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The Rishikas (also Rshika and Ṛṣika) was an ancient Kingdom of Central Asia and South Asia, who are mentioned in Hinduism and Sanskrit literary texts, including the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Brhat-Samhita, the Markendeya Purana and Patanjali's Mahabhashya.However, the Rishikas are not mentioned in the Ashtadhyayi of Pāṇini.
Some historians believe the Rishikas were a part of, or synonymous with, the Kambojas. However, the Mahabharata not only suggests a distinction, but also adds an internal division – sub-divisions within the Rishikas known as the Uttara ("northern") and the Parama ("supreme") .
{Mahabharata, Critical Edition, 2.25.24–25.
Classical literary texts state that the Rishikas were neighbors of the Parama Kambojas and the Lohara dynasty in Sakas-dvipa ("Sakaland") (most likely Transoxiana).
According to traditional accounts, during the 2nd century BCE a subgroup of Rishikas migrated to southwestern India and settled there, crossing Afghanistan, Balochistan, Sindhu and Sovira.
The Sabhaparava of the Mahabharata describes the Lohas, Kambojas and Rishikas as neighboring tribes west of the Himalayas.MBH II.27.25 The Adiparva of the Mahabharata compares the Kambojas and the Rishikas, describing them both as "despised" people. The Kambojan king Chandravarma is described as an incarnation of Daitya Chandra and the sage, Rishika ("from the Rishika tribe"), is described as an incarnation of Danva Arka.
In one version of the Mahabharata Chandravarma is a Rishikan, rather than a Kambojan, king. The Kambojas and Rishikas appear side-by-side in a verse.MBH 1/67/31-32. In the Udyogaparava of the Mahabharata,Mahabharata 5.5.15, see the verse above. the Kambojas and Rishikas are described as one people ( Kambojarishika).
A scholarly Social class of people is implied, according to some authorities, by the name "Rishika" in the Matsya and . The Kambojas, in the Dronaparava section of the Mahabharata, are also described as a scholarly people:
Those other car-warriors with golden standards, O king, whom you see, and who, like the wild elephants are difficult of being resisted, they are called the Kambojas. They are brave, a learned people ( kritavidyash) and are firmly devoted to the science of weapons. Desiring one another's welfare, they are all highly united and mutually co-operative. They constitute a full Akshauhini of wrathful warriors.
The name "Asii" (or "Asioi" mentioned by Strabo, according to one view, alludes to their connections with horses ( asva or assa). Based on the earlier information from Megasthenes' (350-290 BC) Indica, Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentions Osii (Orsi), Asoi, Aseni, Taxillae and Peucolaitae as Indian peoples living in the upper Indus valley south of the Hindu Kush.See: List of Indian Races, p 129 of Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, 1877,, a tr. of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes collected by Schwanbeck and of the 1st part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle. With intr., notes. Repr., with additions, from the 'Indian antiquary', . Megasthenes, Flavius Arrianus, Translated by John Watson McCrindle.Pliny's Natural History, 1848, p 126, Philemon Holland, Wernerian Club, Wernerian Club. Pliny only borrowed the information earlier prepared by Megasthenese, who is believed to have been a Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya after the Chandragupta Maurya had won war against Seleucid in about 302 BCE. The Taxillae and Peucolaitae are Gandharans of the Indian traditions while the Asoi, Osii/Orsi and Aseni appear yet other variants of the Assaceni (Aspasioi) and Assacani (Assakenoi)—the Asvayana and Asvakayana of Pāṇini and Katyayana). The Aspasios and Assakenois were notable Kamboja groups engaged in horse culture.
Varāhamihira identifies Rishikas in Dakshinapatha in the Brhat Samhita.Brhat Samhita Ch XIV.11–16. Brhat SamhitaBrhat Samhita XIV.17–19. and Markendeya PuranaMarkendeya Purana 58.30–32. identify Kamboja and Pahlava settlements in southwestern India.Geographical data in Early Puranas, p 135.
Evidence from Udyogaparava of the Mahabharata associates the Rishikas with the Kambojas, Shakas and near the Anupa region (Anupadesha):cf: Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India: (a Study on the Puranic Lists of the Peoples of Bharatavarsa), 1955, p 71, Dr Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri.
Shakanam Pahlavana.n cha Daradanam cha ye nripah Kamboja Rishika ye cha pashchim anupakash cha ye (5.5.15) "The kings of the Shakas, Pahlavas, Daradas and the Kamboja Rishikas live in the west in Anupadesa, or the seacoast regions."
The Daradas in the verse above appear to be a copyist's mistake, since the Paradas, not the Daradas, are associated with the military confederation of the Sakas, Kambojas and Pahlavas ( Pānca-ganah or "five hordes" of Kshatriyas in the Puranic texts, for instance).Harivamsa 14.1–19; Vayu Purana: v 88.127-43.Cultural History from Vayu Purana, 1973, p 27, fn 185, Reprint of 1946 Edition, published by Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute, Poona; Foreign Elements in Ancient Indian Society, 2nd Century BC to 7th Century AD – 1979, p 125, Uma Prasad Thapliyal.
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