Iranic shakadvIpIyAdi

One interesting thread in Buddhist criticism of the Veda is their comparison of it to the traditions of the Maga-s. Were they perhaps the earliest to identify a common Indo-Iranian tradition?

In this regard shakadvIpIya brAhmaNa-s are viewed ambivalently in the India milieu. Some H scriptures see them positively as promulgators of the saura cult and have internalized zarathustra as jarashabda. In contrast, socially in the Gangetic plains the s.b-s were seen as lower v1s. I knew a shakadvIpIya v1 who was quite unhappy that in UP they were not respected as much as “native” v1s.