Oak and the Tribe of the Buddha

[Jonathan Silk]

Alex Passi wrote:

>.... The same texts also says that they are living with their 
>sisters, "sakAhi bhagInihi", so as not to spoil their race. This 
>would suggest a multiple pseudo-etymology.

First,  they are not "living" with their sisters (the text has 
samvaasa), or only in the sense that we use the term 'cohabit' in 
contemporary English; they are having sex with their sisters, and the 
Pali goes out of its way to say "their very own [full] sisters," 
while other texts indicate that these are their agnatic half-sisters.

The account of the incestuous origins of the Sakya clan from the sons 
and daughters (in some versions, half-sisters) of King Iskvaku 
appears in many sources. I have not seen it suggested elsewhere that 
this is related to the etymology of the name, although this fact 
itself does not suggest that it is not. If it is, however, it would, 
of course, only work in MIA; Skt sources, for example the 
Mulasarvastivada Vinaya version in Skt, refer to svakasvakaa 
bhaginii, opposed to vaimaat.rkaa bhaginii. (I have written rather a 
lot about this in a book now under review).

JAS
-- 
Jonathan Silk
Department of Asian Languages & Cultures
Center for Buddhist Studies
Director of South & Southeast Asian Languages Program
UCLA
290 Royce Hall
Box 951540
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1540
phone: (310)206-8235
fax:  (310)825-8808
silk at humnet.ucla.edu