witzel connects the ethnolinguistic term Munjan to the [[Mujavat]] of the Hindu [[Atharvaveda]] and [[Mahabarata]].<ref name=witzel>{{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}}</ref> Other scholars{{who|date=August 2022}} claim Munjan is directed from the root Murg of Amyurgio Sacae, meaning "Soma-twisting Sakas."<ref name=witzel/> The [[Yaghnobi language]], spoken in the [[Yaghnob Valley]], also use the verb shavati.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=survey/><ref name=ancientkamboja/>{{rp|128}}
==See also==
*[[Indo-Scythians]]
==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 [[Rishikas|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 [[Transoxiana|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 [[Jain]]a 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-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] [[Aryan]]s after the latter had moved from their original home in [[Central Asia]] to Iran and India.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethnography Of Ancient India|last=Shafer|first=Robert|year=2017|publisher=Andesite Press|isbn=978-1376158519|page=43}}</ref>
: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.<ref name=nirukta/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Saka]]
[[Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia]]
[[Category:Historiography of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of India]]
[[Category:Ancient history of Pakistan]]
[[Category:History of Tajikistan]]