Please follow and like us:

History

Gautama Buddha

1-He is also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha or simply the Buddha.

2- He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.

3- He later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

4- Gautama was born in Lumbini, now in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilvastu, which may have been either in what is present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India.

5-He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.

6-One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor’s pilgrimage to the Buddha’s birthplace in Lumbini.

7-Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, “an elected chief of the Shakya clan”, whose capital was Kapilavastu.

8- 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.

9-Siddhartha was brought up by his mother’s younger sister, Maha Pajapati.

10- Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu.

11-At the age of 29 Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects.

12-Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant.

13-Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street.

14-He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation.

15-After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned.

16-A village girl named Sujata gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy.

17- Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree—now known as the Bodhi tree—in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth.

18-After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment, and became known as the Buddha or “Awakened One”.

19-After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika, two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan, who became his first lay disciples.

20-For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and southern Nepal.

Please follow and like us: