Who is Buddha?

The Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, lived over 2,500 years ago and is known as Siddhattha Gotama.3 His father, Suddhodana, the kshatriya4 king, ruled over the land of the Sàkyans at Kapilavatthu on the Nepalese frontier. As he came from
the Gotama family, he was known as Suddhodana Gotama. Mahàmàyà, princess of the Koliyas, was Suddhodana’s queen.

In 623 B.C. on a full-moon day of May—Vasanta-tide, when in India the trees were laden with leaf, flower, and fruit, and man, bird, and beast were in joyous mood—Queen Mahàmàyà was travelling in state from Kapilavatthu to Devadaha, her
parental home, according to the custom of the times, to give birth to her child. But that was not to be, for halfway between the two cities, in the beautiful Lumbini Grove, under the shade of a flowering Sal tree, she brought forth a son.

Lumbini, or Rummindei, the name by which it is now known, is one hundred miles north of Vàrànasi and within sight of the snowcapped Himalayas. At this memorable spot where Prince Siddhattha, the future Buddha, was born, Emperor Asoka, 316 years
after the event, erected a mighty stone pillar to mark 7 the holy spot. The inscription engraved on the pillar in five lines consists of ninety-three Asokan characters, among which occurs the following: "hida budhejàte sàkyamuni. Here was born the Buddha, the sage of the Sàkyans."