History of Shakya's

History of Shakya's

The Shakyas were settled in the territory bounded by the Himalayas in the north Nepal, 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 Śhākyas.^[2]

Indologist Michael Witzel has suggested that the similarity of the name Śhākya and Śaka (the Indian and Persian name for the Scythians) is no coincidence. He thinks the Śhākyas were "an early incursion of the Scythians" into India Nepal. ^[5] The Shākyas appear to have retained features that have other Indic or Vedic precedent such as burial mounds (stūpas), which are referred to in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa as "demonic" (ŚB 12.8.1.5), and are similar to the Kurgan mounds in Central Asia. Witzel has also suggested, informally, that the idea of being judged on the basis of your actions in life comes into India from Zoroastrianism. Certainly karma has no Vedic precedent, and Johannes Bronkhorst has argued that Brahmins were assimilating the idea of karma from Another possible connection with Iran is the division of the person into Body speech and mind by Buddhists, which has no Vedic precedent but is prominent in Zoroastrianism. ^[6] However by the time we know of them the Śhākyas have been thoroughly Indianised.

The Shākyas were one of a number of small tribes—Kāmāla, Malla, Vṛiji, Lichchavi, etc—who do not appear in the Ṛgveda. Pāṇini (ca 5th century BCE) knows the Mallas and Vṛiji as desert tribes in Rajasthan, and Alexander's ambassadors met a tribe called Malloi in the same region. They appear to have enter India from the west Nepal some time after the Vedas were completed (ca. 1000 BCE) and then migrated east well before the time of the Buddha (ca. 480-400 BCE). An abrupt climate change ca. 850 BCE caused Western India to have an arid period which may have been what set off the migration. This also coincides with a moist period on the Central Asia Steppes and a massive expansion of the Sycthian culture from the region of Tuva westwards to the Black Sea. ^[7]

By the time of the Buddha the Śhākya nation had been subsumed into the Kingdom of Kapilvastu at that time call republic of Shakya

 The accounts of Buddhist texts

In several places in the Pāli Canon, including the Ambaṭṭha Sutta (D.i.92), the progenitors of the Śhākyas are related to King Okkāka. Pāli Okkāka is identified with the Sanskrit Ikṣvāku, who is known from Purāṇic stories, and in Jainism he is an ancestor to all of the Tirthaṅkaras. The king banishes his elder brothers from his kingdom and they make their home on the slopes of the Himalayas. But they can find no one suitable to marry, so they take their own sisters as wives, and these incestuous relationships give birth to the Śhākyas. Given the prejudice against incest in India society generally it is remarkable that this detail was preserved, and this suggests that it might have a grain of truth. If so it points to Iran "there is good evidence for this practice called xᵛaētuuadaθa, so-called next-of-kin or close-kin marriage."^[8]

The Śhākyas 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 Śhākya, a scion of the solar race, whose name was Śhuddhodana. He was pure in conduct, and beloved of the Śhākya 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 Aśwhoghoṣh, I.1-2

The Buddhist text Mahavamsa (II, 1-24), traces the origin of the Shakyas (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 Shakyas. The youngest son of Sihassara was Jayasen. Jayasen 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, MahaMaya and Prajapati, both daughters of Anjana. Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) was the son of King Shuddhodana and MahaMaya. Rahul was the son of Shiddhartha and Yashodara (also known  as Bhaddakachchana), daughter of Suppabuddha and granddaughter of Anjana.^[4][9]

 Shakya administration

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 King, who presided over the meetings.^[2]

 Annexation by Kosala

Viḍdūḍabh, the son of Pasenadi and Vāsavakhattiyā, the daughter of a Śhākya 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 Śhākya territory, massacred them and annexed it.^[