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{{short description|Historical and mythological group of people from the Indian subcontinent}}
{{pp|small=yes}} 
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{distinguish|Kirati people}}
{{other uses|Kirat (disambiguation)}}
[[File:EpicIndia.jpg|right|thumb|235x235px|Tribes and nations in the ancient Epic Map of India; Kiratas are described to have lived between [[Nepa kingdom|Nepa]] and [[Videha]] kingdoms]]

The '''Kirāta''' ({{langx|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}}                            

==Historical mention and mythology==
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 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>

Ancient Indian texts 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.

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>

==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>

==See also==
*[[Kirata kingdom]]
*[[Kirātārjunīya]], poem about Arjuna and Shiva (disguised as a Kirata) set in southern India
*[[Kingdoms of Ancient India]]
*[[Kirati people]], a 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:Sanskrit words and phrases]]