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 is no coincidence. He thinks the Śhākyas were
"an early incursion of the Scythians" into India and 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 Śākyas have been thoroughly Indianised





