Kambojas
The Kambojas were a tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.
Ethnicity and language
The ancient Kambojas were probably of Indo-Iranian origin. They are however, sometimes described as Indo-Aryans and sometimes as having both Indian and Iranian affinities. The Kambojas are also described as a royal clan of the Sakas.
Origins
The earliest reference to the Kamboja is in the works of Pāṇini, around the 5th century BCE. Other pre-Common Era references appear in the Manusmriti (2nd century) and the Mahabharata (1st century), both of which described the Kambojas as former kshatriyas who had degraded through a failure to abide by Hindu sacred rituals. Their territories were located beyond Gandhara, beyond Pakistan, Afghanistan laying in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan where Buddha statues were built in the name of king Maurya & Ashoka and the 3rd century BCE Edicts of Ashoka refers to the area under Kamboja control as being independent of the Mauryan empire in which it was situated.
Kamboj
The Kambojs (Hindi: कम्बोज Kamboj, Urdu: کمبوہ ALA-LC: Kamboh, Punjabi: ਕੰਬੋਜ Kamboj), also Kamboh, is a community mainly in the Northern India and eastern Pakistan.
During Muslim rule
During the early years of Islam in India, one of the groups of this clan embraced Islam at the instance of Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya Suhrawardi (of Multan) and his son Shaikh Sadruddin.
Some Kamboj, such as Shahbaz Khan Kamboh, occupied key military and civil positions during the Turkic and the Moghul reign in northern India. The historian M. Athar Ali said that "The Sayyids and the Kambohs among the Indian Muslims were specially favoured for high military and civil positions during Moghul rule".
Muhammad Umar writes:
Present day
The Kambojs/Kambohs practiced weapon-worship in the past but the practice is now going out of vogue.
Traditions
Hindu Kambohs claim to be related to the Rajputs. They came in the period of Mahabharat to the regions where they live now.
Agriculturists
Numerous foreign and Indian writers have described the modern Kambojs/Kambohs as one of the finest class of agriculturists of India.
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