Kiratas

The Kirāta () is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who had territory in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and Northeast India and who are believed to have been Sino-Tibetan in origin.

Historical mention and mythology

The ''Kirata''s often mentioned along with Cinas (Chinese), and slightly different from the Nishadas, are first mentioned in the Yajurveda (''Shukla'' XXX.16; ''Krisha'' III.4,12,1), and in the Atharvaveda (X.4,14). According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, the name ''Kirata'' seems to be used for any non-Aryan hill-folk, however Manu's Dharmashastra (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. It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of a Tibeto-Burman tribal name, like that of Kirant or Kiranti of eastern Nepal.

In the ''Periplus'', the Kirata are called Kirradai, who are the same people as the Pliny's ''Scyrites'' and Aelian's ''Skiratai''; though Ptolemy does not name them, he does mention their land which is called ''Kirradia''. They are characterized as barbaric in their ways, Mongoloid in appearance speaking a Tibeto-Burmese language.

The ''Sesatai'' (known to Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder as ''Saesadai'' or ''Sosaeadae''), who traded the aromatic plant malabathrum, were described – in terms similar to descriptions of the Kirradai – as short and flat-faced, but also shaggy and white.

Ancient Indian texts gives an indication of their geographical position. In the Mahabharata, Bhima meets the Kiratas to the east of Videha, where his son Ghatotkacha is born; and in general, the dwellers of the Himalayas, especially the eastern Himalayas, were called Kiratas. In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike the Nishadas or the Dasas, who were dark Austric people.

In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of ''kirateneva vagura'', "a trap aidby Kiratas", so about 10th century BCE, 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.

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.''Concept of tribal society'' 2002 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)"

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

References

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Sanskrit words and phrases