Oak and the Tribe of the Buddha

[Dominik Wujastyk]

As is well known, 'Shaakya' is a patronymic, meaning 'descendent of 
Shaka'.  The word 'Shaka' is a proper name, referring to the tribe, and 
may not have a Sanskrit etymology. Nothing points to an oak tree.  Since 
'shaka' also means the same as 'shak.rt', one probably doesn't want to go 
further into etymologizing the Buddha's title.

DW




On Wed, 28 Sep 2005, jkirk wrote:

> Hello Indologers,
>
> This is a query that came to the Buddha-L list, and as I too am wondering
> about this translation of shakya--any comment, anyone?
>
> Thanks,
> Joanna Kirkpatrick
> ==================================
>
>
>
>> Dear list members,
>> 
>> Here's a quotation from the new book _Oak:  The Frame
>> of Civilization_, by William Bryant Logan, Norton, 2005,
>> page 24:
>> 
>> 'The name of the historic Buddha, Shakyamuni, means
>> "the sage of the oak tree people".'
>> 
>> This surprised me, and I haven't been able to find any
>> corroboration on the internet or in my library.  I'm not
>> an expert on Pali or Sanskrit, so I can't judge the
>> accuracy of this statement.  The book is not a scholarly
>> volume, so there aren't footnotes  -- otherwise I'd just
>> look at his references and I might have my answer already.
>> 
>> Was the Shakya tribe/clan really named after oak trees?
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> Greg Bungo
>