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younger sect with Buddha as its model. The first similarity between these two persons is to be found in the names of some of their relatives. This fact, if it proves anything, shows only that those certain names were common ainong the Kshatriyas at that time, as they are even in our days. The other point is that both are represented as descendants of royal Kshatriya families. In answer to this point it is enough to say that one was the son of the king of Kundagrama near Vaisâli, while the other was the son of Suddhadana, a chief of the Sakya tribe, which lived in the fertile region between the lower Hymalayas of Nepal and the middle course of the Rapti, and was born at Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shakhyas. Mahavira's original name was Vardhamana, while Buddha's was Siddhatta. The name of Buddha's mother was Mayadevi and she died soon after his birch, while Mahavira's mother Trishalâ, lived to see him a grown-up man. While Buddha turned an
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
