The Kirāta (Sanskrit: 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.
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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, 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.
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.
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 [laid] 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.
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.
Religious beliefs
The Kirat people practice shamanism but they call it "Kirat religion". The Kiratis follow Kirat Mundhum. Their holy text is the Mundhum. Kiratis worship nature and their ancestors. Animism and shamanism and belief in their primeval ancestors, (Yuma Sammang)(Sumnima/Paruhang ) are their cultural and religious practices. The names of some of their festivals are Chasok Tangnam, Sakela, Sakle, Tashi, Sakewa, Saleladi Bhunmidev, Yokwa and Folsyandar. They have two main festivals: Chasok Tangnam and Sakela/Sakewa Ubhauli during plantation season and Sakela/Sakewa Udhauli during the time of harvest.
Mundhum (also known as Peylan) is the religious scripture and folk literature of the Kirat people of Nepal, central to Kirat Mundhum. Mundhum means "the power of great strength" in the Kirati language. The Mundhum covers many aspects of the Kirat culture, customs and traditions that existed before Vedic civilisation in Nepal.