Esse Kamboja Here

To be Kamboja was not to own land. Land could be taken. It was to carry the asva-hridaya —the horse-heart—in your own chest. When the boy from the west, the one they called Sikander, crossed the Indus with his phalanxes of iron men, the elders had laughed. Not from pride. From recognition.

And esse Kamboja became a verb again: to ride, to vanish, to rise from the valley floor with a spear in each hand and the wind at your back. esse kamboja

The Kamboja did not need victory.

Below, in the Greek camp, a sentry heard the humming. He crossed himself to gods he no longer believed in. To be Kamboja was not to own land