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The Kirāta ((サンスクリット:किरात)) is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who lived in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and North-East India and who are believed to have been Mongoloid in origin. ==Historical mention and mythology== They are mentioned along with Cinas (Chinese), and were different from the Nishadas. They are first mentioned in the Yajurveda (''Shukla'' XXX.16; ''Krisha'' III.4,12,1), and in the Atharvaveda (X.4,14) . In Manu's Dharmashastra (X.44) they are mentioned as degraded Kshatriyas, but outside the ambit of Brahminical influence. It is speculated that the term is a Sanskritization of a Tibeto-Burman tribal name, like that of Kirant or Kiranti of eastern Nepal.〔 In the ''Periplus'', the Kirata are called Kirradai,〔"...among whom are the Kirradai, a race of wild men with flattened noses" 〕 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.〔"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.〕 The ''Sesatai'', who were the source of Malabathron, are similar to the Kirradai—they are not just short and flat-faced, but also shaggy and white.〔"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". 〕 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. In general they are mentioned as "gold-like", or yellow, unlike the Nishadas or the Dasas, who were dark. In Yoga Vasistha 1.15.5 Rama speaks of ''kirAteneva vAgurA'', "a trap () by Kiratas", so about 10th century BCE, 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「kirata」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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