This article explores Michael Witzel's theory that the Śākya tribe, the Buddha's clan, had Iranian origins, potentially as an early migration of Scythians (Sakas). The argument rests on circumstantial evidence linking Śākya and early Buddhist characteristics to Iranian or Zoroastrian culture, such as the origin story of sibling marriage (a known Iranian custom), the moral triad of body, speech, and mind, and an ethicized eschatology featuring post-mortem judgment, none of which are prominent in contemporary Brahmanical traditions. The author proposes that these ideas were transmitted via a migration of tribes like the Śākyas into the Central Ganges region around the 9th century BCE, bypassing the main Vedic cultural centers. This thesis challenges the view of Buddhism as solely a reaction to Brahmanism, suggesting instead that it emerged from a broader cultural milieu and that the Buddha may have been a product of his tribe's assimilated Iranian heritage.
