Shakya=Scythian?

[Kusala]

Hello Dhamma friends. Some scholars suggest the Buddha's clan may have been Scythian. Is there any truth to it?

[Kim O'Hara]

Hi, Kusala,
Three answers - accept any or all of them as you like because I think they are all correct.
(1) It doesn't matter. What matters is what he taught.
(2) Probably not, going by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians - but 'Scythian' is so poorly defined anyway that the answer is not going to be very meaningful.
(3) If you said which scholars and where, we might be able to give you a more reasoned response to their claims.


Kim

[jayarava]

Actually no less a scholar that Professor Michael Witzel has recently proposed, in an online forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eura ... sage/13470), that the Śākya tribe may well have been related to the Śakas of Iran. Anyone wishing to follow this up can consult his published essay: The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools: The Social and Political Milieu. http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/canon.pdf