Көне Үндістандағы Киката патшалығы

Kingdom in ancient India

Kīkaṭa was an ancient Indian kingdom in what is now India, mentioned in the Vedas. A section in the Rigveda (RV 3.53.14) refers to the Kīkaṭas, with its ruler Pramaganda. Some scholars have placed them in Bihar (Magadha) because Kikata is used as synonym for Magadha in the later texts; while other scholars dispute this and point to evidence for a more western location, in the area approximately south of Kurukshetra (see below). Like the Magadhas in the Atharvaveda, the Rigveda speaks of the Kikatas as a hostile tribe, living on the borders of Vedic India, who did not perform Vedic rituals. Zimmer has argued, in referring to Yaksha, that they were a non Aryan people. According to Weber, they were a Vedic people, but were sometimes in conflict with other Vedic people.

Placement of Kikata in Magadha is challenged by some scholars such as the historical geographers Mithila Sharan Pandey (who argues they must have been near Western Uttar Pradesh), and O. P. Bharadwaj (who places them near the Sarasvati River), historian Ram Sharan Sharma, who believes they were probably in Haryana, and Michael Witzel who places them south of Kurukshetra, in Eastern Rajasthan or western Madhya Pradesh, and his assertion that the Magadha is beyond the geographical horizon of Rigveda "The Karasakaras, the Mahishakas, the Kalingas, the Kikatas, the Atavis, the Karkotakas, the Virakas, and other peoples of no religion, one should always avoid." Like Rigveda attributes of Kikatas, Atharvaveda also speaks about south eastern tribes like Magadhas and Angas as hostile tribe who lived on the borders of Brahmanical India. According to Puranic literature Kikata is placed near Gaya. It is described as extending from Caran adri to Gridharakuta (vulture peak), Rajgir.