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=== Birth and early life === [[File:Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|A map showing [[Lumbini]] and other major Buddhist sites in India. [[Lumbini]] (present-day Nepal), is the birthplace of the Buddha,<ref name=WHC />{{efn|name="birthplace"}} and is also a holy place for many non-Buddhists.<ref name="google260">{{Cite book |year=1997 |chapter=Buddha as depicted in the Purāṇas |title=Encyclopaedia of Hinduism |volume=7 |last=Nagendra |first=Kumar Singh |publisher=Anmol Publications |isbn=978-81-7488-168-7 |pages=260–275 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UG9-HZ5icQ4C&pg=PA260 |access-date=16 April 2012}}</ref>]] [[File:BRP Lumbini Mayadevi temple.jpg|thumb|[[Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini|Mayadevi Temple]] marking the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]'s birthplace in [[Lumbini]]]] [[File:Lumbini pillar with inscription and its location.jpg|thumb|The [[Lumbini pillar inscription|Lumbini pillar contains an inscription]] stating that this is the Buddha's birthplace.]] According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in [[Lumbini]],<ref name="WHC">{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/666 |title=Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha |website=World Heritage Convention |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=26 May 2011 |archive-date=31 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731003917/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/666/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Victoria and Albert Museum">{{cite web |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-astamahapratiharya-buddhist-pilgrimage-sites/ |title=The Astamahapratiharya: Buddhist pilgrimage sites |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031180234/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-astamahapratiharya-buddhist-pilgrimage-sites/ |archive-date=31 October 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=25 December 2012}}</ref> now in modern-day Nepal,{{efn|Based on stone inscriptions, there is also speculation that Lumbei, Kapileswar village, [[Odisha]], at the east coast of India, was the site of ancient Lumbini.({{harvnb|Mahāpātra|1977}}{{harvnb|Mohāpātra|2000|p=114}}{{harvnb|Tripathy|2014}}) {{harvnb|Hartmann|1991|pp=38–39}} discusses the hypothesis and states, "The inscription has generally been considered spurious (...)" He quotes Sircar: "There can hardly be any doubt that the people responsible for the Kapilesvara inscription copied it from the said facsimile not much earlier than 1928."}} and raised in [[Kapilavastu (ancient city)|Kapilavastu]].{{sfnp|Keown|Prebish|2013|p=436}}{{efn|Some sources mention Kapilavastu as the birthplace of the Buddha. Gethin states: "The earliest Buddhist sources state that the future Buddha was born Siddhārtha Gautama (Pali Siddhattha Gotama), the son of a local chieftain—a ''rājan''—in Kapilavastu (Pali Kapilavatthu) what is now the Indian–Nepalese border."{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|p=14}} Gethin does not give references for this statement.}} The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown.{{sfnp|Trainor|2010|pp=436–437}} It may have been either [[Piprahwa]], Uttar Pradesh, in present-day India,{{sfnp|Nakamura|1980|p=18}} or [[Tilaurakot]], in present-day Nepal.{{sfnp|Huntington|1986}} Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only {{convert|15|mi|km|order=flip}} apart.{{sfnp|Huntington|1986}}{{efn|name="birthplace"}} In the mid-3rd century BCE the Emperor [[Ashoka]] determined that Lumbini was Gautama's birthplace and thus installed a pillar there with the inscription: "...this is where the Buddha, sage of the Śākyas (''Śākyamuni''), was born."{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|p=19}} According to later biographies such as the ''[[Mahāvastu|Mahavastu]]'' and the ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra|Lalitavistara]]'', his mother, [[Maya (mother of the Buddha)|Maya]], Suddhodana's wife, was a princess from [[Devdaha]], the ancient capital of the [[Koliya]] Kingdom (what is now the [[Rupandehi District]] of Nepal). Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a [[white elephant (animal)|white elephant]] with six white tusks entered her right side,{{sfnp|Beal|1875|p=37}}{{sfnp|Jones|1952|p=11}} and ten [[lunar month|months]] later{{sfnp|Beal|1875|p=41}} Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother became pregnant, she left Kapilavastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. Her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a [[Shorea robusta|sal tree]]. The earliest Buddhist sources state that the Buddha was born to an aristocratic [[Kshatriya]] (Pali: ''khattiya'') family called Gautama (Pali: Gotama), who were part of the [[Shakya]]s, a tribe of rice-farmers living near the modern border of India and Nepal.{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1990|p=21}}{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|p=14}}{{sfnp|Samuel|2010}}{{efn|According to [[Geoffrey Samuel]], the Buddha was born into a Kshatriya clan,{{sfnp|Samuel|2010}} in a moderate Vedic culture at the central Ganges Plain area, where the shramana-traditions developed. This area had a moderate Vedic culture, where the Kshatriyas were the highest [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]], in contrast to the Brahmanic ideology of [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]]–[[Panchala]], where the Brahmins had become the highest varna.{{sfnp|Samuel|2010}} Both the Vedic culture and the shramana tradition contributed to the emergence of the so-called [[Hinduism#Roots of Hinduism|"Hindu-synthesis"]] around the start of the Common Era.{{sfnp|Hiltebeitel|2013}}{{sfnp|Samuel|2010}}}} His father [[Śuddhodana]] was "an elected chief of the [[Shakya|Shakya clan]]",{{sfnp|Warder|2000|p=45}} whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of [[Kosala]] during the Buddha's lifetime. The early Buddhist texts contain very little information about the birth and youth of Gotama Buddha.{{sfnp|Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu|1992|p=8}}{{sfnp|Strong|2001|p=51}} Later biographies developed a dramatic narrative about the life of the young Gotama as a prince and his existential troubles.{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1990|p=24}} They depict his father Śuddhodana as a [[hereditary monarchy|hereditary monarch]] of the [[Suryavansha]] (Solar dynasty) of {{IAST|Ikṣvāku}} (Pāli: Okkāka). This is unlikely, as many scholars think that Śuddhodana was merely a Shakya aristocrat (''khattiya''), and that the Shakya republic was not a hereditary monarchy.{{sfnp|Dhammika|n.d.|p={{page needed|date=October 2020}}}}{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=14–15}}{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|pp=49–50}} The more egalitarian [[gaṇasaṅgha|{{transliteration|sa|gaṇasaṅgha}}]] form of government, as a political alternative to Indian monarchies, may have influenced the development of the śramanic [[Jain monasticism|Jain]] and Buddhist [[Sangha (Buddhism)|sanghas]],{{efn|name="Upaddha"}} where monarchies tended toward [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic Brahmanism]].{{sfnp|Thapar|2002|p=146}} The day of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death is widely celebrated in [[Theravada]] countries as [[Vesak]] and the day he got conceived as [[Poson]].{{sfnp|Turpie|2001|p=3}} [[Buddha's Birthday]] is called ''Buddha [[Purnima]]'' in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Christian |title=Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia [2 volumes] |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |date=2005-06-29 |pages=481 |isbn=978-1-85109-689-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ETPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA481 |language=en}}</ref> According to later biographical legends, during the birth celebrations, the hermit seer [[Asita]] journeyed from his mountain abode, analyzed the child for the [[Physical characteristics of the Buddha|"32 marks of a great man"]] and then announced that he would either become a great king (''[[chakravartin]]'') or a great religious leader.{{sfnp|Narada|1992|pp=9–12}}{{sfnp|Strong|2001|p=55}} Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day and invited eight [[Brahmin]] scholars to read the future. All gave similar predictions.{{sfnp|Narada|1992|pp=9–12}} [[Kaundinya]], the youngest, and later to be the first [[arhat]] other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a [[Buddhahood|Buddha]].{{sfnp|Narada|1992|pp=11–12}} Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition.{{sfnp|Hamilton|2000|p=47}} According to the [[early Buddhist Texts]] of several schools, and numerous [[post-canonical Buddhist texts|post-canonical accounts]], Gotama had a wife, [[Yaśodharā|Yasodhara]], and a son, named [[Rāhula]].{{sfnp|Meeks|2016|p=139}} Besides this, the Buddha in the early texts reports that "I lived a spoilt, a very spoilt life, monks (in my parents' home)."{{sfnp|Schumann|2003|p=23}} The legendary biographies like the ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra|Lalitavistara]]'' also tell stories of young Gotama's great martial skill, which was put to the test in various contests against other Shakyan youths.{{sfnp|Strong|2001|p=60}}
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