Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhrtha Gautama,[note 1] Shakyamuni,[note 2] or simply the Buddha, was a sage[3] on whose teachingsBuddhism was

founded.[4] Born in the Shakya republic in the Himalayan foothills,[5][note 3] Gautama Buddha taught primarily in northeastern India. Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksabuddha) of our age. [note 4] Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Sramana (renunciation) movement [12]common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Koala.[13][14] Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Historical Siddhrtha Gautama The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE,[1] but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. [15][note 5] However, at a symposium on this question held in 1988,[1] the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all other historians. [16][17] The discovery of a possible Buddhist shrine dated to 550 BCE at the Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini may push back the Buddha's birth date.[18] No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or several centuries thereafter. The Gandhran Buddhist texts, the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts, reported to have been found in or around Haa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and preserved in the British Library today, was written in the Kharoh script and theGndhr language on twentyseven Birch bark scrolls from the first century BCE to the third century CE.[19] Biography Conception and birth Most scholars regard Kapilavastu, present-day Nepal, to be the birthplace of the Buddha.[6][7][note
7]

Other possibilities are Lumbini, present-day Nepal[note 8] Kapileswara, Odisha, present-day

India; [note 9] and Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India.[note 10] Siddharta Gautama was born as a Kshatriya,[32][note 11] the son of uddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan",[6] whose capital wasKapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother,Queen Maha Maya (Mydev) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side,[web 5] and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the

Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on 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.[34] Buddha's birth anniversary holiday is called "Buddha Poornima" in India as Buddha is believed to have been born on a full moon day. 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 (Pli: Siddhattha), 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.[35] By traditional account,[which?] this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana 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.[35] Kaundinya (Pali: Kondaa), the youngest, and later to be the first arahant other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.[36] While later tradition and legend characterized uddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of Ikvku (Pli: Okkka), many scholars think that uddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy. 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.[37] At the time, many small city-states existed in Ancient India, called Janapadas. Republics and chiefdoms with diffused political power and limited social stratification, were not uncommon amongst them, and were referred to as gana-sanghas.[38] It was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic.[39] The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the Shramanatype Jain and Buddhistsanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.[40] Early life and marriage Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati.[41] By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King uddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering. When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaodhar (Pli: Yasodhar). According to the traditional account,[which?] she gave birth to a son, named Rhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.[41]