[Buddha-l] [Fwd: Buddha - a Scythian Arian?]

[Jayarava]

I have seen this claim before and it seems that the confusion is between the śakyan ('sakyan) clan, and the śaka ('saka aka Scythian) people. The Buddha was not a Śaka, and as far as I know there is no evident that the Scythians were anywhere near East Indian by 500BCE, although they did briefly rule Gandhāra (in the far north-west) during the 1st century BCE.

I don't see the link between Buda and buddha. Given that it is used in Hungarian names we might question whether it is Slavic (and hence Indo-european) at all, though a Slavic origin is suggested as a possibility on Wikipedia, from the name Budimir and maybe this is the source of the Ukranian name?

It may well be that there are ethnic, cultural and linguistic links between north Indian and the Ukraine - Indo-āryan languages for instance - but it's more likely that common source was in what is now southern Turkmenistan ca 2000 BCE.

Despite his high class Brahmin surname "Gautama", and despite being described as a kṣatriya, it is more likely that the Buddha was not an āryan at all. The āryanisation of the north east wasn't fully accomplished until after Aśoka (mid 3rd century BCE). Indo-aryan languages seem to have spread faster than the 'Āryan' people themselves, and I don't fully understand this yet - something to do with technology? 

Note that the author is a professor of *political* science, and "He wrote his previous articles for the paper to 'prove' the remarkable role of the Ukrainian civilization". So what we're looking at is a declared nationalist political 'scientist' probably looking for points of difference with the Russians to bolster Ukrainian national pride, and secure government funding for his research.

Best wishes
Jayarava