Buddhism
THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA In the Pali canon, the Buddha is presented as a man, but an extraordinary one, whose body bore the 32 signs of a mahapurusha (great man). He is the Tathagata, one who has come thus (tatha) and gone (gota). The Buddha was born as Siddhartha son of Suddhodana, chef of the Sakya clan, who ruled from Kapilavastu. His mother Maya gave birth to him in a grove at Lumbini, while traveling towards her parents' home and died within a few days. Brahmanas saw the 32 marks of a great man on his body. According to Buddhist tradition, a mahapurusha can be of two kinds- a world conqueror or a world renouncer. Suddhodana did not want his son to turn his back on the world and hence took great pains to shield him from its sorrows, bringing him up in a highly artificial atmosphere, surrounded by luxury and pleasant things. Siddhartha married a young woman named Yashodhara and they had a son named Rahula. The hagiography tells us that when he was 29 years old, Sidd