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	{{short description\|Historical and mythological group of people from the Indian subcontinent}}		{{short description\|Historical and mythological group of people from the Indian subcontinent}}
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	{{Use dmy dates\|date=December 2018}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=December 2018}}
	{{Use Indian English\|date=December 2018}}		{{Use Indian English\|date=December 2018}}

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{{short description|Historical and mythological group of people from the Indian subcontinent}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
The '''Kirāta''' ([[Kirat]]) ({{lang-sa|किरात}}) is a generic term in [[Sanskrit]] literature for people who had territory in the mountains, particularly in the [[Himalaya]]s and [[Northeast India]] and who are believed to have been [[Sino-Tibetan]] in origin.<ref name="mukharji2009">{{Citation | title=Hindu Shabhyata | author=Radhakumud Mukharji | year=2009 | isbn=978-81-267-0503-0 | publisher=Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhUZrj975BAC | quote=... किरात (मंगोल) : द्रविड़ भाषाओं से भिन्न यह भाषाओं में किरात या ...}}</ref><ref name="ref80qahaz">{{Citation | title=Uttarākhaṇḍ kā itihās, Volume 2 | author=Shiva Prasad Dabral | year=1965 | publisher=Vīr-Gāthā-Prakāshan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0lXAAAAMAAJ | quote=... प्राचीन साहित्य में किरात-संस्कृति, किरात-भूमि ... }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2020}} The Kiratas of middle Himalayas are [[Limbu people|Limbu]], [[Yakkha people|Yakkha]], [[Rai people|Rai]], [[Sunuwar people|Sunuwar]], [[Dhimal]] tribes of [[Eastern Nepal]], [[Sikkim]] and [[Darjeeling]] of India, and a major segment of Kathmandu Valley's indigenous [[Newars]].<ref>Indian Literature By Sähitya Akademi, 1981</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kumāra |first1=Braja Bihārī |title=Problems of Ethnicity in the North-East India |date=2007 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=9788180694646 |page=211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTCJTIBHJHEC&q=kirat |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=28"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Regmi |first1=Dilli Raman |title=Ancient Nepal |date=1969 |publisher=Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay |location=Calcutta}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shrestha |first1=Bal Gopal |title=Maintenance of Language and Literature: the Case of the Newārs in Nepal |journal=Newah Vijnana: Journal of Newar Studies |date=2010–2011 |volume=7 |pages=4–13}}</ref> The meaning of 'Kirat' as is sometime referred as 'degraded, mountainous tribe' while other scholars attribute more respectable meanings to this term and say that it denotes people with the lion's character, or mountain dwellers.<ref>The Indian Journal of Social Work, Volume 62 By Department of Publications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 2001</ref>

==Historical mention and mythology==
<gallery>
North India in 540 BCE.png|thumb|Map depicting 16 [[mahajanapada]]s kingdoms and other kingdoms of [[vedic era]] India in 540 BCE.
</gallery>
The ''Kirata''s often mentioned along with [[Cinas]] (Chinese), and slightly different from the [[Nishada]]s,<ref>{{Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=26}}</ref> are first mentioned in the [[Yajurveda]] (''Shukla'' XXX.16; ''Krisha'' III.4,12,1), and in the [[Atharvaveda]] (X.4,14). According to [[Suniti Kumar Chatterji]], the name ''Kirata'' seems to be used for any non-Aryan aboriginal hill-folk, however [[Manu (Hinduism)|Manu]]'s [[Dharmashastra]] (X.44) calls them "degraded Kshatriyas", which Chatterji infers to be a term for people who were advanced in military or civilization to some degree and not complete barbarians.<ref name="Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=28">{{Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=28}}</ref> It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of a [[Tibeto-Burman]] tribal name, like that of Kirant or [[Kiranti]] of eastern [[Nepal]].<ref name="Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=28"/>

In the ''Periplus'', the Kirata are called Kirradai,<ref>"...among whom are the Kirradai, a race of wild men with flattened noses" {{harv|Casson|1989|p=89}}</ref> who are the same people as the Pliny's ''Scyrites'' and Aelian's ''Skiratai''; though Ptolemy does not name them, he does mention their land which is called ''Kirradia''. They are characterized as barbaric in their ways, Mongoloid in appearance speaking a Tibeto-Burmese language.<ref>"They are characterized as barbaric in their ways and Mongoloid in appearance (Shafer 124). From the widespread area in which the literary sources place the Kiratas Heine-Geldern (167) concludes that the name was a general designation for all the Mongoloid peoples of the north and east. Shafer (124), on the basis of the nomenclature of their kings, concludes that they spoke a Tibeto-Burmic language and were the predecessors of the Kirantis, now living in the easternmost province of Nepal."{{harv|Casson|1989|p=234}}</ref>

The ''Sesatai'' (known to [[Ptolemy]] and [[Pliny the Elder]] as ''Saesadai'' or ''Sosaeadae''), who traded the aromatic plant [[malabathrum]], were described – in terms similar to descriptions of the Kirradai – as short and flat-faced, but also shaggy and white.<ref>"Ptolemy calls them ''Saesadai'' and describes them more fully; they are not only short and flat-faced, as in the Periplus, but shaggy and white-skinned. ... The characteristics themselves indicate that the Sesatai were similar to the Kirradai, and their access to the border with China indicates that they lived, as Coedes suggests 'between Assam and China'". {{harv|Casson|1989|pp=242–243}}</ref>

Mythology gives an indication of their geographical position. In the [[Mahabharata]], [[Bhima]] meets the Kiratas to the east of [[Videha]], where his son [[Ghatotkacha]] is born; and in general, the dwellers of the Himalayas, especially the eastern Himalayas, were called Kiratas.<ref>{{Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=30}}</ref> In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike the [[Nishada]]s or the [[Dasa]]s, who were dark [[Proto-Australoid|Austric]] people.<ref>{{Harvcol|Chatterji|1974|p=31}}</ref>

In [[Yoga vasistha|Yoga Vasistha]] 1.15.5 [[Rama]] speaks of ''kirateneva vagura'', "a trap [laid] by Kiratas", so about 10th century BCE{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}, 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.

==Modern scholarship==
[[Sylvain Lévi]] (1985) concluded that Kirata was a general term used by the Hindus of the plains to designate the Tibeto-Burman speaking groups of the Himalayas and Northeast.<ref>''Concept of tribal society'' 2002 Page 32 Deepak Kumar Behera, [[Georg Pfeffer]] "Does this mean that the Kirata were a well-defined group, a kind of ancient Himalayan tribe, which has been there for times immemorial (as popular usage often implies)? A critical look at the evidence leads to different considerations. Already the Indologist Sylvain Lévi concluded that Kirata was a general term used by the Hindus of the plains to designate the Tibeto-Burman speaking groups of the Himalayas and Northeast Thus it is unlikely that the Kirata who ruled the Kathmandu Valley were a particular ethnic group. Rather the evidence suggests that they were forefathers of the present-day Newar (the Tibeto-Burman speaking indigenous people of the valley)"</ref>

==Religious beliefs==
The Kirat people practice shamanism but they call it "Kirat religion". The Kiratis follow Kirat [[Mundhum]]. Their holy text is the Mundhum.<ref>P. 56 ''Kiratese at a Glance'' By Gopal Man Tandukar</ref> Kiratis worship nature and their ancestors. Animism and shamanism and belief in their primeval ancestors, [[Yuma Sammang]] (Sumnima/Paruhang), are their cultural and religious practices. The names of some of their festivals are [[Chasok Tangnam]], [[Sakela]], Tõsí, Waas, Sakewa, Tõs, Wadangmet, Papani, Sakenwa, Chhonglarangma, Saleladi Bhunmidev, Yokwa and Folsyandar. They have two main festivals: Chasok Tangnam and Sakela/Sakewa Ubhauli during plantation season and Sakela/Sakewa Udhauli during the time of harvest.<ref name="Kiratis observe Udhauli.">{{cite news|newspaper=The Kathmandu Post|title=Kiratis observe Udhauli|date=21 December 2010}}</ref>

Mundhum (also known as Peylan) is the religious [[scripture]] and folk literature of the [[Kirant|Kirat]] people of [[Nepal]], central to Kirat Mundhum. ''Mundhum'' means "the power of great strength" in the [[Kiranti languages]].<ref name="Hardman">{{cite book| last=Hardman | first=Charlotte E. |date=December 2000 | title=Other Worlds: Notions of Self and Emotion among the Lohorung Rai | editor=John Gledhill |editor2=Barbara Bender |editor3=Bruce Kapferer| publisher=Berg Publishers | isbn=978-1-85973-150-5 | pages=104–}}</ref> The Mundhum covers many aspects of the Kirat culture, customs and traditions that existed before [[Vedic civilisation]] in [[Nepal]].<ref name="V1">{{cite book
| author= Dor Bahadur Bista
| title=Fatalism and Development: Nepal's Struggle for Modernization
| pages= 15–17
| year=1991
| publisher=Orient Longman | isbn=81-250-0188-3}}</ref><ref name="V">{{cite book
| last=Cemjoṅga
| first=Īmāna Siṃha
| title=History and Culture of the Kirat People
| pages= 2–7
| year=2003
| publisher=Kirat Yakthung Chumlung | isbn=99933-809-1-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.exploredarjeeling.com/culture.htm |title=Cultures & people of Darjeeling |access-date=4 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004192503/http://www.exploredarjeeling.com/culture.htm |archive-date=4 October 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Gurung">{{cite book
| last=Gurung
| first=Harka B.
| title=Trident and Thunderbolt: Cultural Dynamics in Nepalese Politics
| year=2003
| location=Nepal
| publisher=Social Science Baha
| isbn=99933-43-44-7
| oclc=57068666
| url=http://www.himalassociation.org/baha/Trident-and-Thunderbolt.pdf
| access-date=4 March 2012
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902074907/http://www.himalassociation.org/baha/Trident-and-Thunderbolt.pdf
| archive-date=2 September 2009
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Kirata Kingdom]]
* [[Kirati people]], modern ethnic group

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book
| last = Chatterji
| first = S. K.
| title = Kirata-Jana-Krti
| url = https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.32096/2015.32096.Kirata-jana-krti_djvu.txt
| publisher =The Asiatic Society
| year =1974
| location =Calcutta
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Casson
| first = Lionel
| title = The Periplus Maris Erythraei
| publisher = Princeton University Press
| year =1989
| location = Princeton
| isbn = 0-691-04060-5}}
{{refend}}

[[Category:History of India]]
[[Category:History of Nepal]]

Kirata - Revision history

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>Raibisu43 at 04:57, 8 June 2021