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.