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KINGS AND PEOPLES
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that part of northern India which stood between the kingdom of Kosala in the west and the Malla territory in the south-east. Their capital, Kapilavatthu, was founded around or near the hermitage of the sage Kapila. The Sākyas claimed their descent from king Okkāka whose ancestry is traced back to king Mahāsammata. In the early Pali texts, they are described as Adiccabandhu in the sense that they belonged to the solar race of the Khattiyas. They had their Mote-hall at Kapilavatthu where their administrative and judicial business was carried out. They as a ruling people were proud of the purity of their birth, for which, as tradition goes, they had to pay a beavy penalty. In the Buddha's time, the position of the Säkyais was that of vassals (anujātā) under king Pasenadi of Kosala. Placed as they were, they could not cherish much of territorial ambition. They once came into conflict with the Koliyas over the waters of the Rohiņi river which had separated their territories. According to the Tātakas and the Pali commentaries, the Sākya territory was invaded and conquered by Vidū dabha, the usurper king of Kosala in the last year of the Buddha'a career. But in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta,8 we read that both the
1 Buddhist India, p. 19. Cf. ZDMG., 44, 344 (Jolly).
Jätaka, v, 412. 8 Digha, ii, 167.
