> > From The Legend of King Vikrama... > > Vaj: > Why do you think he is called Buddha Shakyamuni > (zAkyamuni)? > Because they thought the muni was enlightened so they called him 'Buddha'?
FYI: King 'Vikrama' is a legendary emperor in Indian history, later an assumed name from the Gupta Age. Vikramaditya lived in the first century BC. The 'Shakas' were the Indo-Scythians refered to in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, who invaded India in 180 BC. According to Thapar, the 'Shakya', in Shakyamuni, refers to the Shakya (Gotama gotra) from which was supposedly born the historical Buddha, in 563 BC at Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, mentioned in the 'Mahavastu' as being a ruling clan at Kapilavastu, according to the 'Lalitavistara'. Apparently there was a misunderstanding between the Shayas and the Kosalas, having to do with a slave girl, resulting in the Kosalas wiping out the Shakyas around 525 BC. 'Indian Buddhism' By A.K. Warder Motilal Banarsidass, 2004 2000. p. 45 'Ancient Indian Social History' By Romilla Thapar Orient Longman, 1978 p.117
