The leftist historians of India show India's sixteenth Mahajanapada Kamboja as extensive in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, but modern historical research has made it clear that ancient Kamboja was widespread in modern Tajikistan and its surrounding areas of Central Asia. The Kamboja Mahajanapadas that Indian historians show were mostly Indian territories conquered by the Kambojas.
Kamboja was one of the 16 Mahajanapadas of ancient India. It is mentioned several times in Panini's Ashtadhyayi and Buddhist texts Anguttar Nikaya and Mahavastu. Rajpur (Rajouri), Dwarka (?) and Kapisha (50 miles north of Kabul) were their main towns. It is also mentioned in ancient Iranian writings, in which it is associated with the territory of King Kambijes. (Dr. Ratibhanu Singh, Political and Cultural History of Ancient India. Allahabad, p. 112.)
In Valmiki-Ramayana, Kamboja, Bahlik and Vanyu countries have been described as the best countries for the best horses. According to K P Jaiswal, Kamboja was famous for his skilled horse warriors, hence, Kamboja was also known as 'Ashvak'.
Kambojas were Kshatriya
Shloka 10.43-10.44 of Manusmriti describes those Kshatriyas who came to be called Shudra Varna because of not following Vedic culture properly. They were:Paundrak, Dravida, Kamboja, Yavana, Shaka, Parada, Pahlava, Cheena, Kirat, Darad etc. [Baldwin, John Denison (1871). Pre-historic Nations, p. 290. ISBN 1340096080]
According to historian Ishwar Mishra, these people are called Indo-Aryans. In both Manusmriti and Mahabharata, Kambojas have been described as Kshatriyas who had fallen because of not following the Vedic culture properly. (Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Barbara A. West, p. 359). Panini's sources also state that Kamboja was a "Kshatriya monarchy".
The ancient Kamboja Mahajanapada was in Central Asia
In the Mahabharata, in the context of Arjuna's Digvijaya, Kamboja is mentioned along with the Loha and Rishika Janapadas (Sabha. 27, 25). According to the Mahabharata, the Kambojas were the neighbors of the Dardas near the Hindukush and the Parama Kambojas were the neighbors of the Rishikas (Tukharas) across the Hindukush who lived in the Fargana region. The geographer Polemi has also written about the expansion of the Hindukush to the north and south of the Kambojas [Sethna, K. D., Problems of Ancient India, Aditya Prakashan].
However some other historians find the Kambojas to be spread across Balkh, Badakhsan, Pamir and Kafiristan (Asoka and His Inscriptions, pp 93-96) and Parama-Kambojas even further north towards the Fergana region in the Zeravshan valley across the Pamir region. (Ishwar Mishra 1987). Some historians also confirm the existence of the ancient Kamboja Mahajanapada in the mountainous region of Amu and Sir Darya, modern Tajikistan. [Central Asiatic Provinces of the Mauryan Empire, p 403, H. C. Seth; and Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIII, 1937, No 3, p. 400]
Parama-Kamboja is mentioned in the Mahabharata as a remote kingdom to the north-west along with the states of Bahlik, Uttara Madra and Uttara Kuru. It was located in modern Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. According to Dr. Buddha Prakash, Kalidasa's Raghuvansham shows that Raghu had defeated the Hunas on the Vaksh river (Amu Darya) and then attacked the Kambojas who lived in the Pamirs and Badakhshan. [India and the World, 1964, p 71, Dr Buddha Prakash ]
Badakhshan was earlier a part of the ancient Kambojas but in the second century the Tukhars took over it and some other parts. When the position of the Tukhars weakened in the fourth to fifth century, the people here again started calling this area as Kamboja. [ Dr J. C. Vidyalankara; Bhartya Itihaas ki Ruprekha, p 534]
The Komedai of Ptolemy, the Kiumito of Xuanzang's accounts, Kumed or Kumadh of some Muslim writers, Cambothi and Komedon of the Greek writers who lived in Buttamen Mountains (now in Tajikistan) in the upper Oxus (Vakshu) are believed by many scholars to be the Kambojas who were living neighbors to the Tukhara/Tusharas north of the Hindukush in the Oxus valley. The region was also known as Kumudadvipa of the Puranic texts, which the scholars identify with Sanskrit Kamboja. (Wikipedia, Kambojas)
HC Seth also marks the mountainous region of Amu and Sir Darya, modern Tajikistan as the ancient Kamboja state. [Central Asiatic Provinces of the Mauryan Empire, p 403, H. C. Seth]
According to Rajatarangini, in the eighth century, the king Lalitaditya of Kashmir had attacked the Kambojas, which were extended to the north of Uttarapatha. According to the DC government, the Kambojas are said to have settled on the eastern side of the Vakhu river valley, neighboring the Tukhars on the western side [Sircar, D. C. "The Land of the Kambojas", Vol V, p. 250]
It is clear from the above description that ancient Kamboja was widespread in the modern Tajikistan and its surrounding areas of Central Asia. The areas of Kamboja Mahajanapada which are said to be in modern Pakistan and Kashmir were the conquered territories of Kambojas and not the original area.
The ancient Kambojas became non-Aryans?
In the description of Mahabharata, one gets the impression of the non-Aryan customs of Kamboj country. Bhishma. In 9,65 the Kambojas are described as Mlechhajatiya. Manu also designated the Kambojas as Dasyus and described them as speakers of the Mlechha language (Manusmriti 10, 44–45). Like Manu, Niruktakar Yaska has also called the dialect of Kamboja different from Aryan language.
The dacoits who have repeatedly robbed and disrupted the routes of Vedic merchants in the Rigveda may be Kambojas, as these Vedic trade routes were located on the Silk Road. The Kambojas did not speak Aryan language, meaning they were not speakers of Satem or Sanskrit. It is possible that in the Rigveda they are also called Mridhwachi (foreign language speakers).
Even from the above facts, the location of Kamboj seems to be Central Asia because from Afghanistan, Kashmir to Godavari, India used to use only Satem, Sanskrit or its Prakrit language. Historians believe that Kamboj was situated on the Uttarapatha which went from Banga to Kashmir, Kabul via Central Asia. But we have to keep in mind that this route also connected with the Chinese Silk Road in Kashmir and the Chinese used to reach Central Asia via Turkistan. It is also possible that in ancient times the entire silk route was called Uttarapatha. Kamboja was a powerful state and its expansion is possible till the Indian descent and the Chinese Silk Road and such evidence is also found.
Aryan culture was re-established in the later Kamboja
After the conquest of Kamboja of Arjuna, Kamboja came under the influence of Aryan culture. Duryodhana's wife Bhanumati was the daughter of King Chitrangad of Kamboja and Queen Chandramundra. Probably this is why the Shakas, Yavanas etc. under the leadership of Kambojas fought on the side of Kauravas in Mahabharata. But after the victory of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, he must have become a part of Yudhishthira's empire. That is why it was counted as Mahajanapada of Bharatvarsha in the later period.
Aryan settlements existed in Kamboj from very ancient times. This is clearly indicated by the mention of a Vansh brahmin in which there is a reference to an Acharya named Kamboj Aupamanyav. This Acharya was born in the Upamanyu gotra, a disciple of Madragara and a resident of Kamboja country. Historian Keith estimates that the names of Upamanyav Kamboja and his guru Madragara mentioned in this context give an impression of the close relation of the countries of Uttarmadra and Kamboja. Information about the existence of Aryan culture in Kamboja is also received from the Buddhist text Majjhimnikaya.
Kautilya's Arthashastra mentions Kamboja's 'conversationalist' association, from which it is known that the republic was established here before the Maurya period. In Ashoka's inscriptions, Kambojas are mentioned along with Nabhakas, Nabhapaktis, Bhojpitinaks and Gandharas etc. (inscription 13). It is known from this script that although Kamboj district was the frontier province of Ashoka, yet his rule was in full swing there too. Moreover, Kamboj appears to be a part of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, northeast of Central Asia.
A news was published in the evening daily of 30 August 1982 of Times of India published from Mumbai that at one place in Tajikistan (Kamboj) a picture of Vedic chariot was found underlined on the wall of an ancient building.