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From Hindi कम्बोज (Kamboj) (Urdu کمبوہ (Kamboh)), cognate to Punjabi ਕਮ੍ਬੋਜ (Kamboj).

Toynbee[1], Herzfeld and Walser[2] and Chandra Chakraberty[3] link it to or derive it from Cambyses and/or the region Kambysēnē.

H. C. Seth[4] and others suggest that the word is a compound meaning "owners/rulers of [the region] Kam". H. W. Bailey analyzes the name "Kamboja" as Kam-bauja or Kan-bauja and considers the second part to be related to an Iranian root *baug- meaning "bend; free, loose, deliver, save; possess, rule", related to bhuj "use, possess; rule, govern"; Bailey interprets the first part of the compound as something related to Avestan kan "to long, want", Sanskrit kama "desire, lust", and the whole compound as "king [ruling] at will".[5][6] [script?]

The Anthropological Survey of India suggests a long list of possible cognates, including Cambodia.[7]


Kamboj (plural Kambojs)

  1. A member of a particular Kshatriya community of people living in northwestern India and in Pakistan and Afghanistan, generally considered to be descended from the Kambojas.
  2. A member of an Indo-Scythian ethnic group of people native to northwestern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said to be descended from the Kambojas (the Royal Clan of the Sakas or Scythians).
  3. A member of the ruling Indo-European (Scytho-Aryan) group the Kambojas, who settled in northwestern India in the 9th or 10th century BCE.

See also[edit]