Kamboj

Meaning

Noun

• 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.
• 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).
• A member of the ruling Indo-European (Scytho-Aryan) group the Kambojas, who settled in northwestern India in the 9th or 10th century BCE.

Origin

• Borrowed from Hindi कम्बोज ("Kamboj") (Urdu کمبوہ ("Kamboh")), cognate to Punjabi ਕੰਬੋਜ ("Kamboj").
• Toynbee, Herzfeld and Walser and Chandra Chakraberty link it to or derive it from Cambyses and/or the region Kambysēnē.
• H. C. Seth 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 Sanskrit भुज्; Bailey interprets the first part of the compound as something related to Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬥, Sanskrit काम, and the whole compound as "king [ruling] at will".
• The Anthropological Survey of India suggests a long list of possible cognates, including Cambodia.