Lord Buddha

Conception and birth

According to tradition, Siddhārtha was born more than 200 years before the reign of the Maurya king Aśoka (273–232 BCE).[citation
needed]
Siddhartha was born in Lumbini[7] and raised in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilvastu, both of which are in modern day
Nepal. Culturally, these can be considered part of the broader region of Ancient India.[8] His father was King Suddhodana[citation
needed], the chief of the Shakya nation, one of several ancient tribes in the growing state of Kosala; Gautama was the family name.

His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. On the night Siddhartha was conceived,
Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side[citation needed], and ten lunar months later
Siddhartha was born from her right side.[citation needed] As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya fell pregnant, she

returned to her father's kingdom to give birth, but after leaving Kapilvastu, she gave birth along the way at Lumbini in a garden beneath
a sal tree.

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak.[9] Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother
died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhatta), meaning “he who
achieves his aim”. During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the
child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man.[citation needed] This occurred after Siddhartha placed his
feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodarna held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight
brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man.
[citation needed] Kaundinya (Pali: Kondanna), the youngest, and later to be the first arahant, was the only one who unequivocally
predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.[10]
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of Ikṣvāku
(Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars believe that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism.[1]

He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age. The time of his birth and death are
uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE; more recently, however, at a specialist
symposium on this question,[2] the majority of those scholars who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side
of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death, with others supporting earlier or later dates.
Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni (“sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life,
discourses, and monastic rules were said to have been summarized after his death and memorized by the sangha. Passed down by
oral tradition, the Tripitaka, the collection of teachings attributed to Gautama by the Theravada, was committed to writing about 400
years later. "Scholars are increasingly reluctant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life and
teachings."[3]