Shakya
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The Shakya (Sanskrit shakya, "capable, able", also called VajjiTemplate:Fact) were a janapada of Indo-AryanTemplate:Fact Hindu kshatriyas (warrior caste). 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.
The most famous Shakya was Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha, who is also known as "Shakyamuni" ("sage of the Shakya clan").
The Shakyas are mentioned in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha (Mahāvastu, c. end of 2nd century BCE) as the "solar race":
- "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."Template:Fact
The Greeks, and some writers and scholars since, have connected them to the Scythians, or Sakas as they were known in India.Template:Fact
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