Durga and the migration of Kambojas.

The epics of the Mahabharata relates the ferocious war between thegoddess Durga and the demonic clans of Asuras, including the Kambojas (Kambu).They quotes the king Chandravarma of the Kambojas as an incarnation of the demon Daitya/Chandra. Daitya are the descendants of Diti (the Aryan goddess Aditi). This appellation a ppliesto the Iranians worshipping Ahura Mazda and Mithra, the Zoroastrians.The D aityas are the demons (asuras) enemies of the ceremonial sacrifices. They areved ic Indo-Aryans reputed without Brahmins.Chandravansa designates the Lunar race opp osing to Suryavansa, the Solar race , personified by the Ikshvaku dynasty : Manu, R ama, , cradle of the cultural Hinducivilization of the Manusmriti. The Kambojas, in generic words, are the Indo-Aryans tribes, originatedfrom Central Asia : Gand harans, Sakas, Kinnaras, Scythians, who settle in thenorthern east satrapies of t he Achaemenid empire : Sogdiana, Margiana, Gandhara,Bactria, These kshatriya tribe s , composed of numerous clans, are famous for their warrior artand their cavalr y until to be figurated as centaurs (Kimpurushas They opposed a furious resistance to the Alexander the Great s armies atthe collap se of the Achaemenid empire and began their slow migration to the south,where th ey colonized numerous regions, in two main directions : - The eastern Kambojas f ollow the Ganga valley to Bengal. They are the mercenaryarmies of Chandragupta M aurya and settle in Mathura. The western Kambojas go down from Punjab, through Rajasthan, Gujarat,Maharashtra , to Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Then, to Indonesia and the Mekong delta The Kambojas bring their vedic civilization mixed of the hindu influences of the regions that they have colonized during their slow progression since the 1 st century b.c. During the centuries of their installation in northern India, the K ambojas have become the inhabitants of the regions where they have migrated. The ir people aremixed with the local population which is composed of the various pe ople and soldiersof the armies that have ruled successively the Gandhara large a rea : Persians,Macedonians, Seleucides, Parthians,...Their characteristic is to be originated from Central Asia as the forerunnersof the Oxus civilization and t o be the heirs of the Vedic culture.The thesis of the Stranger tribes in wandering , offering their militaryservices to the local rulers must be rejected. Their pe ople compose theMahajanapadas at the time of the extension of the Persian empire on northern India. A Saka/Parthian kingdom has flourished on Ghandara during the 1st century b.c., before the migration of the Turk-Uighurs Kushans. The Greco-Buddhist art inGhand hara starts under the rule of Indo-Parthian kings that can be called Kambojas in generic terms. The division of the people in Chandravansa ( Lunar race referring to thevedic Kambojas) and Suryavansa (Solar race referring to the first cultura lhindu civilization of the Manusmriti) is better able to express the reality of the peopleliving in ancient India.Initially Zoroastrians at the Achaemenid era, their religious practice hasevolve, under the Sassanid and Parthian empires, int o the Zurvanism, zoroastrianworship of a lion-headed creator deity, and the teac hings of the prophet Mani diffusedin the northern India at the beginning of the 3 rd century a.c.The Manicheism, brought along the silk roads at the Kushan empire pe riod, explainsthe fight of the light and the darkness in the soul of the believe rs. This doctrinespreads in the historic satrapies of the Kambojas during that i ts apotres are persecutedin the West by the Christians. In a climate of tolerance of any cult, some clans of Kambojas, get brahmanisedan

d shaivised.Their Magi, vedic priests, become Suryadhwaja Brahmins, devotees of the Sundeity, and support the construction of Sun temples in Kashmir, Gujarat, R ajasthan,Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa, where the Wheel symbolizes the sun. Some scholars believe that the Surya s cult is a derivation of the avestanMithra s c ult (indo-iranian Mitra) installed in northern India by the Maga Brahmins.In the Mahabharata, Gauramukha invites to worship Surya and asks Samba : "tell me, oh Brahmin, what are the antecedents of these worshipers of the Sun?" To which Gauramukha replied... "The first of the Brahmins amidst the Shakhas was called 'Sujihva.' [...] He had a daughter of the name Nikshubha, who so enamored Surya that she was impregnated by him. Thus she gave birth to Jarashabda who wa sthe founding father of all the Maga-Acharya. They are distinguished by the sacr ed girdle called the Avyangathat they wear around their waist." And so Samba ca lled on Krishna to send himGaruda , on whose back he then flew to Shakadwipa. He collected the Maga-Acharya, brought them back to India and installed them as pri estsof his Surya temple. Sakaldwipiya en.wikipedia.org These elements allow to note that the Indo-iranian Kambojas : - settled in Math ura and Bengal where they were the allies of the brahminShunga rulers. - accorde d a great importance to the worship of the Sun god Surya close totheir tradition al worship of the Sun god Mitra, bull slayer. Mathura is the center of the Hindu art where were carried out the first imagesof Durga mahishasuramardini, Sun goddess bull slayer, in the post-Shunga/startKush an period, corresponding to the Indo-scythian- Kamboja settlement in this area At the end of the 3 rd century, ChandraGupta I and, after him, his sonSamudraGupta (335-380 ac) develop an empire from the Magadha kingdom.They campaign mainly against the Kamboja rul ers, rajputs of regions.SamudraGupta defeats and repels the Indo-scythians from Mathura and annexesBengal, Assam and Nepal.He pushes his conquests to the north against the rajputs Sakas : Gujarat andMadhya Pradesh, then, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kashmir, Afterwards, his armies go to the south through Orissa until Tamil Nadu to extendthe Gupta empire on the territories ruled by the Parthian/Scythian Pahlav as of Kanchi. The Gupta era (4 th -7 th c.) is the time of a new migration of Kshatriya clansof Kambojas repelled from s outhern India.They go into exile in the Indonesian archipelago and the Funan kin gdom.In 357, the Indo-scythian T ien-tchou tchan-t an takes the power in Funanto fou nd an Indo-scythian dynasty.The Kambojas migrate to Sumatra and Java, the Malay peninsula until thesouth of actual Thailand (Nakhon Si Tammarat), the Mekong del ta (where the further kingdom of Kambuja will bear their name) and actual Vietna m.The maritime trade is actived between Funan and India. They bring their vedic culture and their brahmanic idols.People of Tamil Nadu worship local deities der ived from Kamboja idols :The god Murugan is the southern representation of the K arttikeya of the Yaudheyarulers of Panini ( descendants of Pani , sanskrit name of Gandhara).The goddess Mari/Mariamman/Amman, goddess of fertility and rain, fi gurated withmany arms representing her many powers and whose attributes are trid ent, spear and bowl, is closely associated to Durga. The Kamboja s Brahmanism irrigates the kingdoms of Funan- Central Java,Champa (Vie tnam), and Chen La (Cambodia).The Srivijaya hindu kingdom of Sumatra is the firs t dominant power of thearchipelago. The "Kedukan Bukit Inscription",written in P

allava script, dated in theyear 605 of the Saka calendar, relates the invasion o f the archipelago by the kingdom'sfounder.The Chaopraya valley (actual central a nd northern Thailand) stays out of thespreading hindu influence. It is ruled by the Mon people who founded the Dvaravatiempire from 6 th to 11 th century. They are Buddhists and connected with their neighbour, the Guptas. The brahmanic influences will wait in Dvaravati until theconquest of the empire by t he Khmers of Angkor. The Solar gods Surya and Durga radiate in Southern-east Asi a, besideShiva and Indra, in the kingdoms founded for Funan : " by the Brahman K aundinya(Hun T ien) arrived from India and married with the naked princess Soma", and for Chen La : "by the Kambu Svayambuva and the nymph Mera", according to the legends The Kambuja kingdom of Angkor is founded in 802 by the king Jayavarman II,issued of the Indonesian rulers of Sailendra .The Angkor king dynasty build numerous t emples devoted to Hinduism.Suryavarman I (1002-1050) build the major temple of B aphuon, dedicated toShiva and his successor, Angkor Vat, dedicated to Vishnu. The pillage of Angkor by the Cham in 1177 ends their dynasty. Their successor, J ayavarman VII, at the end of the 12 th century, abandonsHinduism for Buddhism Mahayana. At his death, the Shaivism is r estored owing to aviolent reaction of the Brahmins.Then, the power of the Kambuj a kingdom declines. The Siamese kingdom of Ayuthya takes Angkor in 1351 and depo rts part of the population in slavery.The end of Angkor results from the seizure of Angkor by the Siamese in 1431 In Indonesia, Java kingdoms, the design of the Durga Mahishasuramardini simage is totally different and inspired of the Indian design. The goddess figuredslaying the buffalo demon multiplies in a model that seems to be influenced by thegandharan design of the Turki-Shahi , cultural cradle of th e Kambojas. Towards the end of the 8th century/early 9 th century, the human form of thedemon Mahisha is commonly figured, at the same tim e than in the Kashmiri schoolsof art .This fact shows the tight ties existing be tween the continental and theexpatriate Kambojas