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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
It was Buddha who created a reaction in such a society.1
2.
About 100 miles north-east of the city of Benaras was situated about 600 years before Christ a place called Kapilavastu on the banks of the River Rohini. And two kindred clans-the Shakyas and Kolians-lived on the opposite banks of that river. Kapilavastu was the capital of the Shakyas who were then living in peace with the Kolians and Shuddhodana the king of Shakyas had married two daughters of the king of Kolians. Neither queen bore any child to Shuddhodana for many years and the hope of leaving an heir to the principality of the Shakyas was well nigh abandoned. At last however the elder queen promised her husband an heir and according to ancient custom left for he father's house in order to be confined. But before she reached the place she gave birth to a son in the pleasant grove of Lumbini. The mother and child were carried back to Kapilavastu where the mother died 7 days after leaving the child to be nursed by his stepmother and maternal aunt, the younger queen.
The birth of Gautama is naturally the subject of many legends which have a most remarkable resemblance with the legends about the birth of Jesus Christ. The boy was named Siddhartha but Gautama was his family name. He belonged to the Shakya tribe and is therefore called ; and when he had proclaimed and preached a reformed religion he was called Buddha or the awakened or enlightened.
Little is known of the early life of young Gautama
1. The earlier draft of the lecture here says: "The biography of Buddha is so well known that it is not at all necessary to refer to it." But Gandhi seems to have changed his mind afterwards. Hence the immediately forthcoming narration of Buddha's life-story.
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