THE ENIGMATIC SHAKALDWEEPIS OF INDIA

Among the most erudite and scholarly of all the ancients were the "SHAKDWEEPIAS’ or the “SHAKALDWEEPI BRAHMANS" also known as the “MAGS”, “MAG BRAHMANS or simply “MAGHIS”.
No set of people could have matched their knowledge of medicine, metallurgy, astronomy, astrology, languages, geodetics, you name it; at a time when most of the world was reeling under the obscurity of illiteracy.
Where from they had acquired such eruditeness is a mystery.

According to the legends and the Bhavisya Purana they were brought in from “Shak Dweep”. “Dweep” suggests an island but here it could also mean a province, perhaps somewhere around present day Iran.

Legend has it that Shamb, the son (or grandson) was cursed by his father (or grandfather), Krishna to be infected by leprosy. Eventually when the ailment augmented all over him he was advised by Krishna to travel to Chandrabhaga River in the west of the country where he would encounter a sage who would propose him the remedy.
Shamb travelled alone on foot and met the holy man in the vicinity of a ruined sun temple originally created by a set of sun worshippers known as Magis brought earlier by the local king from a very remote place identified as Shak Desh. After building the sun temple here the Magis had returned to their homeland frustrated from a squabble with the king. The sage also told him that they were also medicinal healers having profound knowledge of diseases and medicines. Therefore the sage advised Shamb to travel to Shak desh and bring back with him the sun worshippers who had created the temple.

Shamb complied and trekked to Shak desh. He is eventually believed to have had succeeded in convincing eighteen of these Magis to return to India.
Once here the much learned Shakaldweepis eventually set up two more temples renovating the former ruined one. The renovated one was created for the observation and worshipping of the setting sun. They built another temple for the study of the sun in its mid- position in Mathura and to study the sun in its rising situation in the east where they constructed another sun temple in Konark. Shamb in the meantime had accompanied these scholars to all these places and eventually was completely cured of his ailment.

The Shakdweepi or the Shakaldweepi Brahmans or the Mags themselves believe that their original homeland is outside India in a region called Shak in Ancient Sumeria or in present-day Iran. Strangely I did spot a region in Iran that is yet known as Shak! The co-ordinates of the region is 31 deg 04' 39" N and 56 deg 27' 54" E. Shak is located in the region of Kerman in the south-east of Iran whose administrative centre is the city of Kerman. Visit: http://iran.places-in-the-world.com/115636-place-shak.htmlTo travel to India the Shaks must have taken the various passes as Bolan, Gomal and Khyber etc. Baluchistan is the home to a tribe called Magsi who too are believed to have origin in the Kerman province of Iran. Indeed there are chances that these Magsis could be linked to the ancient Magis/Shakaldweepis.

Although these set of people hold themselves as Brahmins today, the traditional cataloging of Brahmins do not include their names. The Northern group to whom these Shakdweepis/Maghis should belong is titled as Gauda under which are Utkala, Gauda, Sarasvata, Kanyakubja and Maithila Brahmins. The Maghis do not find a mention here. Chances are that they originally were a tribe of scholarly people. The Magsis of Balochistan who also claim their origin in Iran were in most probability the Mags of India also regard themselves as tribes.In due course of time, as the name suggests Maghis/Shakaldweepis settled in the region of Magadha (in South Bihar in eastern India)…the term Magadh could be the upshot of the confluence of two terms Mag and Diha, diha being a village. Magadh could be the colloquial term of the original Magdiha or the diha or the village of the Mags.
 These Shakdweepi were and still are sun worshippers hence they constructed the sun temples all over the country. One should however bear in mind that being sun worshippers wouldn’t necessarily mean ritualistic oblation of the sun but also its observation and study. The megaliths of Punkri Burwadih, Rola, Nilurallu, Asota etc too are sun temples but with a difference. Profound research has revealed that these megaliths in were created in ancient times not only to serve as burials but also as observatories to study the transits of the sun and may be also of the moon and of certain constellations with the assistance of precisely positioned stones.

It could be that the Maghis with their knowledge of astronomy were involved with the megalithic proto-austroloid tribes in setting up of these sun temples; the megaliths. Megaliths being known very little to us this assumption may seem preposterous to many.

Biblical legends however associate the Magis with the birth of Jesus Christ, as these knowledgeable people from the East (Sumeria is to the East of Bethlehem) had prophesised the birth of Christ. However deeper study is required to conclude whether both the Magis of the Indian tradition and the one of the Biblical legend were really the same lot or not.

Can the nomadic Indo-Scythians of Central Asia also known as Sakas who are known to create the burial mounds called Kurgans in Europe can in any manner be equated with the Shaks requires another research. Many scholars however also differentiate between the Shakaldweepis and the Mags asserting the both to be separate set of people.