Śākya (Sanskrit) or Sakya (Pāli) is the name (derived from Sanskrit śakya, "capable, able") of an Indo-Aryan-speaking nation or janapada of the kṣatriya varṇa (the so-called "warrior caste"). The Śākyas formed independent tribes or kingdoms near the foothills of the Himālayas. The Śākya capital was Kapilavastu (Pāli: Kapilavatthu). The Sanskrit language ( , ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. ... Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ... The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, thus belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. ... The political process among the ancient Aryans appears to have originally started with semi-nomadic tribal units called Jana (Sanskrit: Jana = tribe). ... Kshatriya (Hindi: , from Sanskrit: , ) is the title of the princely military order in the Vedic society. ... The word Caste is derived from the Portuguese word casta, meaning lineage, breed or race. ... Perspective view of the Himalayas and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... Kapilavastu (or, Kapilvastu) is a small city in Nepal, the birth place of Siddhartha Gautama(Buddha). ...

The most famous Śākya was the Buddha, a member of the ruling Gautama (Pāli: Gotama) clan of Lumbini, who is also known as "Śākyamuni" (Pāli: Sakyamuni, "sage of the Śākya nation"). Standing Buddha sculpture, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE, Musée Guimet. ... Lumbini (Sanskrit for the lovely) is a Buddhist pilgrimage site located in Rupandehi District, Lumbini Zone of Nepal near the Indian border. ...

The Śākyas are mentioned in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha (e.g. Mahāvastu, c. end of 2nd century BCE) as part of the "solar race" – i.e., descendants of the legendary king Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka): The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ...

"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 Greeks, and many writers and scholars since, have connected them to the Scythians, or Śaka as they were known in India from whom descended the 粟特. However, the Śaka were not known in India before the 2nd century BCE, centuries after the last attested existence of the Śākyas. "Śākya" may nonetheless be possibly cognate with "Scythian" as a result of their shared Indo-Iranian heritage. Suddhodana was the father of Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. ... Queen Mayas white elephant dream, and the conception of the Buddha. ... Asvaghosa (80-150 AD?) was an Indian philosopher-poet. ... Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the KulOba kurgan burial near Kerch. ... The Sakas are a peoples that lived in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Iran, Ukraine, and Altay Mountains and Siberia in Russia, in the centuries before 300 AD. They are considered to be a branch of Scythians by most scholars. ... Indo-Iranian can refer to: The Indo-Iranian languages The prehistoric Indo-Iranian people, see Aryan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

External links

• Shakya coins