Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.s2.60

c13.s2.60

It might appear that the Pāli word *sāko* is here used in the sense of an oak tree, but we do not find such a meaning listed in the Sanskrit and the Pāli dictionaries. Thus the connection of a word *sāko* meaning “oak” and the name of the Buddha’s clan is very doubtful. Rhys Davids commented in this connection that “the oak (which does not grow in the text, and could not grow in the Terai) has been introduced to enable the word play to be adequately rendered. The Pāli *saka* means a “herb.”⁶ We think that the exclamation of the king quoted above, while not losing sight of the context, should be translated as, "The princes are very powerful (*sakyā*)! Very powerful indeed (*parama-sakya vatabho*) are the royal princes." The authors of this passage might have intended a word-play or pun. The word *śāka* in Pāli, as we have noted, normally means an herb, and in Sanskrit the corresponding *śāka* also means the same.¹ The word *śaktā* means "able," "competent for," and "equal to".² We suggest that the name of the tribe is connected with the root *śak*. In Pāli the word *sakya* is used in the sense of "capable," with no ethnic connotation.³