So far not many research has been taken by the Nepali scholar regarding Kiratas due to lack of materials or simply did not bothered. Though Nepal history do mentioned Kiratas as one of the
ruling dynasty not much has been recorded during Kirats rule till yet, but as of today many foreign scholars have studied this group of people who have reference in the Mahabharata text and Veda scriptures.Without understanding or acknowledging this people contributions in ancient India and Nepal public will not be able to see the connections of religions, practices and even identities that
are all linked to the Kirata.

A collection of manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, till now unpublished and unstudied by historians, have made possible regarding history of early Nepl and
Kirat people. These historical sources are among those collected by
Brian Houghton Hodgson – a British diplomat and self-trained Orientalist appointed to the
Kathmandu court during the second quarter of the 19th century – and his principal research aide,
the Newar scholar Khardar Jitmohan.

To start one need to understand the term Kirata.
The Kiratas (Sanskrit: किरात) mentioned in early Hindu texts are the tribals or Adivasi of the land
with this sanskrit phrase “kiram atati bhramati yah” meaning one wandering over the forests.

The name Kirata is for the first time found in the Yajurveda (Sukla Yajurveda, Vajasaneya, XXX,
16; also Krsna Yajurveda, Taittiriya Brahmana, III, 4,12,1).

In connexion with the Purusa-medha or ‘Man-Offering’ sacrifice, where a
list of all kinds of human beings and animals symbolically or
figuratively offered to the gods as sacrifice is given, we find the

following passage:–
guhabhyah Kiratam; sanubhyo Jambhakam; paravatebhyah Kimpurusam
which upon translation will read
‘A Kirata, for the caves; a Jambhaka (long-toothed man?) for the slopes; a Kimpurusa (an ugly
man, a wild man, an ape?) for the mountains.’

Then in the Atharvaveda (X,4,14) we have a reference to a Kirata girl
(Kairatika) who digs a herbal remedy on the ridges of the mountains:–
Kairatika kumarika saka khanati bhesajam:
hiranyayibhir abhribhir girinam upa sanusu.
‘The young maid of Kirata race, a little damsel, digs the drug:
Digs it with shovels wrought of gold on the high ridges of the hills.’
(Translation by R.T.Griffith.)

“Macdonell and Keith have the following note in their Vedic Index on Kirata:
‘Kirata is a name applied to a people living in the caves of the mountains, as appears clearly
fromthe dedication of the Kirata to the caves in Vajasaneyi Samhita (also Taittiriya Brahmana),
and from the reference to a Kirata girl, who digs a remedy on the ridges of the mountains.

The Manava Dharma-sastra regards the Kiratis as degraded Ksatriyas (ref. X, 44).’
When a non-Aryan or foreign people is describes in an old Indian text as being of degraded
Kshatriya origin, there is always an implication that they were, to some extend at least, advanced
in civilisation or military organisation”. — Suniti Kumar Chatterji (KIRATA-JANA-KRTI)

The Kiratas were described as 'gold-like', i.e, yellow in color (and not dark or black like the Dasas
and Dasyus and the Nisadas and other pre-Aryan peoples of the plains).
Here's the quote from the the book taken from Kirata-parvan section of Varna-parvan of the Mahabharata.
Kairatam vesam asthaya kancana-druma-sannibham
"Taking up a Kirata resemblance, like unto a tree of gold" (IV,35,2);

dadarsatha tato jisnuh purusam kancana-prabham
"Then the Victorious One(Arjuna) saw a Man, shining like gold" (IV, 35,17)

na tvam asmin vana ghore bibhesi kanaka-prabha
“O thou that art shining like gold (addressing Siva in the form of
Kirata), dost thou not fear in this terrible forest” (IV, 35, 18)

The Ramayana also mentions the golden color of the Kiratas; thus
Kiratasca tiksna-cudasca hemabhah priya-darsanah,
antar-jala-cara ghora nara-vyaghra iti srutah
(Kiskindhya-Kanda, 40, 27, 28, qouted by N.N Vasu)

upon translation is
The Kiratas, with hair done in pointed top-knots,
pleasant to look upon, shining like gold, able to move under water, terrible, veritable tiger-men,
so are they famed.

In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of "kirAteneva vAgurA", "a trap [laid] by Kiratas",
so about BCE Xth Century, they were thought of as jungle trappers, the ones who dug pits
to capture roving deer. The same text also speaks of King Suraghu, the head of the Kiratas
who is a friend of the Persian King, Parigha.

*It is to be NOTED that Kirat originated from Assyria, same region as Persia.


Kiratas with referenced to scholars:

The term Kirat is a corrupt form of Kiriat, Kiryat or Kirjath which means a fort or town in
Moabite language of the Mediterranean region. When their number increased, they built many
forts and towns and called them Kiriat-hime, Kiryat-yarim, Kirjath-arba, Kiryat-baal,
Kiryat-hujro, Kiryat-sanna and Kiryat-sapher which indicate the meaning of the town or fort of
the forest, or the town of the god Baal, or the town of books, or the town of palm trees.
The residents of the above noted towns started calling themselves, “Kereti” which later on
became Keretite or the Kerite tribe. The ancestors of this tribe if identified, comes to Nahor;
the younger brother of Abraham, a resident of Ur in Babylon.

He belonged to the Semitic family. The Kereti people spread towards the eastern and
north-eastern countries. In 2400 BC, a branch of which came to Mesopotamiaor
the Assyrian country, intermingled with the Ashur people and formed ONE nation
with them. Later on they migrated to Northern India and the Himalayan region via Media
and Nisa of Northern Persia with the title of the Kirat-Ashur tribe. But in Nisa they were called Khambos or Yavan and claimed their descent from the Greeks of the Ionian island.
In the Sanskrit book of Yogini Tantra, the Kirat nationality is included among the Yavan,
Pallava, Koch and Pulinda races.
The Greeks had also known the Kirats by the name of Kirhadai.
The last remnant of the ancient Kiratite or Cherethite tribe was found
recorded in the book of 2 Samuel, 15 - 18. They were a martial tribe
during the reign of the Syrian King David in 1049 BC.

There is no doubt that the Kirat-Ashur people came to North India earlier than the Aryans
yet they had known them very well in Persia. As the Assyrian country was mountainous and the Kirat-Ashur people were great hunters, they preferred to live in the mountainous countries of
Kabul, Kashmir, Karakoram and all the Himalayan regions, though some of them migrated to the Indian plains and lived there for about twelve generations.

The Aryan used to say Ashur for Kirati and other none Aryan people. Sur meas Aryan
and ashur means none Aryan.

Please read The term “Kirat” and its origin through scholars" in my earlier post.

Hence with the arrival of Aryan into the Indo-Gangetic plains later, the Kiratas were forced to
moved to other parts of the region. The Kirat Vansavali mentions that after twelve generations,
one branch of Kirat people migrated from the Indo-Gangetic plains to the Himalayan
region and the other branch to Lanka or Ceylon to the south. It is for this reason that some
scholars admire to find one of the aboriginal tribes of Ceylon with the name of, “Yakho” similar to the Yakkha-tribe of Eastern Kirat people of Nepal. The scholars have identified that
the origin of the Kirat people of Nepal can be traced back in combination of three races hence creating several ethnic groups in Nepal.

This migration of the Kirat people to the Himalayan region will slowly form a new nation (known as Nepal today).

I will elaborate on this when i have time again. The combination of three races also will answer confusions regarding several ethnicities in Nepal

This will answer like to of suvachintak1 who wants to know or is interested in where did Nepali
people come from? "How did we get divided in to Brahmin, Newars , etc…..?""

In the mean time, i want folks to read this so one will have slight about the history of Kirata people
and the reason behind the disintegration of the Kirat[Original Hindu] religious practice in modern Nepal.


Historians have pointed two essence that led to disintegration of Kirat regions, religions and people in Nepal and the Himalayas regions. The first is the Kirat conflict with Tibetan Migrant, followed by the conflict with Gorkha conquest led by Prithvi Narayan Shah.

Kirat Conflict with Tibetan Migrant:
Historians today are convinced that a widespread cultural conflict took place in the eastern Himalayan region between the indigenous inhabitants – called the Kirant – and the Tibetan migrant population, reaching a climax during the 18th and 19th centuries. Another wave of political and cultural conflict, between Gorkhali and Kirant ideals, surfaced in the Kirant region of present-day Nepal during the last quarter of the 18th century will be presented later. A collection of manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, collected by Brian Houghton Hodgson and his principal research aide, the Newar scholar Khardar Jitmohan has shed some ideas on the Kirat people history in Nepal.

For over two millennia, a large portion of the eastern Himalaya has been identified as the home of the Kirant people, of which the majority are known today as Rai, Limbu, Sunuwar, Yakha and Lepcha.
Dhimal, Hayu, Koch, Thami, Tharu, Chepang and Surel ethnic groups also consider themselves to be of Kirati descent. Still though other ethnic groups in Nepal have a association or is link directly or indirectly to Kiratas. For example, Newars are believed to descendant of Kirat people.

"The similarity in place names of Tistung-Palung-Chitlang to the south of Chandragiri hills, now inhabited by the Hale and Gwa caste groups of Newars, and Chepang area, as well as the linguistic relations between the Chepangs, Newars and Kirats indicate they could have common ancestry and could be descendents of the Nagas. The Newar name for Patan, Yala, is believed to originate from the Kirat king Yellung or Yalambara, the alleged founder of the dynasty and the city.Chyasal-tol is believed to commemorate the 800 Kiratas slain in battle with the Lichchavis (Tiwari, 2001).

In ancient times, the entire Himalayan region was known as the kimpurusha desha, a phrase derived from a Sanskrit term used to identify people of Kirant origin. These people were also known as nep, to which the name nepala is believed to have an etymological link. The earliest references to the
Kirant as principal inhabitants of the Himalayan region are found in the texts of Atharvashirsha and Mahabharata, believed to date to before the 9th century BC. For over a millennium, the Kirant had also inhabited the Kathmandu Valley, where they installed their own ruling dynasty.This kirant population in the valley, along with original Austro-asiatic and negretoid settlers form the base for later Newar population. When the Kirat dynasty ended, the Kirat people settled
mostly in the Koshi region of present-day eastern Nepal and Sikkim.

From around the 8th century, areas on the northern frontier of the Kirant region began to fall under the domination of migrant people of Tibetan origin. This flux of migration brought about the domination by
Tibetan religious and cultural practices over ancient Kirant traditions. This influence first imposed shamanistic Bon practices, which in turn were later replaced by the oldest form of Tibetan
Buddhism. The early influx of Bon culture to the peripheral Himalayan regions occurred only after the advent of the Nyingma, the oldest Buddhist order in Lhasa and Central Tibet, which led followers of the older religion to flee to the Kirant areas for survival. The Tibetan cultural influx ultimately laid the foundation for a Tibetan politico-religious order in the Kirant regions, and this led to the
emergence of two major Tibetan Buddhist dynasties: in Sikkim and Bhutan. The early political order of the Kingdom of Bhutan had been established under the political and spiritual leadership of the lama
Zhabs-drung Ngawang Namgyal. Consequently, Bhutan used to be known in the Himalayan region as the ‘kingdom of [Buddhist] spiritual rule’ (in old Nepali, dharmaako desh). The Tibetan rulers of Sikkim were also known as Chogyal, or spiritual rulers.

Both of these kingdoms adopted policies of suppression of indigenous practices, replacing them with those of Tibetan Buddhism. Bhutan’s religious rulers established a tradition of appointing religious
missions to other Himalayan kingdoms and areas, through which they were able to establish extensive influence in the region. Bhutan’s ambitious missions were sent as far west as Ladakh. Even before the founding of modern Nepal by Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha in 1769, Bhutan’s rulers
were able to establish spiritual centres in several parts of what was to become the former's territories, including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Gorkha and Vijayapur in the midhills, and Mustang, north of the central Himalayan range.

Sikkim had long been home to Lepcha Kirant people and culture. Under the guidance of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, however, their self-rule and cultural independence was suddenly taken away. Sikkim kings were even able to subdue the entire far-eastern part of the Kirant region –
historically known as Limbuwan – for at least a short period of time. Here, the new rulers adopted policies of religious and cultural subjugation, encouraging Sikkim lamas to travel to places of strategic
importance in order to establish monastic centres. But the indigenous population did not easily surrender themselves to this cultural invasion. Limbu and Lepcha manuscripts collected by Brian Houghton Hodgson in Darjeeling indicate significant resistance by the Kirant against Tibetan Buddhist rule and cultural domination. While much of this struggle consisted of attempts to strengthen cultural awareness, there were also violent engagements between Kirant communities and their new rulers.

Gorkhali hegemonies:

The next phase of military and cultural threat faced by the Kirat people was at the hands of the Gorkhali expansionists of Nepal. The nature and intensity of this hegemony was to prove significantly
different from that of the earlier Tibetan one, however. From the very beginning, the Gorkha court's intention in the region was not the extension of its Hindu-based culture. Rather, Gorkha's was a clear
military campaign of territorial expansion. After the completion of the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1769, the Gorkhali army marched east towards the Kirat territory. The Sen
rulers of eastern Nepal, known as Hindupati, had established a weak rule in the Kirat region by adopting a policy of mutual understanding with the local Kirat leaders. The Gorkhali military campaign, in contrast, brought with it a forceful and brutal occupation. During the conquest, the invading authorities adopted a harsh divide-and-rule policy: they first asked the Kiratis to surrender, assuring them that they would retain local rule and their traditional order. After many took up this offer, however, the conquerors instead demanded that Gorkhali rule be obeyed and Gorkhali traditions be followed.

Manuscripts in Hodgson's collection make mention of Kirat men, male children and pregnant women having been murdered in great numbers. The Gorkhalis ultimately divided the Kiratis into two groups, the sampriti and the niti: the former were those who had surrendered to Gorkhali power and cultural traditions, while the latter maintained their own traditions. The Gorkhali authorities naturally favoured the sampritis, killing the nitis or forcing them to flee their lands. As a result, much of the niti population migrated towards Sikkim and Bhutan. But Gorkhali wartime policy changed, particularly after the conquest of the territories of Kumaun and Garhwal far in the west. By the end of the
18th century, the authorities in Kathmandu were in need of more state revenue, and implemented a policy to bring people into Nepali territory in order to make barren land arable. The Kirat who were ousted from their lands during the Gorkhali military conquest were also asked to return home, albeit under the condition that Gorkhali rule and traditions were strictly followed. Relatives and friends of those who had fled were recruited to call them back, and people moved again between the state-given identities of niti and sampriti.

Hence after the annexation of Kirat Region, much of the significant of Kirats religious practice and values suffered at the hands of hindu brahmins who arrived at the Kirat region later after the annexation.Prior to that Kiratis did not engage the services of brahmins to perform
religious ceremonies. Hence the Kirat religious practices slowly shifted from being theirs to modern day Hinduism.

This is the summary of the history of Kirat people from 18th century to the annextion of Kirat Region by the Gorkha dynasty.

On my next post i will start the early period of Nepal, the formation of Nepal and how the term "Nepal" came to exist when the Kiratas migrated from Indo-Gangetic plains to the Himalays regions.


Happy weekends folks,
                                      jpg, archelogy major