Sakyā untranslated

Sakyā, Sakka, Sākiyā. A tribe in North India, to which the Buddha belonged. Their capital was Kapilavatthu. Mention is also made of other Sākyan settlements e.g., Cātumā, Khomadussa, Sāmagāma, Devadaha, Silāvatī, Nagaraka, Medatalumpa, Sakkhara and Uḷumpa (q.v.). Within the Sākyan tribe there were probably several clans, gottā. The Buddha himself belonged to the Gotamagotta. It has been suggested (e.g., Thomas: Life and Legend of the Buddha, 22) that this was a Brahmin clan, claiming descent from the ancient Isi Gotama. The evidence for this suggestion is, however, very meagre. Nowhere do we find the Sākiyans calling themselves Brahmins. On the other hand, we find various clans claiming a share of the Buddha’s relics on the ground that they, like the Buddha, were Khattiyas (DN.ii.165). It is stated that the Sākiyans were a haughty people. Vin.ii.183; DN.i.90; Ja.i.88; Dhp­a.iii.163. Xuanzang, however, found them obliging and gentle in manners (Beal-Xuan, op.cit., ii.14).

When the Buddha first visited them, after his Awakening, they refused to honour him on account of his youth. The Buddha then performed a miracle and preached the Vessantarajātaka, and their pride was subdued. They were evidently fond of sports and mention is made of a special school of archery conducted by a Sākyan family, called Vedhaññā (DN.iii.117; DN­a.iii.905). When the prince Siddhattha Gotama (later the Buddha) wished to marry, no Sākyan would give him his daughter until he had showed his proficiency in sport (Ja.i.58).

The Sākiyans evidently had no king. Theirs was a republican form of government, probably with a leader, elected from time to time. The administration and judicial affairs of the gotta were discussed in their Santhāgāra, or Mote Hall, at Kapilavatthu. See, e.g., DN.i.91; the Sākiyans had a similar Mote Hall at Cātumā (MN.i.457). The Mallas of Kusinārā also had a Santhāgāra (DN.ii.164); so did the Licchavīs of Vesālī (Vin.i.233; MN.i.228).

Ambaṭṭha (q.v.) once visited it on business; so did the envoys of Pasenadi, when he wished to marry a Sākyan maiden (see below). A new Mote Hall was built at Kapilavatthu while the Buddha was staying at the Nigrodhārāma, and he was asked to inaugurate it. This he did by a series of ethical discourses lasting through the night, delivered by himself, Ānanda, and Moggallāna. MN.i.353f.; SN.iv.182f; the hall is described at SN­a.iii.63; cf. Ud­a.409.

The Sākiyans were very jealous of the purity of their race; they belonged to the Ādicca gotta, (Ādiccā nāma gottena, Sākiyā nāma jātiyā, Snp. vs.423) and claimed descent from Okkāka (q.v.). Their ancestors were the nine children of Okkāka, whom he banished in order to give the kingdom to Jantu kumāra, his son by another queen. These nine children went towards Himavā, and, having founded Kapilavatthu (q.v. for details), lived there. To the eldest sister they gave the rank of mother, and the others married among themselves. The eldest sister, Piyā, later married Rāma, king of Benares, and their descendants became known as the Koḷiyans (see Koḷiyā for details). When Okkāka heard of this, he praised their action, saying, “Sakyā vata bho kumārā, paramasakyā vata bho rājakumāra; the young men are truly able, the young men are truly extremely able, hence their name came to be “Sakyā.” Snp­a.i.352f.; cf. DN­a.i.258. Okkāka had a slave girl, Disā, her offspring were the Kaṇhāyanas, to which gotta belonged Ambaṭṭha (q.v.). The Mhv.ii.12ff gives the history of the direct descent of the Buddha from Okkāka, and this contains a list of the Sākyan chiefs of Kapilavatthu:

• Okkāmukha was Okkāka’s eldest son;
• Nipuṇa, Candimā, Candamukha, Sivisañjaya, Vessantara, Jāli, Sīhavāhana and Sīhassara were among his descendants.
• Sīhassara had eighty-two thousand sons and grandsons, of whom Jayasena was the last.
• Jayasena’s son was Sīhahanu, and his daughter Yasodharā.
• Sīhahanu’s wife was Kaccāna, daughter of Devadahasakka of Devadaha, whose son Añjana married Yasodharā.
• Añjana had two sons, Daṇḍapāṇī and Suppabuddha, and two daughters,
• Māyā and Pajāpatī.
• Sīhahanu had five sons and two daughters: Suddhodana, Dhotodana, Sakkodana, Sukkodana, Amitodana, Amitā and Pamitā.
• Māyā and Pajāpatī were married to Suddhodana, and Māyā’s son was Siddhattha, who became the Buddha.
• Suppabuddha married Amitā and they had two children, Bhaddakaccānā and Devadatta.
• The consort of the Bodhisatta was Bhaddakaccānā; their son was Rāhula.

From the very first there seems to have been intermarriage between the Sākiyans and the Koḷiyans; but there was evidently a good deal of endogamy among the Sākiyans, which earned for them the rebuke of the Koḷiyans in the quarrel between them “like dogs, jackals, and such like beasts, cohabiting with their own sisters, e.g., Snp­a.i.357; Ja.v.412 L; there were eighty-two thousand rājās among the Koḷiyans and Sākiyans (Snp­a.i.140).

A quarrel, which broke out in the Buddha’s lifetime, between the Sākiyans and the Koḷiyans is several times referred to in the books. The longest account is found in the introductory story of the Kuṇālajātaka (Ja 536). The cause of the dispute was the use of the water of the River Rohiṇī (q.v.), which flowed between the two kingdoms. The quarrel waxed fierce, and a bloody battle was imminent, when the Buddha, arriving in the air between the two hosts, asked them, “Which is of more priceless value, water or Khattiya chiefs?” He thus convinced them of their folly and made peace between them. On this occasion he preached five Jātaka stories – the Phandana, Daddabha, Laṭukika, Rukkhadhamma and Vaṭṭaka (Sammodamāna) – and the Attadaṇḍasutta.

To show their gratitude the Sākiyans and Koḷiyans gave each two hundred and fifty young men from their respective families to join the Saṅgha of the Buddha (Ja.v.412f.; for their history see also Snp­a.i.358f).

Earlier, during the Buddha’s first visit to Kapilavatthu, when he had humbled the pride of his kinsmen by a display of miracles, each Sākyan family had given one representative to enter the Saṅgha and to help their famous kinsman. The wives of these, and of other Sākiyans who had joined the Saṅgha, were the first to become nuns under Pajāpatī Gotamī (q.v.) when the Buddha gave permission for women to enter the Saṅgha. Among the most eminent of the Sākyan young men, who now joined, were Anuruddha, Ānanda, Bhaddiya, Kimbila, Bhagu and Devadatta. Their barber, Upāli, entered the Saṅgha at the same time; they arranged that he should be ordained first, so that he might be higher than they in seniority and thus receive their obeisance, and thereby humble their pride Vin.ii.181f.; according to Dhp­a.i.133, eighty thousand Sākyan youths had joined the Saṅgha.

The Buddha states, in the Aggaññasutta, that the Sākiyans were vassals of King Pasenadi of Kosala. DN.iii.83 (Sakyā... Pasenadi-Kosalassa anuyuttā bhavanti, karonti Sakyā rañño Pasenadimhi Kosale nipaccakāraṁ abhivādanaṁ paccupaṭṭhānaṁ añjalikammaṁ sāmīcikammaṁ, the Sakyans... are subject to Pasenadi of Kosala. The Sakyans perform acts of deference toward King Pasenadi of Kosala - bowing, rising to greet him, saluting with joined palms, and proper courtesy); cf. Snp.vs 422, where the Buddha describes his country as being “Kosalesu niketino having a long connection with Kosala.”

Yet, when Pasenadi wished to establish connection with the Buddha’s family by marrying one of the daughters of a Sākyan chief, the Sākiyans decided in their Mote Hall that it would be beneath their dignity to marry one of their daughters to the King of Kosala. But as they dared not refuse Pasenadi’s request, the Sākyan chieftain, Mahā Nāma, solved the difficulty by giving him Vāsabhakhattiyā (q.v.), who was his daughter by a slave girl, Nāgamuṇḍā. By her Pasenadi had a son, Viḍūḍabha. When Pasenadi discovered the trick, he deprived his wife and her son of all their honours, but restored them on the intervention of the Buddha. Later, when Viḍūḍabha, who had vowed vengeance on the Sākiyans for the insult offered to his father, became king, he marched into Kapilavatthu and there massacred the Sākiyans, including women and children. The Buddha felt himself powerless to save them from their fate because they had done wrong in a previous life by throwing poison into a river. Only a few escaped, and these came to be called the Naḷasākiyā and the Tiṇasākiyā. The Mhv-ṭ (p.180) adds that, during this massacre, some of the Sākiyans escaped to the Himālaya, where they built a city, which came to be called Moriya nagara because the spot resounded with the cries of peacocks. This was the origin of the Moriya dynasty, to which Asoka belonged (p.189). Thus Asoka and the Buddha were kinsmen.

Among the Sākiyans who thus escaped was Paṇḍu, son of Amitodana. He crossed the Ganges, and, on the other side of the river, founded a city. His daughter was Bhaddakaccānā (q.v.), who later married Paṇḍuvāsudeva, king of Ceylon. Thus the kings of Ceylon were connected by birth to the Sākiyans. Mhv.viii.18ff. Six of her brothers also came to Ceylon, where they founded settlements: Rāma, Uruvela, Anurādha, Vijita, Dīghāyu and Rohaṇa (Mhv.ix 6ff.).

Sākyā. See Sakyā.