Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.s2.41

c13.s2.41

The name of the Buddha’s clan is spelt differently in various Pāli texts but the two most common variants are *Sakya* and *Sakka*. Most frequent of all is *Sakya* which besides the later *Jātakas* appears in the *Dīgha Nikāya* alone at least 31 times.³ In the *Majjhima Nikāya* the word occurs 28 times in this form.⁴ In the *Saṁyutta Nikāya* it also occurs 18 times.⁵ In the form *Sakka* the name occurs less frequently. In the locative plural, the name nearly always occurs as *Sakkesu*,⁶ though we have also found it twice as *Sakyesu*.⁷ The usual form of the name in the genitive singular is also almost universally *Sakkassa*.⁸ However, in the genitive plural the word occurs most commonly as *Sakyānaṁ*,⁹ and only a few times as *Sakkānaṁ*.¹⁰ The form *Sakko* most commonly figures in the *Majjhima Nikāya*.¹¹ It does not occur in this form in the *Dīgha Nikāya* at all and appears only twice in the *Saṁyutta Nikāya*.¹² The name occurs quite commonly in the plural as *Sakyā*.