tribe, over their water supplies from the river.  Just now the two clans were at peace, and two daughters of the rajah of the Koliyans were wives of Suddhodana, the rajah of the Sakyas.  Both were childless.  This was deemed a very great misfortune among the Aryans, who thought that the star of a man’s existence after death depended upon ceremonies to be performed by his heir.  There was great rejoicing, therefore, when, in about the forty-fifth year of her age, the elder sister promised her husband a son.  In due time she started with the intention of being confined at her parents’ house, but it was on the way, under the shade of some lofty satin trees in a pleasant grove called Lumbini, that her son, the future Buddha, was unexpectedly born.  The mother and child were carried back to Suddhodana’s house, and there, seven days afterward, the mother died; but the boy found a careful nurse in his mother’s sister, his father’s other wife.

Many marvellous stories have been told about the miraculous birth and precocious wisdom and power of Gautama.  The name Siddhartha is said to have been given him as a child, Gautama being the family name.  Numerous were his later titles, such as Sakyasinha, the lion of the tribe of Sakya; Sakya-muni, the Sakya sage; Sugata, the happy one; Sattha, the teacher; Jina, the conqueror; Bhagava, the blessed one, and many others.

In his twentieth year he was married to his cousin, Yasodhara, daughter of the rajah of Koli.  Devoting himself to home pleasures, he was accused by his relations of neglecting those manly exercises necessary for one who might at any time have to lead his people in war.  Gautama heard of this, and appointed a day for a general tournament, at which he distinguished himself by being easily the first at all the trials of skill and prowess, thus winning the good opinions of all the clansmen.  This is the solitary record of his youth.

Nothing more is heard of him until, in his twenty-ninth year, Gautama suddenly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to the study of religion and philosophy.  It is said that an angel appeared to him in four visions:  a man broken down by age, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and lastly, a dignified hermit.  Each time Channa, his charioteer, told him that decay and death were the fate of all living beings.  The charioteer also explained to him the character and aims of the ascetics, exemplified by the hermit.

Thoughts of the calm life of the hermit strongly stirred him.  One day, the occasion of the last vision, as he was entering his chariot to return home, news was brought to him that his wife Yasodhara had given birth to a son, his only child, who was called Rahula.  This was about ten years after his marriage.  The idea that this new tie might become too strong for him to break seems to have been the immediate cause of his flight.  He returned home thoughtful and sad.