Gautam buddha's Birthplace and History of Shakya Dynasty of Kapilvastu

Birthplace of Gautam Buddha and History of Shakya Dynasty

Origin of shakya dynasty

The king Okkaka used to rule over a state called saket of northern India during 18th century BC. The king Okkaka is considered to be the ancestor of Shakyas. The king had five queens. Among them, he had four princess and five princesses from eldest queen Bhatra. Then, the king fell in love with another lady and married her as sixth queen. A prince named Jantu was born from his youngest  queen. Due to the conspiracy and trickery of the youngest queen, the king decided to exile other princes and make her a crown prince.

The princes obeyed the king and left the kingdom for living in exile including five princesses. The exiled princes and princesses reached to be a beautiful place where Kapil, a great sage used to live. The sage suggested them to stay there by establishing a city. Then, they cleared the saal forest of the place and established a city called Kapilvastu, Kapil is the name of sage and vastu means place of dwelling. So, the meaning of kapilvastu is the settlement of the sage Kapil.

After few years, the king Okkaka sent his ministers to see the condition of exiled princes and princesses. The ministers reported the king that they were residing in a jungle called Shaka. The ministers also dwelt in a new city called Kapilvastu The eldest princess Priya was made rajmata in order to continue their nobility and traditional royal culture as there were people from various clans and culture and their risk of being mismatch and losing the family rituals. Other princes and princesses decided to marry each other to continue rhier generation. When it was heard by the king Okkaka, he felt dispirited and said to princes, "timiharu shakya chhau, nischaya pani shakya chhau". After that Shakya clan and Kapilvastu state were established according to the Buddhists scriptures Tripitika, Didhanikaya and Ambastha story. In this way, the king Okkaka was the ancestor of shakya clan. His eldest son Okkamukh became the founder king of Kapilvastu. In this way, Shakya clan ruled over kapilvastu state before the birth of Gautam Buddha and after his salvation too.

In kapilvastu, there was a king named Jayasen. Singhanu was his successor. He had a queen named Kanchana. He had five sons and one daughter from Kanchana. Suddhodhan was the the eldest one and became the king of Kapilvastu, an autonomous state in terai region of Nepal. He ruled there about 2,600 years ago. He was very popular among his countrymen. He had two queens Mayadevi and Prajapati. Lord Buddha was born as elder son from his first queen Mayadevi. His birth is believed to have been 563 BC. The place where Siddhartha Gautam was born is known as Lumbini. It is situated in Rupandehi district of Lumbini zone in the terai region of western Nepal. 

His second queen named Prajapati Gautami also gave birth to a son named Nanda Kumar and a daughter named Nanda Kumari. Shakyas were proud of their purity of blood and superiority of their clan. They used to consider themselves as descendants of Suryavansi Isvaku belonging to Gautam clan. They had married relationship with Koliya Shakyas at Devdaha. King Suddhodhan's aunt  was married to Suddhodhan, the king of shakya dynasty. Siddhartha Gautam also married with Yashodhara, daughter of saprabuddha. Saprabuddha was the son of Kolia king Anjan. After the birth of Siddhartha Gautam, emerging signs of divine power bodhisattva were seen in Kapilvastu according to the legend. The royal fortune tellers predicted that Siddhartha Gautam would enlightenment and provide new thought to the world.

After 294 years of the Mahaparinirvana of Gautam buddha and erected a commemorative pillar which is known as Ashoka pillar now. It is a historical pillar of Nepal. The height of the pillar is 6.7 meters where Hidabudhe Jaate Shakyamuniti is inscribed in Brahmi script. The meaning is "This is the birthplace of Gautam Buddha".

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