TheKirāta(Sanskrit:किरात) is a generic term inSanskritliterature for people who had territory in the mountains, particularly in theHimalayasandNortheast Indiaand who are believed to have beenSino-Tibetanin origin.[1][2][better source needed]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/EpicIndia.jpg/200px-EpicIndia.jpg)
Historical mention and mythology
TheKiratas often mentioned along withCinas(Chinese), and slightly different from theNishadas,[3]are first mentioned in theYajurveda(ShuklaXXX.16;KrishaIII.4,12,1), and in theAtharvaveda(X.4,14). According toSuniti Kumar Chatterji,the nameKirataseems to be used for any non-Aryan hill-folk, howeverManu'sDharmashastra(X.44) calls them "degraded Kshatriyas", which Chatterji infers to be a term for people who were advanced in military or civilization to some degree and not complete barbarians.[4]It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of aTibeto-Burmantribal name, like that of Kirant orKirantiof easternNepal.[4]
In thePeriplus,the Kirata are called Kirradai,[5]who are the same people as the Pliny'sScyritesand Aelian'sSkiratai;though Ptolemy does not name them, he does mention their land which is calledKirradia.They are characterized as barbaric in their ways, Mongoloid in appearance speaking a Tibeto-Burmese language.[6]
TheSesatai(known toPtolemyandPliny the ElderasSaesadaiorSosaeadae), who traded the aromatic plantmalabathrum,were described – in terms similar to descriptions of the Kirradai – as short and flat-faced, but also shaggy and white.[7]
Ancient Indian texts gives an indication of their geographical position. In theMahabharata,Bhimameets the Kiratas to the east ofVideha,where his sonGhatotkachais born; and in general, the dwellers of the Himalayas, especially the eastern Himalayas, were called Kiratas.[8]In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike theNishadasor theDasas,who were darkAustricpeople.[9]
InYoga Vasistha1.15.5Ramaspeaks ofkirateneva vagura,"a trap [laid] by Kiratas", so about 10th century BCE[citation needed],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.
The meaning of 'Kirat' as is sometime referred as 'degraded, mountainous tribe' while other scholars attribute more respectable meanings to this term and say that it denotes people with the lion's character, or mountain dwellers.[10]
Modern scholarship
Sylvain Lévi(1985) concluded that Kirata was a general term used by the Hindus of the plains to designate the Tibeto-Burman speaking groups of the Himalayas and Northeast.[11]
See also
- Kirata kingdom
- Kirātārjunīya,poem about Arjuna and Shiva (disguised as a Kirata) set in southern India
- Kingdoms of Ancient India
- Kirati people,a modern ethnic group
Notes
- ^Radhakumud Mukharji (2009),Hindu Shabhyata,Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd,ISBN978-81-267-0503-0,
... किरात (मंगोल): द्रविड़ भाषाओं से भिन्न यह भाषाओं में किरात या...
- ^Shiva Prasad Dabral (1965),Uttarākhaṇḍ kā itihās, Volume 2,Vīr-Gāthā-Prakāshan,
... प्राचीन साहित्य में किरात-संस्कृति, किरात-भूमि...
- ^(Chatterji 1974:26)
- ^ab(Chatterji 1974:28)
- ^"...among whom are the Kirradai, a race of wild men with flattened noses" (Casson 1989,p. 89)
- ^"They are characterized as barbaric in their ways and Mongoloid in appearance (Shafer 124). From the widespread area in which the literary sources place the Kiratas Heine-Geldern (167) concludes that the name was a general designation for all the Mongoloid peoples of the north and east. Shafer (124), on the basis of the nomenclature of their kings, concludes that they spoke a Tibeto-Burmic language and were the predecessors of the Kirantis, now living in the easternmost province of Nepal." (Casson 1989,p. 234)
- ^"Ptolemy calls themSaesadaiand describes them more fully; they are not only short and flat-faced, as in the Periplus, but shaggy and white-skinned.... The characteristics themselves indicate that the Sesatai were similar to the Kirradai, and their access to the border with China indicates that they lived, as Coedes suggests 'between Assam and China' ". (Casson 1989,pp. 242–243)
- ^(Chatterji 1974:30)
- ^(Chatterji 1974:31)
- ^The Indian Journal of Social Work, Volume 62 By Department of Publications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 2001
- ^Concept of tribal society2002 Page 32 Deepak Kumar Behera,Georg Pfeffer"Does this mean that the Kirata were a well-defined group, a kind of ancient Himalayan tribe, which has been there for times immemorial (as popular usage often implies)? A critical look at the evidence leads to different considerations. Already the Indologist Sylvain Lévi concluded that Kirata was a general term used by the Hindus of the plains to designate the Tibeto-Burman speaking groups of the Himalayas and Northeast Thus it is unlikely that the Kirata who ruled the Kathmandu Valley were a particular ethnic group. Rather the evidence suggests that they were forefathers of the present-day Newar (the Tibeto-Burman speaking indigenous people of the valley)"
References
- Chatterji, S. K. (1974).Kirata-Jana-Krti.Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.
- Casson, Lionel (1989).The Periplus Maris Erythraei.Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-04060-5.