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Shakya also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: शाक्य and
Shakya (SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
:{{IAST|Śākya}},
DevanagariDevanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: शाक्य and
Shakya (SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
:{{IAST|Śākya}},
DevanagariDevanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: शाक्य and
{{IAST
:{{IAST|Sākya}}) was an ancient
janapada of
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in the
1st millennium BCEThe 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC.The Neo-Assyrian Empire, followed by the Achaemenids. In Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The...
. In
BuddhistBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
texts the Shakyas, the inhabitants of Shakya
janapada, are mentioned as a {{IAST|
Kshatriya*For the Bollywood film of the same name see Kshatriya Kshatriya or Kashtriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas in Hinduism...
}} clan of Gotama
gotraIn the Hindu society, the term Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram , which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son"...
.
The most famous Shakya was
Gautama BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
, a member of the ruling Gautama clan of
LumbiniLumbinī is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi district of Nepal. It is the place where Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama, who as the Buddha Gautama founded the Buddhist tradition. The Buddha lived between roughly 563 and 483 BCE...
, who is also known as Shakyamuni Buddha, "sage of the Shakyas", due to his association with this ancient kingdom.
The
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
PuranasThe Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
mention Shakya as a king of
Ikshvaku dynastyThe Ikshvaku dynasty, in Puranic literature, was a mythical dynasty founded by Ikshvaku, grandson of Vivasvan or Surya and son of Vaivasvata Manu. This dynasty is also known as . The important personalities belonging to this royal house are Harishchandra, Dilīpa, Sagara, Raghu, Rama and Prasenajit...
, son of Sanjaya and father of Shuddhodana.
History
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. The Buddhist texts,
MahāvastuThe Mahāvastu is a text of the Lokottaravāda school of Early Buddhism. It describes itself as being a historical preface to the Buddhist monastic codes...
,
MahavamsaThe Mahavamsa is a historical poem written in the Pali language, of the kings of Sri Lanka...
and Sumangalavilasini give detailed accounts of the {{IAST|Śākya}}s.
The accounts of Buddhist texts
The Shakyas are mentioned in the Buddhist texts, which include the {{IAST|Mahāvastu}} (
ca.Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
late 2nd century BCE), {{IAST|Mahāvaṃsa}} and {{IAST|Sumaṅgalavilāsinī}}, mostly in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha, as a part of the
Adichchabandhus (kinsmen of the sun) or the {{IAST|Ādichcha}}s (solar race) and as descendants of the legendary king {{Unicode|
IkṣvākuIkshvaku pāli: Okkāka) was the first king of the Ikshvaku dynasty and founder of the Solar Dynasty of Kshatriyas in Vedic civilization in ancient India.-In Hinduism:He is remembered in Hindu scriptures as a righteous and glorious king...
}} ({{IAST|Pāli: Okkāka}}):
{{quote|There lived once upon a time a king of the {{IAST|Śākya}}, a scion of the solar race, whose name was
{{IASTKing Suddhodana was the father of Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. He was a leader of the Shakya people, who lived in southern Nepal. Suddhodana's father was Sinahana...
. 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 {{IASTQueen Māyā of Sakya was the birth mother of the historical Gautama Buddha, Siddhārtha of the Gautama gotra, and sister of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī the first Buddhist nun ordained by the Buddha. "Māyā" means "illusion" or "enchantment" in Sanskrit and Pāli. Māyā is also called Mahāmāyā and Māyādevī...
, from her resemblance to {{IAST|Māyā}} the Goddess.|
Buddhacarita of
{{IAST' was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India to a Brahmin family. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivaled the...
, I.1-2}}
The Buddhist text
Mahavamsa (II, 1-24), traces the origin of the
Sakyas ({{IAST|Śākya}}s) 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 dynastyThe Ikshvaku dynasty, in Puranic literature, was a mythical dynasty founded by Ikshvaku, grandson of Vivasvan or Surya and son of Vaivasvata Manu. This dynasty is also known as . The important personalities belonging to this royal house are Harishchandra, Dilīpa, Sagara, Raghu, Rama and Prasenajit...
, which include Mandhata and Sagara. 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.
Shakya administration
According to the
Mahavastu and the
Lalitavistara, the seat of the Shakya administration was the
saṃsthāgāra (Pali:
santhāgāraSanthagara is a pali word derived from combination of Santha or Sanstha in Sanskrit and Agara and was used for the general assembly hall of a particular Ga%E1%B9%87a_sangha kshatriya clan of ancient northern India where the old and younger of the same clan meets to decide on the general and state...
) (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.
Annexation by Kosala
{{IAST|Viḍūḍabha}}, the son of
PasenadiPasenadi was a dynasty ruler of Kosala. He succeeded his father . He was a prominent of Gautama Buddha, who built many Buddhist monasteries.-Life:...
and {{IAST|Vāsavakhattiyā}}, the daughter of a {{IAST|Śākya}} named {{IAST|Mahānāma}} by a slave girl ascended the throne of
KosalaKosala was an ancient Indian region, corresponding roughly in area with the region of Awadh in present day Uttar Pradesh. According to the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya and the Jaina text, the Bhagavati Sutra, Kosala was one of the Solasa Mahajanapadas in 6th century BCE and its cultural and...
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 {{IAST|Śākya}} territory, massacred them and annexed it.
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