Komedes


Komedes is the ethnonym of a people in Central Asia during antiquity, who were mentioned by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, in his Geography. Ptolemy reported that the Komedes were found throughout the "entire mountainous land of the Sacae", including Bactria, Sogdiana and/or Transoxiana.
Some scholars have linked the Komedes to Central Asian toponyms and ethnonyms in ancient Hindu literature, such as a country called Kumuda and a people called the Kambojas.

Ancient & medieval texts

Greek & Roman geographers

The Greek geographer Ptolemy uses the name Komdei for the region fed by the Jaxartes river and its tributaries. Ptolemy refers to the people of Komdei as Komedes. Ptolemy also refers to one tribal people whom he variously calls Komoi/Kamoi, Komroi/Khomroi or Komedei, and locates in the mountainous regions of Sogdiana as far as Jaxartes. In fact, as per Ptolemy's evidence, "the Komedes inhabited the entire land of the Sacae", a name often taken to be synonymous with that of the Sakas. Julius Honorius’ Cosmography mentions a people called Traumeda and mentions a mountain called Caumedes as the source of the river Oxus. Ammianus Marcellinus too calls the Sogdian mountainous regions as Komadas. To the north of the Komedes was the homeland of the Sacarauloi and, probably, the Pasianoi.
The Ptolemian references to Komdei or Komedes as a region probably alludes to Hindu toponyms Komdesh, Kamdesh and Kambodesh. They Cambothi, Kambuson and Komedon of some other Greek writings. The classical sources further indicate that the south-western section of the Komedes living within "Mt Hemodos or Emode" were known as Homodotes. Thus, the Homodotes appear to have been a section of the Komedes living within a part of the Hindukush or Pamirs.

''Kumuda'' in ancient Hindu texts

According to Hindu texts authored in the early Epic Age, Kumuda was the name given to a high tableland located somewhere to the north of Himavata, from which the Indo-Aryan peoples may have originally pushed their way southwards into India, and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship
The Indian literary classic Mahabharata indicates that the southern parts of Shakdvipa were the habitat of peoples including the Kambojas – specifically the Parama Kambojas – alongside the Lohas and Rishikas.
A Sanskrit pura from the early 1st millennium CE, the Vayu Purana uses the name Kumuda-dvipa as an alternate for Kushadvipa, one of seven dvipa mentioned in Hindu topology. Kumuda is also the puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of Mount Meru, also known as Sumeru. In this specific sense, Kumuda extended between headwaters of the rivers now known as the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.
Thus the name Kumuda, in the topology of the ancient Hindu world, lay close to the Pamirs, north of Himavata and probably comprised Badakshan, the Alay Valley, Alay Mountains, Tienshan, Karotegin and possibly extended as far north as the Zeravshan and Fergana valleys.

Ancient Chinese names

A Chinese equivalent name appears to have been Xiuxun. However, Kumuda is probably also the Kiumito or Kumito mentioned by Xuanzang, the Kiumiche of Wu'k ong, and the Kumi of T'ang.

Islamic geographers

Kumed or Kumadh of the Muslim writers Al-Maqidisi, in his Al-Muqhni, calls the people of this territory Kumiji, which seems equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboji. Numerous scholars have connected the Komedes of classical writings with the Kambojas of Iranian topology.

Modern interpretations

Historical evidence

The name and geographical references indicates that the Kumuda and Parama Kambojas of Hindu tradition and ancient Indian literarure appear to be synonymous with the Komedes, Traumeda of European classical sources. The same applies to the Homodotes. The Komoi of Ptolemy may be linked the placename Kamboi, itself apparently a corruption of Kamboja, Kambojika or Kamboika.

Linguistic links between the Kambojas and modern languages

traces of the ancient Kambojas have been suggested in several modern languages of the Pamir Mountains, Khotan and Sogdiana. The Parama Kambojas appear to have originated from Central Asia and have been lumped together with neighbouring tribes, under names like Scythians in Latin, Sacae in Greek and Sakas in Indo-Iranian languages. Ancient Kamboja probably included the Pamir Mountains, Badakshan and other parts of modern Tajikistan extending as far as the source of the Zarafshon/Zeravshan river. On the east it was probably bounded by modern 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 Darada, and to the south by Gandhara. Many languages of this region are said to shows the influence of an ancient Kambojan verb shvati "to go". Nirukata of Yasaka attests that verb shavati "to go" was used "only by the Kambojas".