The Birth Of Buddha

The date of the birth of Gotama Buddha is usually placed about the year 563 b.c. ¹ In two places of the Scriptures he is said to be the son of Suddhodana and queen Mâya. The first of these passages in the Mahāpadāna-sutta is really a legend, which gives not only the length of life, city, caste, parents, and chief disciples, but also in exactly the same phraseology the same details concerning the six previous Buddhas, the first of whom, Vipassin, lived ninety-one cycles before Gotama. The other is in the Buddhavamsa, a poem not reckoned as canonical by all schools, which uses much the same phraseology, and extends the information to twenty-four preceding Buddhas. ² This indicates a growth in the legend, as the series of the last six Buddhas (Vipassin or Vipaścit, Sikhin, Vessabhū or Vi śvabhū, Kakucchanda or Krakucchanda, Konāgamana or Kanakamuni, and Kassapa or KāāīśūâĀñyapa) is common to other schools.