Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c13.s2.69

c13.s2.69

The connection of the Sakyas with the oak tree is patently false as no oaks grow in the Terāī. The Tibetan tradition which explains away the name of the clan in which their great teacher was born by emphasizing the courage of the ancestors of the Sakyas appears to be too flattering and artificial to be true.⁷ No other scholar has attempted the etymology save B.C. Law, in the cursory remark quoted. At the present stage of our knowledge we are unable to suggest a more satisfactory and convincing etymology of the name than to connect it with the Sanskrit root *śak*.¹