From Bodhisattva to Buddha: The Incredible Saga of Siddhartha Gautama
The Buddha was born in Lumbini (in modern-day Nepal) which was located in the Koshala kingdom and the kingdom was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. He was born into the Shakya clan. The Shakya tribe was located in the Himalayan foothills and this small republic (ganarajya) was one of the vassal states of Koshola Mahajanapada. The Buddha was the son of a chief of the Shakyas. It was primarily in such ganasanghas during the Age of the Mahajanapadas when there was the emergence of some prominent monarchical and non-monarchical political formations in the Indian subcontinent that we find the growth of various heterodox sects, including Buddhism.
Because the Buddha was born into the Shakya clan, he is also known as Shakyamuni as he belonged to the Shakya tribe. Also, the Buddha was born into the Suryavanshi (solar dynasty) of the Kshatriya varna or caste. In Buddhist literature, he is also called Siddhartha Gautama (Gotama in Pali) as he belonged to Gautama gotra. He is also addressed as tathagatha, meaning pathfinder of truth.
His father was Shuddhodhana and he married two sisters, viz. Mahamaya and Prajapati Gautami. The princesses belonged to the Koliya royal family. Like the Shakya clan, the Koliyas were too a vassal state of the Koshala kingdom. When Mahamaya was just a few days away to the delivery of her child, she moved from Kapilvastu to Lumbini which was her father’s kingdom. But on her way, at Lumbini she gave birth to a baby under a Sal tree in a garden. According to Buddhist traditions, as soon as the baby was born, he stood up and took seven steps and declared, “This is my last birth-henceforth there is no more birth for me.” The child was named Siddhartha. The term ‘Siddhartha’ means ‘he who achieves his aim irrespective of the circumstances.’ After the seven days of his birth, Mahamaya died. The birth of the Buddha in India is celebrated as Buddh Purnima while in Southeast Asian countries and in South Asia (in Nepal and Sri Lanka), in Japan and Tibet, it is celebrated as Vesaka. After the death of his mother, he was taken care by his aunt and also his stepmother, Prajapati. Her biological sons, Nanduh and Nandah later became the Buddha’s followers.
On his birth, he was named Siddhartha, and it was prophesied that either the prince would either conquer the whole world and become the ruler of the world or he would be a great saint and spread the message worldwide. Hearing this, his father decided to shield him from all the miseries and sorrows of life and provide him a comfortable and luxurious life in the palace so that his son would not be attracted to leave everything behind to become an ascetic. Thus, Siddhartha spent his youth in the palace. He was married to Yashodhara at the age of 16 who was his cousin.
When he turned 29, he went out of his palace on his favourite horse, Kantaka with his charioteer, Channa. He came across Four Great Sights. The first sight he witnessed was of a very old man and thus, he learned about old age and that no one stays youthful forever and with the passage of time, all humans must grow old. This gave him anxiety. Next, he saw an extremely sick man with boils all over his body, trembling from a fever. He realized that no one stays strong forever. Then he spotted a dead body, surrounded by weeping mourners and the corpse was being taken to the cremation ground to be burnt there. He understood that no one lives in this world forever. The last sight was of an ascetic and it offered him hope.
Four Great Sights
ü old man
ü Sick man
ü Corpse
ü Ascetic
It is said that after witnessing the Four Great Sights, he was transformed, and he became desirous of seeking a path to enlightenment. However, when his pregnant wife gave birth to a son, he sensed that kinship could stand in the way of renunciation and nirvana. On hearing the news of the birth of his son, he murmured, “Rahula is born, a tie is born.” And so, he named his son Rahula. Nevertheless, in the middle of the night, while his wife and son were asleep in the palace, the prince left the palace with his charioteer and horse. After covering some distance, he stopped and took off his jewellery and rich garments and cut off his hair and gave them to Channa to handover them to his father. He renounced the life of wordly pleasures and marched on the road to become the Buddha from a Bodhisattva. This significant event is called Mahabhinishkramana or the “Great Going Forth”/ “Great Renunciation”.
As a wandering ascetic, he begged for his meal. But soon he abandoned this way of life to live as a recluse in the forest. When he was in Vaishali - the capital of Vajji Mahajanapada and the birthplace of another heterodox spiritual teacher, Mahavira- he met Alara Kalam and Udaka Ramaputta and learned the techniques of meditations from them. Kalam taught him meditative states - The Realm of Limitless Space, The Realm of Limitless Consciousness and The State of No Materiality while Ramaputta taught him Neither Perception nor Non-Perception (Samadhi). However, the Buddha failed to understand how a person could be freed from suffering via knowledge and self-discipline. So, he left and went to Uruvela (now Bodh Gaya in modern Bihar) which was part of the Magadha Kingom during this time and teamed up with five ascetics who were engaged in the most intense self-mortification in the hopes of eradicating their karma and achieving ultimate happiness. His penances became so extreme that the ascetics soon accepted him as their leader. The Buddha undertook severe penances for six years from age 29 to 35 which made him tremendously thin and feeble. He was reduced to almost a skeleton and was on the verge of death and one day, he fainted. His disciples thought he was dead. But he regained consciousness. Sujata, a farmer’s daughter offered him a bowl of kheer, (a dish made of rice and milk). This ended his six-year period of extreme penances, fasts and austerities and he was inspired to seek a middle path and abstain from extremities of penance and pleasure. After this, he sat under a peepal tree (Ficus Religiosa) on the banks of River Niranjana or Phalgu and meditated for 49 days. It was here he attained enlightenment (nirvana). To mark this very significant event in Buddhism, th e Mahabodhi Temple was built here by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd c. BCE which was later rebuilt in the 5th or 6th c. CE.
Mahabodhi Temple, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Nalanda (Bihar)
Madhyamika Marga: Before attaining enlightenment, he in the search for it took to extreme forms of fasting. The intense starvation made him so weak and bony that he was going to die. This made him abandoned the two extremes—not too much or too less. He pursued the middle path and recommended it to his followers as per which a person should neither overindulge oneself in luxury nor practice excess of austerity. Various Schools of Art in ancient India captured this eventful incident.
Emaciated Buddha, Emaciated Buddha,
While he was meditating at Bodh Gaya, he was tested by Mara, the demon. First, he disguised himself as a messenger and informed the meditating Buddha that his evil cousin, Devadutta had usurped the throne of his father and imprisoned him. But the Buddha continued to meditate. Afterwards, Mara tried to distract the Buddha from his meditation by attacking him with tempest, whirlwind, flood and earthquake and still, the Buddha stood firm. Then, the demon summoned his three ravishing daughters to seduce the ascetic into the world of sensual pleasures. He was also offered Universal Empire, but nothing persuaded the Buddha from deviating from his chosen path. Right after attaining nirvana/enlightenment, he performed bhumisparsha mudra (earth touching hand gesture). The Buddha by touching the ground where he was meditating called the earth goddess to witness his resoluteness despite many temptations of Mara and his attainment of nirvana.
Buddha in Bhumisparsha Mudra, Bhadrakali Temple, Itkhori, Jharkhand
Buddha in Bhumisparsha Mudra and His Triumph Over Mara,
After he attained enlightenment, the Buddha spent another seven weeks under the same bodhi tree and meditated further. Finally, when he was convinced that he was ready to share the wisdom he gained, he left Bodh Gaya and reached Sarnath where he met his former five disciples, and it is here that he gave his first sermon called the Dharmachakrapravartana Sutta. The event is denoted by the dharmachakrapravartana mudra.
Crowned Buddha Seated in Dharmachakrapravartana Mudra,
Basalt Stone, 11th c. CE,
Archaeological Museum, Nalanda, Bihar
The bodhi tree too, under which the Buddha meditated for several weeks at Bodh Gaya (formerly Uruvela) and attained enlightenment, in today’s time has acquired a lot of sanctity among the followers of Buddhism. The present one is a descendant of the original bodhi tree. A branch of it was taken to Sri Lanka by Mauryan Emperor’s daughter, Sanghamitra and it was gifted to a Sri Lankan king of Anuradhapura, named Devanampiya Tissa (r. c. 307-267 BCE). Now, the Bo tree (as the peepul tree in Sri Lanka is known as) or the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura is recorded to be the oldest living human-planted tree in the world. There is Anandabodhi tree in Shravasti (in the state of Uttar Pradesh) which is too known to have been propagated from the original bodhi tree from Uruvela. After attaining nirvana, the Buddha spent most of his lifetime at Shravasti where he delivered his maximum number of discourses. Therefore, it is now one of the major Buddhist pilgrimage sites. During the time of the Buddha, Shravasti was the capital of the Koshala kingdom. Shravasti is also a sacred site for Jains since it is the birthplace of their 3rd tirthankara named Sambhavanath.
Bodhi Tree (The Tree of Wisdom), Bodh Gaya
The Buddha taught in the kingdoms of Koshala, Magadha and in the tribal regions to the north of the Ganga River. He had 10 disciples. His five main disciples were Sariputta, Moggallana, Mahakashyap, Ananda and Anuruddha. The last three were his cousins. Ananda was his primary attendant. When he left his palace, the first place he visited was Rajgir where he lived as a wandering ascetic by begging alms and here, he met Bimbisara, the king of Magadha who had offered the Buddha his throne, but the latter refused to accept it. But the Buddha promised the ruler that he would revisit his kingdom after attaining enlightenment. When he returned to Rajgir, he started a monastic order, sangha to teach Buddhist philosophy. At Balkh in Afghanistan, he met two wealthy merchants, Tappusa and Bhallika who adopted Buddhism. He taught his teachings in Pali, a form of Prakrit that began around 500 BCE. The use of vernacular language instead of Sanskrit which was the language of intellectuals in those days contributed to the spread of Buddhism.
In his first sermon at Sarnath, the Buddha explained two major concepts: Arya Satya and Ashtangika Marg which became the fundamental beliefs of Buddhism.
Arya Satya (The Four Noble Truth):
1. Noble Truth of Sorrow (dukkha)
The Buddha expounded that all things that bring sadness are birth, age, disease, connection with the unpleasant, separation from the pleasant and unfulfilled wishes. The worldly existence, or samudaya, is filled with sufferings (dukkha).
2. Noble Truth of the Arising of Sorrow
Craving, want or thirst (tanha) is the source of sorrow and encompasses all forms of selfishness as well as individual ambition, desire and longing. This desire seeks out pleasure and results in rebirth, joy and passion.
3. Noble Truth of the Cessation of Sorrow
The sorrow can be ended (nirodha) by complete stopping/destruction of the thirst or craving.
4. Noble Truth of Way which Leads to the Cessation of Sorrow
A moral and orderly existence can be had by following the ‘middle path’ between self-indulgence and excessive asceticism. The well-known Ashtangika Marga or the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ is this middle path.
Ashtangika Marga (Noble Eightfold Path):
The Ashtangika Marg leads to the elimination of suffering for the devotee and aids in the attainment of nibbana (in Pali) or nirvana (in Sanskrit), i.e. freedom from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. It includes:
Right Views: Comprehending the Arya Satya or the Four Noble Truths and the essence of existence.
Right Resolve: Cultivating morally upright and compassionate intents.
Right Speech: Adhering to speech that is not damaging, speaking with kindness and being honest.
Right Conduct: Taking morally sound and non-destructive actions.
Right Livelihood: Choosing a livelihood that aligns with ethical principles.
Right Effort: Conquering the bad inclinations and developing and strengthening the traits.
Right Mindfulness: Raising consciousness and being present in the moment.
Right Meditation: Fostering contemplative and meditative states of mind.
His last meal was offered to him by a blacksmith named Kunda. He died at the age of 80 at Pava in Kushinara (in Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh) which was the capital of the Malla kingdom. One can visit the Parinirvana Stupa in Kushinagar which was built to commemorate the death of the Buddha. The stupa has the image of a reclining Buddha, since it is the Buddhist iconography which is representative of this event. In Buddhism, this event i.e. the Buddha’s attainment of moksha is known as Mahaparinirvana. After his demise, his relics were divided among eight royal families. One of the great royal patrons of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent was the Mauryan ruler, Ashoka who built around 84,000 stupas and worked zealously for the spread of Buddhism far and wide.
To encapsulate:
Four Great Sites: The four great sites of Buddhism viz. Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar are related to the four important events of his life. It was at Lumbini in Nepal where he was born in c. 563 BCE. At Bodh Gaya he received enlightenment while at Sarnath (near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh), he delivered his first sermon to his five disciples. And at Kushinagar, he attained mahaparinirvana. Parinirvana means physical death of a Buddha (an enlightened being).
Four important events in the Buddha’s life: At the age of 16, he married Yashodhara and after 12 years of marriage, at the age of 29, he left his wife and his son, Rahul to become an ascetic. This event is called mahabhinishkramana (the great departure). At 35, he attained nirvana or enlightenment under a pipal (bodhi) tree at Bodhgaya on the banks of River Niranjana. His first sermon is known as dharmachakrapravartan. When he turned 80, he died in 483 BCE. This event is marked as mahaparinirvana.
Event | Description | Place |
Mahabhinishkramana (The Great Departure/Renunciation) | Left home | Kapilvastu |
Nirvana | Enlightenment | Bodhgaya |
Dharmachakrapravartan | First Sermon | Sarnath |
Mahaparinirvana | Death | Kushinagar |
Five important symbols:
Event | Symbol |
Budhha’s Birth | Lotus and Bull |
Mahabhinishkramana | Horse |
Nirvana | Bodhi Tree |
Dharmachakrapravartan | Wheel |
Mahaparinirvana | Stupa |
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