Shakyamuni Buddha, the most famous of the Shakyas. Seated stucco from the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Hebei province.

Shakya (Sanskrit: Śākya, Devanagari: शाक्य, Pāli: Sākya) was an ancient tribe (janapada) of the Indian Subcontinent in the 1st millennium BCE.^[1] In Buddhist texts the Shakyas, the inhabitants of Shakya janapada, are mentioned as a Kshatriya clan of Gotama gotra.^[2][3]

The most famous Shakya was Gautama Buddha, a member of the ruling Gautama clan of Lumbini, who is also known as Shakyamuni Buddha, "sage of the Shakyas", due to his association with this ancient (Kirat) kingdom.

The Puranas mention Shakya as a king of Ikshvaku dynasty, son of Sanjaya and father of Shuddhodana.^[4]

History[link]

The Hindu Puranas mention Shakya as a king of Ikshvaku dynasty, son of Sanjaya and father of Shuddhodana.^[4]

The Shakyas are mentioned in the Buddhist texts, which include the Mahāvastu (ca. late 2nd century BCE), Mahāvaṃsa and Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, mostly in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha, as a part of the Adichchabandhus (kinsmen of the sun)^[2] or the Ādichchas (solar race) and as descendants of the legendary king Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka):

The Shakyas were settled in the territory bounded by the Himalayas in the north, The Rohini (the present-day Kobana, a tributory of the Rapti) in the east and the Rapti in the south. Some Buddhist texts, Mahāvastu, Mahavamsa and Sumangalavilasini give accounts of the Śākyas.^[2]

The Sākyas were one of a number of small tribes—Kāmāla, Malla, Vṛji, Licchavi, etc.—who do not appear in the Ṛgveda. Pāṇini (ca 5th century BCE) knows the Mallas and Vṛji as desert tribes in Rajasthan, and Alexander's ambassadors met a tribe called Malloi in the same region.

By the time of the Buddha the Śākya nation had been subsumed into the Kingdom of Kosala under King Pasenadi.

The accounts of Buddhist texts[link]

The Śākyas are mentioned in later Buddhist texts as well including the Mahāvastu (ca. late 2nd century BCE), Mahāvaṃsa and Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (ca. 5th century CE), mostly in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha, as a part of the Adichchabandhus (kinsmen of the sun)^[2] or the Ādichchas (solar race) and as descendants of the legendary king Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka)

There lived once upon a time a king of the Śākya, a scion of the solar race, whose name was Śuddhodana. He was pure in conduct, and beloved of the Śākya like the autumn moon. He had a wife, splendid, beautiful, and steadfast, who was called the Great Māyā, from her resemblance to Māyā the Goddess.

—Buddhacarita of Aśvaghoṣa, I.1-2

The Buddhist text Mahavamsa (II, 1-24), traces the origin of the Sakyas (Śākyas) to king Okkaka (Ikshvaku) and gives their genealogy from Mahasammata, an ancestor of Okkaka. This list comprises the names of a number of prominent kings of the Ikshvaku dynasty, which include Mandhata and Sagara.^[2] According to this text, Okkamukha was the eldest son of Okkaka. Sivisamjaya and Sihassara were the son and grandson of Okkamukha. King Sihassara had eighty-two thousand sons and grandsons, who were together known as the Sakyas. The youngest son of Sihassara was Jayasena. Jayasena had a son, Sihahanu, and a daughter, Yashodhara (not to be confused with prince Siddhartha's wife), who was married to Devadahasakka. Devadahasakka had two daughters, Anjana and Kaccana. Sihahanu married Kaccana, and they had five sons and two daughters, Suddhodana was one of them. Suddhodana had two queens, Maya and Prajapati, both daughters of Anjana. Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) was the son of Suddhodana and Maya. Rahula was the son of Siddhartha and Yashodara (also known as Bhaddakaccana), daughter of Suppabuddha and granddaughter of Anjana.^[4][5]

Shakya administration[link]

According to the Mahavastu and the Lalitavistara, the seat of the Shakya administration was the saṃsthāgāra (Pali:santhāgāra) (assembly hall) at Kapilavastu. A new building for the Shakya samsthagara was constructed at the time of Gautama Buddha, which was inaugurated by him. The highest administrative authority was the Shakya Parishad, comprising 500 members, which met in the samsthagara to transact any important business. The Shakya Parishad was headed by an elected raja, who presided over the meetings.^[2]

Annexation by Kosala[link]

Viḍūḍabha, the son of Pasenadi and Vāsavakhattiyā, the daughter of a Śākya named Mahānāma by a slave girl ascended the throne of Kosala after overthrowing his father. As an act of vengeance for cheating Kosala by sending his mother, the daughter of a slave woman for marriage to his father, he invaded the Śākya territory, massacred them and annexed it.^[6][7]

See also[link]

• Koliya
• Janapadas

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Rhys Davids, C.A.F. 1926. ‘Man as Willer.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 4: 29-44.
• Silk, Jonathan A. 2008 ‘Putative Persian perversities: Indian Buddhist condemnations of Zoroastrian close-kin marriage in context.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 71: pp 433–464.
• van Geel, B. et al. 2004. Climate change and the expansion of the Scythian culture after 850 BC: a hypothesis Journal of Archaeological Science. 31 (12) December: 1735-1742.
• Witzel, Michael. 1997. The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools: The Social and Political Milieu (Materials on Vedic Śākhās, 8) in Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts. New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas. Harvard Oriental Series. Opera Minora, vol. 2. Cambridge 1997, 257-345

External links[link]

• Shakya janapada coins