Gautama Buddha

According to tradition, Siddhartha Gautama (Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was born at Lumbini, into the Shakya clan on the border of present-day Nepal and India. The oldest texts call his father Śuddhodana an elected chief; later biographies make him a hereditary king. His birth year and the location of the Shakya capital Kapilavastu are uncertain.

The earliest sources say little about his youth; they mention a household with a wife, Yasodhara, and a son, Rahula. The story of a prince shielded from suffering who sees an old man, a sick man, a corpse and an ascetic on four outings appears in later biographies such as the Buddhacarita and the Nidanakatha and has the character of a legend.

According to tradition he left his family as an adult, sought liberation from suffering with teachers and through severe asceticism, and after years chose a 'middle way' between indulgence and self-mortification. Beneath the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya he reached 'awakening'. The Pali texts describe this as insight into the origin of suffering and the path to its end.

At Sarnath near Varanasi, according to the Pali texts, he gave his first sermon to five ascetics, setting out the middle way and the Four Noble Truths. He then travelled through the Ganges region, teaching people of varied backgrounds. A community of monks and later also nuns (the sangha) arose, with rules recorded in the Vinaya.

He lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE in the eastern Ganges plain, where cities and larger states such as Magadha and Kosala were emerging alongside small clan republics like that of the Shakyas. Kosala absorbed the Shakyas during his own lifetime. Trade, urban growth and rivalry between states were changing society in this region.

Religiously it was a time of wandering seekers (shramanas) alongside the Brahmanical sacrificial tradition, with movements such as the Jainism of his contemporary Mahavira. Ideas about rebirth and liberation were already familiar. The Buddha drew on these, but the early texts criticise animal sacrifice and the idea that birth determines a person's worth.

During his lifetime the kings of Magadha and Kosala supported his community; according to the Pali texts, Bimbisara of Magadha donated a bamboo grove near Rajgir. Followers came from varied social backgrounds and women also joined. Nothing reliable is known about the size of his following.

After his death the community spread along trade routes. Emperor Ashoka (3rd century BCE) mentioned the Buddha and his teaching in edicts and had a pillar set up at Lumbini. Through monasteries, pilgrimage sites and texts, Buddhism later reached Sri Lanka and Central, East and Southeast Asia; the precise course of that spread is partly uncertain.

According to the Pali Mahaparinibbana Sutta he died at Kushinagar after a meal at the home of the smith Cunda. The cause of his illness is unclear; some researchers suggest an intestinal infarction due to old age rather than food poisoning. His body was cremated and the relics were divided; this death is called parinirvana.

The dating is disputed. The traditional dates (ca. 563–483 BCE) were widely used in the 20th century. At a symposium in 1988 most speakers placed his death within twenty years of 400 BCE, and many modern scholars suggest ca. 410–400 BCE. Not all historians follow this, and Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia use a count of 624–544 BCE.

According to tradition the Pali Canon was written down in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE, centuries after his death; Chinese and Sanskrit parallels also exist. Scholars differ on how much of the early texts goes back to the Buddha himself. The legendary biographies carry religious meaning but are not regarded by historians as reliable accounts.