Kikata Kingdom


Kīkaṭa was an ancient kingdom in what is now India, mentioned in the Vedas.
A section in the Rigveda refers to the Kīkaṭas, with its ruler Pramangada. Some scholars have placed them in Bihar because Kikata is used as synonym for Magadha in the later texts; while other scholars dispute this and point to evidence for a more western location, in the area approximately south of Kurukshetra. Like the Magadhas in the Atharvaveda, the Rigveda speaks of the Kikatas as a hostile tribe, living on the borders of Brahmanical India, who did not perform Vedic rituals.
Zimmer has argued, in referring to Yaska, that they were a non-Aryan people. According to Weber, they were a Vedic people, but were sometimes in conflict with other Vedic people.

Location

Placement of Kikata in Magadha is challenged by some scholars such as the historical geographers Mithila Sharan Pandey, and O.P. Bharadwaj, historian Ram Sharan Sharma, who believes they were probably in Haryana, and Michael Witzel who places them south of Kurukshetra, in Eastern Rajasthan or western Madhya Pradesh, and his assertion that the Magadha is beyond the geographical horizon of Rigveda.