The Birth of Gautama Buddha

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

The birth of Gautama Buddha, from Buddhist Birth Tales, a translation of the c. 4th-century BCE Jataka Tales by V. Fausboll and T.W. Rhys Davids, 1880.

II: The Intermediate Epoch

Avidure Nidana

Part 2

Now at the moment when the future Buddha made himself incarnate in his mother's womb, the constituent elements of the ten thousand world-systems at the same instant quaked, and trembled, and were shaken violently. The Thirty-two Good Omens also were made manifest. In the ten thousand world-systems an immeasurable light appeared. The blind received their sight, as if from very longing to behold this his glory. The deaf heard the noise. The dumb spake one with another. The crooked became straight. The lame walked. All prisoners were freed from their bonds and chains. In each hell the fire was extinguished. In the realm of the Petas hunger and thirst were allayed. The wild animals ceased to be afraid. The illness of all who were sick was allayed.

All men began to speak kindly. Horses neighed, and elephants trumpeted gently. All musical instruments gave forth each its note, though none played upon them. Bracelets and other ornaments jingled of themselves. All the heavens became clear. A cool soft breeze wafted pleasantly for all. Bain fell out of due season. Water, welling up from the very earth, overflowed. The birds forsook their flight on high.

The rivers stayed their waters flow. The sea became sweet water. Everywhere its surface was covered with lotuses of every colour. All flowers blossomed on land and in water. The trunks, and branches, and twigs of trees were covered with the bloom appropriate to each. On earth tree-lotuses sprang up by sevens together, breaking even through the rocks: and hanging-lotuses were born in the sky and rained down everywhere a rain of blossom. In the sky deva-music was played. The ten thousand world-systems revolved, and rushed as close together as a bunch of gathered flowers; and became as it were a woven wreath of worlds, as sweet-smelling and resplendent as a mass of garlands, or as a sacred altar decked with flowers.

From the moment of the conception, thus brought about, of the future Buddha, four devas with swords in their hands, stood guard over the Bodisat, and his mother, to shield them from all harm. Pure in thought, having reached the highest aim and the highest honour, the mother was happy and unwearied; she saw the child within her as plainly as one could see a thread passed through a transparent gem. But as a womb in which a future Buddha has dwelt, like a sacred relic shrine, can never be occupied by another; the mother of the Bodisat, seven days after his birth, died, and was reborn in the City of Bliss.

Now other women give birth, some before, some after, the completion of the tenth month, some sitting, and some lying down. Not so the mother of a Bodisat. She gives birth to the Bodisat standing, after she has cherished him in her womb for exactly ten months, this is a distinctive quality of the mother of a Buddha elect.

And queen Maha Maya, when she too had thus cherished the Bodisat in her womb, like oil in a vessel, for ten months, felt herself far gone with child: and wishing to go to her family home she spake to King Suddhodana, and said:

"Sire, I wish to go to Devadaha, to the city of my people."

The king, saying: "It is good," consented, and had the road from Kapilavatthu to Devadaha made plain, and decked with arches of plaintain-trees, and well filled water-pots, and flags, and banners. And seating the queen in a golden palanquin carried by a thousand attendants, he sent her away with a great retinue.

Now between the two towns there is a pleasure grove of sal-trees belonging to the people of both cities, and called the Lumbini grove. At that time, from the roots to the topmost branches, it was one mass of fruits and flowers; and amidst the blossoms and branches swarms of various-coloured bees, and flocks of birds of different kinds roamed warbling sweetly. The whole of the Lumbini grove was like a wood of variegated creepers, or the well-decorated banqueting hall of some mighty king.

The queen beholding it was filled with the desire of besporting herself in the sal-tree grove; and the attendants carrying the queen, entered the wood. When she came to the monarch sal-tree of the glade, she wanted to take hold of a branch of it, and the branch bending down, like a reed heated by steam, approached within reach of her hand. Stretching out her hand she took hold of the branch, and then karma-born winds shook her. The people, drawing a curtain round her, retired. Standing, and holding the branch of the sal-tree, she was delivered.

That very moment the four pure-minded Maha Brahmas came there bringing a golden net; and receiving the future Buddha on that net, they placed him before his mother, saying: "Be joyful, Lady! a mighty son is born to thee!"

Now other living things, when they leave their mother s womb, leave it smeared with offensive and impure matter. Not so a Bodisat. The future Buddha left his mother s womb like a preacher descending from a pulpit or a man from a ladder, erect, stretching out his hands and feet, unsoiled by any impurities from contact with his mother’s womb, pure and fair, and shining like a gem placed on fine muslin of Benares. But though this was so, two showers of water came down from heaven in honour of them and refreshed the Bodisat and his mother, and cleansed her body.

From the hands of the Brahmas who had received him in the golden net, the Four Kings received him on cloth of antelope skins, soft to the touch, such as are used on occasions of royal state. From their hands men received him on a roll of fine cloth; and on leaving their hands he stood up upon the ground and looked towards the East. Thousands of world-systems became visible to him like a single open space. Men and devas offering him sweet-smelling garlands, said: "great man, there is no other like thee, how then a greater?" Searching the ten directions and finding no one like himself, he took seven strides, saying: "This is the best direction." And as he walked the Great Brahma held over him the white umbrella, and the Suyama followed him with the fan, and other devas with the other symbols of royalty in their hands. Then, stopping at the seventh step, he sent forth his noble voice and shouted the shout of victory, beginning with: "I am the chief of the world."

Now the future Buddha in three births thus uttered his voice immediately on leaving his mother s womb; in his birth as Mahosadha, in his birth as Vessantara, and in this birth. In the Mahosadha birth the deva-king Sakka came to him as he was being born, and placing some fine sandal-wood in his hand, went away. He came forth from the womb holding this in his fist. His mother asked him: "What is it you hold, dear, as you come?" He answered, "Herb-medicine, mother!" So because he came holding this they gave him the name of Herb-medicine child.

Taking the medicine they kept it in a chatty (an earthenware water-pot); and it became a drug by which all the sickness of the blind and deaf and others, as many as came, was healed, so the saying sprang up: "This is a great osadha! this is a great osadha!" and hence he was called Mahosadha (The Great Herb-medicine Man).

Again, in the Vessantara birth, as he left his mother s womb, he stretched out his right hand, saying: "But is there anything in the house, mother? I would give a gift." Then his mother, saying, "You are born, dear, in a wealthy family," took his hand in hers, and placed on it a bag containing a thousand.

Lastly, in this birth he sang the song of victory. Thus, the future Buddha in three births uttered his voice as he came out of his mother’s womb. And as at the moment of his conception, so at the moment of his birth, the thirty-two Good Omens were seen.

Now at the very time when our Bodisat was born in the Lumbini grove, the lady mother of Rahula, Channa the attendant, Kaludayi the minister, Kanthaka the royal horse, the great Bo-tree, and the four vases full of treasure, also came into being. Of these last, one was two miles, one four, one six, and one eight miles in size. These seven are called the Sahajata, the Connatal Ones.

Fausboll, V. and T.W. Rhys Davids. Buddhist Birth Stories. Vol. 1, Trubner & Co., 1880.

V. Fausboll, T.W. Rhys Davids

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