Please can people stay on topic and answer the OP:
On topic il start with some info on the Kambojas. The answer to where these people originated from varies but generally they are located in Northern Pakistan somewhere north or north east of Gandhara. A Parama Kamboja kingdom existed across the border in Badakshan and Tajikistan as well.
The Kambojas although originally considered Kshatriya were later classified as mleccha by the people of the gangetic plains for their foreign customs. This is probably due to iranic influences which may or may not have existed from the very beginning. For example there are references in the Pali texts (Bhuridatta Jataka) according to G.K Nariman of Kambojas practising the killing of snakes and other poisinous insects (a Zoroastrian practice). (
https://journals.cambridge.org/actio...tyETOCSession=)
"Kita Patanga Uraga ca Bheka
Bantva Kimim Sujjhati Makkhika ca,
Ete hi dhamma anariyarupa
Kambojakanam vithatha bahunnan"
Those men are counted pure who only kill
Frogs, worms, bees, snakes or insects as they will
Those are your savage customs which I hate
Such as Kamboja hordes might emulate (vol vi, 110)
in some mid third century BCE edicts off the Buddhist king Ashoka from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The existence of at least half-a-dozen rock-carved edicts, written in the Aramaic of the type used in the Achaemenid chancellery, indicates that some of the Iranian speaking Kambojas of the Gandhara/Swat Valley area had continued with their indigenous Zoroasatrian tradition.
Zoroastrianism: An Introduction By Jenny Rose
Romila Thapar too states that
the tribes of the north were mleccha either because they were located on the frontier such as the Gandhara and Kamboja and therefore both their speech and culture had become contaminated and differed from that of aryavarta, or else, as in the case of the Madra's, they were once aryas but having forsaken the riturals were relegated to mleccha status.
When Alexander crossed the Khyber, some Kamboja tribes had settled down in the Kunar region (Aspasioi sometimes linked with the modern day Pashai) and the Swat Valley (Assakenioi) both of which gave stiff to resistance to the Macedonians and injured Alexander with arrows at least on one occasion. Eventually they lost but as soon as Alexander moved on they killed the governor Alexander had left behind i.e. Nicanor and rebelled.
The Kamboja identity eventually weakens and over the centuries they have spread out in different directions. One section of the Kambojas definitely migrated southwards into the Punjab and NW Hindustan settling there. The modern day Kamboh/Kamboj of Punjab claim descent from this group of the Kambojas.
Some Kambojas further moved on towards Sri Lanka and even South East Asia although these groups were totally integrated and no tribe bearing the Kamboja or any other similar name exists there today afaik:
The prevalence of the title among the early kings of Ceylon points to the north-west of the Indian sub-continent as the original home of the Sinhalese. One is led to the same conclusion by the occurrence of the name Kaboja (Kamboja) in some of the cave inscriptiosn. The Kambojas were a people who lived in the upper reaches of the Indus Valley in the present western Pakistan, or Kashmir.
Sri Lanka Past and Present By L. R. Reddy
Theres a lot more to say on the Kambojas such as how they were famous horse breeders and offered their services as mercenary cavalry to the kings around. I think they took part in the Kurukshetra as well vaguely remembering some reference to the blue eyed fair skinned Kamboja prince. Further after Islam came most converted to Islam (with some Sikh/Hindu in East Punjab). However il leave it there now and maybe other members can add more info on the Kambojas.
A list of famous Kamboh/Kamboj that I am aware of:
Hasan Mahmudi Kamboh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shahbaz Khan Kamboh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nawab Khair Andesh Khan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Udham Singh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
