Shakya
Shakya
Western art history
[image] The Shakya (Sanskrit shakya, "capable, able", also called Vajji or Lichchavi) were an janapada of Indo-Iranian/Hindu kshatriyas. The Shakyas formed more or less independent tribes or kingdoms near the foothills of the Himalayas, north of the modern town of Gorakhpur. The Shakya capital was Kapilavastu.Perhaps the most famous Shakya was Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha. Chandragupta Maurya also claimed to be a descendant of Shakyas.
The Shakyas are mentioned in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha (Mahāvastu, c. end of 2nd century BCE) as the "solar race", probably in association with a sun worship:
- "There lived once upon a time a king of the Shakyas, a scion of the solar race, whose name was Suddhodana. He was pure in conduct, and beloved of the Shakyas like the autumn moon. He had a wife, splendid, beautiful, and steadfast, who was called the Great Maya, from her resemblance to Maya the Goddess."
External links:
- Shakya coins
- Buddhism and sun worship