Vol. 11 · pages 21–25

2 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I 12. Of the kingdoms then in existence, Kosala was a powerful kingdom. So was the kingdom of Magadha. Pasanedi, King of Kosala and Bimbisara, King of Magadha, were the contemporaries of Siddharth Gautama. § 2. His Ancestry 1. The capital of the Sakyas was the city called Kapilavatsu, perhaps after the name of the great Rationalist Kapila. 2. There lived in Kapilavastu a Sakya by name Jaya Sena. Sinahu was his son. Sinahu was married to Kaccana. Sinahu had five sons, Suddhodana, Dhotodana, Sakkodana, Suklodana and Amitodana. Besides five sons, Sinahu had two daughters, Amita and Pamita. 3. The Gotra of the family was Aditya. 4. Suddhodana was married to Mahamaya Her father’s name was Anjana and mother’s Sulak-shana. Anjana was a Koliya and was residing in the village called Devadaha. 5. Suddhodana was a man of great military prowess. When Suddhodana had shown his martial powers he was allowed to take a second wife and he chose Mahaprajapati. She was the elder sister of Mahamaya. 6. Suddhodana was a wealthy person. The lands he held were very extensive and the retinue under him was very large. He employed, it is said, one thousand ploughs to till the land he owned. 7. He lived quite a luxurious life and had many palaces. § 3. His Birth 1. To Suddhodana was born Siddharth Gautama and this was the manner of Gautama’s birth. 2. It was a custom among the Sakyas to observe an annual midsummer festival which fell in the month of Ashad. It was celebrated by all the Sakyas

3 FROM BIRTH TO PARIVRAJA I throughout the State and also by the members of the ruling family. 3. It was the usual practice to celebrate the festival for seven days. 4. On one occasion Mahamaya decided to observe the festival with gaiety, with splendour, with flowers, with perfume, but without drinking intoxicants. 5. On the seventh day she rose early, bathed in scented water, bestowed a gift of 4,00,000 pieces of money as alms, adorned herself with all precious ornaments, ate choicest food, took upon herself the fast-day vows, and entered the splendidly adorned royal bedchamber to sleep. 6. That night Suddhodana and Mahamaya came together and Mahamaya conceived. Lying on the royal bed she fell asleep. While asleep she had a dream. 7. In her dreams she saw that the four worldguardians raised her as she was sleeping on her bed and carried her to the tableland of the Himalayas, placed her under a great sal tree and stood on one side. 8. The wives of the four world-guardians then approached and took her to the lake Mansarovar. 9. They bathed her, robed her in a dress, anointed her with perfumes and decked her with flowers in a manner fit to meet some divinity. 10. Then a Bodhisatta, by name Sumedha, appeared before her saying, “I have decided to take my last and final birth on this earth, will you consent to be my mother ?”She said, “Yes, with great pleasure.”At this moment Mahamaya awoke. 11. Next morning Mahamaya told her dream to Suddhodana. Not knowing how to interpret the dream, Suddhodana summoned eight Brahmins who were most famous in divination. 12. They were Rama, Dhaga, Lakkana, Manti, Yanna, Suyama, Subhoga and Sudatta and prepared for them a befitting reception. 13. He caused the ground to be strewn with festive flowers and prepared high seats for them. 14. He filled the bowls of the Brahmins with

4 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I gold and silver and fed them on cooked ghee, honey, sugar and excellent rice and milk. He also gave them other gifts such as new clothes and tawny cows. 15. When the Brahmins were propitiated, Suddhodana related to them the dream Mahamaya had, and said, “Tell me what it means.” 16. The Brahmins said : “Be not anxious. You will have a son, and if he leads a householder’s life he will become a universal monarch, and if he leaves his home and goes forth into a homeless state, and becomes a sanyasi, he will become a Buddha, a dispeller of illusions in the world.” 17. Bearing the Bodhisatta in her womb like oil in a vessel for ten lunar months, Mahamaya, as her time of delivery was coming nearer, desired to go to her parents’ home for delivery. Addressing her husband, she said : “I wish to go to Devadaha, the city of my father.” 18. “Thou knowest that thy wishes will be done,”replied Suddhodana. Having seated her in a golden palanquin borne by couriers, he sent her forth with a great retinue to her father’s house. 19. Mahamaya, on her way to Devadaha, had to pass through a pleasure-grove of sal trees and other trees, flowering and non-flowering. It was known as the Lumbini Grove. 20. As the palanquin was passing through it, the whole Lumbini Grove seemed like the heavenly Cittalata grove or like a banqueting pavilion adorned for a mighty king. 21. From the roots to the tips of the branches the trees were loaded with fruits, flowers and numberless bees of the fine colours, uttering curious sounds, and flocks of various kinds of birds, singing sweet melodies. 22. Witnessing the scene, there arose a desire in the heart of Mahamaya for halting and sporting therein for a while. Accordingly she told the couriers to take her in the sal-grove and wait there. 23. Mahamaya alighted from her palanquin and walked up to the foot of a royal sal tree. A pleasant wind, not too strong, was blowing and the

5 FROM BIRTH TO PARIVRAJA I boughs of the trees were heaving up and down and Mahamaya felt like catching one of them. 24. Luckily one of the boughs heaved down sufficiently low to enable her to catch it. So she rose on her toes and caught the bough. Immediately she was lifted up by its upward movement and being shaken, she felt the pangs of childbirth. While holding the branch of the sal tree she was delivered of a son in a standing position. 25. The child was born in the year 563 B.C. on the Vaishakha Paurnima day. 26. Suddhodana and Mahamaya were married for a long time. But they had no issue. Ultimately when a son was born to them his birth was celebrated with great rejoicing, with great pomp and ceremony by Suddhodana and his family and also by the Sakyas. 27. At the time of the birth of the child it was the turn of Suddhodana to be the ruler of Kapilavatsu and as such was in the enjoyment of the title of Raja. Naturally the boy was called Prince. § 4. Visit by Asita 1. At the moment when the child was born there dwelt on the Himalayas a great sage named Asita. 2. Asita heard that the gods over the space of the sky were shouting the word “Buddha”and making it resound. He beheld them waving their garments and coursing hither and thither in delight. He thought, what if I were to go and find out the land in which he was born ? 3. Surveying with his divine eyes the whole of the Jambudvipa, Asita saw that a boy was born in the house of Suddhodana shining with all brilliance and that it was over his birth that the gods were excited. 4. So the great sage Asita with his nephew Nardatta rose up and came to the abode of Raja Suddhodana and stood at the door of his palace. 5. Now Asita, the sage, saw that at the door of Suddhodana’s palace many hundred thousand beings

6 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES I had assembled. So he approached the door-keeper and said, “Go, man, inform the Raja that a sage is standing at the door.” 6. Then the door-keeper approached Suddhodana and with clasped hands said, “Know, O Raja, that an aged sage, old and advanced in years, stands at the door, and says that he desires to see you.” 7. The king prepared a seat for Asita and said to the door-keeper, “Let the sage enter.” So coming out of the palace the door-keeper said to Asita : “Please go in.” 8. Now Asita approached King Suddhodana and, standing in front of him, said, “Victory, Victory, O Raja, may you live long, and rule thy kingdom righteously.” 9. Then Suddhodana in reverence to Asita fell at his feet and offered him the seat ; and seeing him seated in comfort, Suddhodana said, “I do not remember to have seen thee before this, O Sage! With what purpose hast thou come hither? What is the cause?” 10. Thereupon Asita said to Suddhodana, “A son is born to thee, O Raja ! Desiring to see him, have I come.” 11. Suddhodana said,” The boy is asleep, O Sage ! Will you wait for a while ?” The sage said, “Not long, O King, do such great beings sleep Such good beings are by nature wakeful.” 12. Then did the child out of compassion for Asita, the great sage, make a sign of awaking. 13. Seeing that the child had become awake, Suddhodana took the boy firmly in both hands and brought him into the presence of the sage. 14. Asita observing the child, beheld that it was endowed with the thirty-two marks of a great man and adorned with the eighty minor marks, his body surpassing that of Sakra, Brahma, and his aura surpassing them a hundred thousand-fold, breathed forth this solemn utterance, “Marvellous, verily, is this person that has appeared in the world,”and rising from his seat clasped his hands, fell at his feet, made a