Kaura (clan)

• Kaura is one of the prominent sub-castes of the Kamboj (Kambojas), abundantly found in Indian and Pakistani Punjab .

• Kaura is also a Jatt clan from the Punjab region of Northern India.

• Kaura is also a prominent Khatri clan from the Punjab region of Northern India and Pakistan.

Some authors argue that Kaura is singular form of Kaurava i.e descendant of the Kuru clan. Famous world historian Arnold J. Toynbee analyses that the Kambojas and Kurus, originally residing in Caucasian region west of CASPIAN sea, took part in the volker wanderung of the eighth and seventh centuries BCE and then split into two wings. He further says that these two peoples who stamped their national names on the local landscape must have been closely connected and both played some part in Achaemenian history that had been auspicious as well as important . Dr Buddha Prakash and several other historians also believe that the Iranian speaking Eurasian nomads like the Yautiyas (Armenian Uti, Greek Utene), Scythians, Kurus, Kambojas etc. had entered Iran, Afghanistan and India during the 'volker-wanderung' of ninth and eighth centuries BCE . It is also believed that it were these Cimmerians, Scythians, Kurus and the Kambojas tribes which had contributed to the formation of the Achamenian Empire . Chandra Chakravarty says that "the Kambojas... the Kamuias in Lion Capital of Mathura, the Kambohs of north-west Punjab was a branch of the Scythian Cambysene of Ancient Armenia" . He writes that the (Caucasian name) Cambysene/Cambyses transliterates into Kamboja and the (Caucasian name) Cyrus into Kuru of the Sanskrit texts. He also notes that the hordes, who had participated in the earlier invasion of Iran along with Yauteyas were the Kambysene Scythians (Kambojas) living around the Kambysene region, near Caucasus Mountains in ancient Armenia. Later, they became the Kuru-Kambojas of the Sanskrit texts. These Kuru-Kamboja hordes later got mixed with the Alpine base "Parsa-Xsayatia" (Purush-Khattis) Iranians and gave birth to The Famous Achaemenian dynastic line of Persia . This might explain as to why the Achamenians chose to name their famous kings as Kambujiya (Cambyses) and Kurush (Cyrus) after Kambojas and Kurus.

We are also informed by our numerous ancient Sanskrit texts like Ashtadhyayi of Panini , Manusmriti , Mahabharata , Kautiliya’s Arthashastra , Harivamsa , Vayu Purana , Brahmanda Purana and several other authorites that the ancestors of the modern Kambojs, in ancient times, were prominent Kshatriyas and were established in the Kshatriya-Dharama as a warriors and a rulers. The Kambojas and the Kurus are documented as the most ancient ethnic tribes in Indian subcontinent and as Arnold J. Toynbee and Chandra Chakraverty have analysed, the Kurus and Kambojas were originally a single tribe, hence it can be deduced that the Kaura clan is basically and fundamentally a Kamboj clan name.