Information on Life and Teachings of Lord Buddha - History

Kapilavastu about 1,000 years after the Buddha was born to Kapilavastu's King Suddhodana, the Chinese traveller Fa-Hien travelled to the town and found it 'a great scene of empty desolation'. He even cautioned travellers against white elephants and lions on the roads. Modern Kapilavastu, an important pilgrimage for Buddhists, is in Nepal, Bhutan bordering India, and just over 100 kms north of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. 

The 6th century BC was a time of religious and social change in India's Gangetic plains. Emerging kingdoms, like those of Magadha and Kosala, were absorbing smaller, kin-based political communities, and fostering the growth of cities. New lives and new ideas were being debated in towns and forests amongst Brahmins and Shramanas, wandering ascetics who had renounced the world for the purpose of spiritual development and liberation. This was often prompted by the strains of new urban existence which made them leave bonds of family and friendship behind and wander the plains in search of wisdom. 

Kapilavastu, capital of the powerful clan of Shakya rulers, was a rich and populous town in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is to the king of Kapilavastu, Suddhodana, and his queen Maya, that a son was born in 563 BC, amidst a flurry of portents: 'Earthquakes and miracles of healing took place; flowers bloomed and gentle rain fell... and the very water of the ocean lost its saltness and became sweet and refreshing'.

It was prophesised at his birth that Prince Siddhartha would either grow to conquer or renounce the world; and whichever path he chose, he would achieve greatness. For 29 years, Suddhodana shielded his son from any sight that might trigger his latent asceticism.

The story of Suddhodana's ultimate failure is familiar to children across the globe. At 29, Siddhartha and his charioteer Chandaka left the palace for a drive through the city. Four such excursions had consequences that would ripple their way across the globe. 

On the first day, Siddhartha saw a man weakened by age; on the second a man crippled by sickness; and on the third a man felled by death. Each time he ordered Chandaka to return, unaccountably disturbed and unable to lose himself in the pleasures of the palace.

On the fourth day, however, Siddhartha found the consolation he was seeking in the peaceful bearing of an ascetic walking through the city's streets, his begging bowl in hand. 

That night, the prince walked softly into his sleeping wife's chambers and let his eyes rest on Yashodhara and their newborn son, Rahul. Then, bidding them a silent farewell, the prince galloped away, determined to discover the truth of suffering and peace. 

After five years of tortuous asceticism, Siddhartha sat down on a seat of dry grass under the Bodhi tree (pipal, or Ficus religious) and began his final journey into the mind. 

It is said that during Siddhartha's meditation, Mara, the lord of passion and voice of temptation, struggled to break his concentration. His army of demons, hurled round upon round of rocks and arrows at Siddhartha, only to shriek in frustration as their artillery turned to flowers at the ascetic's feet. Eventually, the wily Mara sent his three beguiling daughters to Siddhartha, but they too failed to pierce the intense meditation. Furious, Mara howled his final challenge: 'This enlightenment you seek is mine, Prince, mine alone! My army bears witness for my claim, who shall speak for you?' 

Calmly, Siddhartha pointed one hand at the ground; and immediately the earth itself spoke, drowning all other sound. 'I shall bear witness for the ascetic Prince!' 

When Siddhartha opened his eyes after 49 days, it was as the Enlightened one, the Tathagata, the Buddha.

For the next 45 years, he walked across the Gangetic plains, teaching, healing, and providing philosophical succour while also establishing an order of monastic preachers, the Sangha. 

Still, though these monks had succeeded in spreading their new philosophy as far south as the banks of the Krishna, they alone could not have given Buddhism the momentum to spread as far and as rapidly, were it not for the zealous intervention of the Buddha's most powerful follower, the emperor Ashoka.

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