John, a difficult question as I think little has been done on this
topic. People notice the similarity of grave mounds but keep it at
that.
However, over the years, I have collected incidental data that add up
to a picture of a migration of Sakas into Bihar, much earlier than
the well known one into Sakastaan (Seistan) around 140 BCE.
It is a question of connecting the dots.
The whole thing happened "under the radar", just like the 1000 years
later movement of Zoroastrian-like Sun worshipping Brahmins (called
Sakaldip) who still have unusual customs such as a marriage fair and
the Chauth Sun festival, just last month. Many Zoroastrian details
in Bhavisya Purana, studied at length by v. Stietencron, et al.
1. There are many local tribes in N. Bihar that are known only from
the Pali (and Jaina) texts:
the Sakya, Vajji, Licchavi, Naya, Kalaama, Buli, Moriya, Vesali, etc.
All of them --with the exception of the Sanskitizing Videha and the
Malla-- do not yet appear in the eastern Late Vedic texts
The Sakya (and Malla, Vajj/Vrji) are NEW in Bihar, and not found in
the Late Vedic texts at *that* location, but first in the Pali canon
(compiled c.250 BCE) .
The Malla are a Rajasthan desert tribe in Jaiminiya Brahmana, and are
still known on the Middle Indus as Malloi in Alexander's time. The
Vajji (Skt. Vrji) are known to Panini (c.350 BCE?) as a gaNa goup
in the Greater Panjab, who habitually live on warfare. The Sakya are
not mentioned at all before the Pali texts and the in Atharvaveda
Paris'ista, et Epic etc.
All adds up to a (very) Late Vedic move into the East (N. Bihar).
With "strange" customs as indicated in the S'B passage.
2. The Sakya have a number of Iranoid links and customs. Briefly:
The name of the Buddha�s clan, the Sakya (Skt. s'aakya), cannot be
separated from the designation of the northern Iranian Saka (Skt.
S'aka) hat entered India only after c. 140 BE, via Sistan.
The name, as well as that of some Late Vedic kings and noblemen,
Balhika Pratipiiya and perhaps Cakra Sthapati, recall the Iranian
countries Baaxdhii/Balh (Bactria) and Caxra.
Further, the Sakya, Malla, etc. built high grave mounds, such as the
one for the Buddha. These remind of Central Asian grave mounds (kurgan).
Then, there is the legendary custom of Sakya incest marriage
(strictly forbidden in India since the Rgveda), an Iranian
(Zoroastrian) custom. (see recent paper by J. Silk ). According to
the Buddhist canon, the Sakya were the sons of King OkkAAka
(IkSvaaku) and were exiled from Ayodhya to the jungles of S. Nepal,
where they could only marry their sisters. A similar idea is also
mentioned in an eastern Late Vedic text (Aitareya Brahmana 7).
Then there also is the new idea of weighing one�s guilt after death.
This was first an Egyptian, then a Zoroastrian and Iranian concept.
It is connected with the idea of personal responsibility for one�s
action (karma). This is also seen in Bhrgu�s vision of a reverse
world, in which people get sawn up by trees. The god of the
netherworld, Yima (Skt. Yama) of the Avesta, too is �sawn up� to his
guilt.
Even the idea of carrying fire in a king's mouth OkkAAka (IkSvaaku)
[that may escape him] may have reflect the Iranian concept of royal
splendor (farnah) around one's head, later depicted as halo: it can
leave a king and hide in water.
Taken together, these points tend to indicate that there was some
Iranian influence in Bihar in Late Vedic times. However, by the time
of the Buddha, the Iranoid character of the Sakya, by and large,
seemed to have dissipated. They appeared just like any other eastern
oligarchic tribe and actually claimed descent from the OkkAAka
(IkSvaaku) kings of Ayodhya.
There was constant influx from Afghanistan into the plains: the Vedic
texts admonish that one should keep watching one' back (= west). The
Kurus were done in by one of these groups, the Salva.
As for archaeology: the Lauriya mound was excavated around 1900/10
but I have not kept up with this development. I think it is now
regarded as post-Buddha.
Hope this helps.
Michael
On Jan 6, 2010, at 9:10 AM, j.bellezza wrote:
> Michael Witzel,
>
> Do you know of any comparative archaeological studies for the
> circular tomb excavated in Lauriya and those of the Sakas and
> Scythians? Do the Sakyas and other groups of the Mahajanapadas
> noted in Indic literature have demonstrable links with early Iron
> Age or developed Iron Age kurgan building Scythians, that is,
> before the movement of the Sakas south into the Subcontinent?
>
> John V. Bellezza
============
Michael Witzel
witzel@...
<www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>
Dept. of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
1 Bow Street,
Cambridge MA 02138, USA
phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295 (voice & messages), 496 8570, fax 617 - 496
8571;
my direct line: 617- 496 2990
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