Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c29.35

c29.35

§ 191. There is some discussion about the origin of the Śākyas also. Now the testimony of the Pāli authorities is unanimous that the Śākyas were a branch of the Aikshvākas. This is admitted by the adverse side, the Purāṇas, which place the Buddha, his father and his son, in the Ikshvāku house. Contemporaries of the Buddha amongst whom was Ajāta-Śatru, king of Magadha, claim him as a Kshatriya.² As we have seen in the history of the formation of new republics and the Purāṇic detail about the Yaudheyas and Madras, the state-community was called after the leader. We find the same origin of the Śākya Community given by the Buddha himself.³ That history of origin agrees with the ascertained history of similar republican foundations. That history therefore should be accepted—that a cadet of an Aikshvāka king founded the Śākyan republic christened after his name.