Chief Editor: Venerable Brahmapundit
Editor: Peter Harvey
Translators: Tamás Agócs, Peter Harvey | Dharmacārī Śraddhāpa | P.D. Premasiri
G.A Somaratne | Venerable Thich Tue Sy
PART I: THE BUDDHA
CHAPTER 1: THE LIFE OF THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA
Conception, birth and early life
L.1 Parents
Here an awakened monk names the Buddha’s parents, with the Buddha’s father as in a certain sense the monk’s ‘grandfather’.
A hero of great wisdom indeed cleanses seven generations in whatever family he is born. I think, Sakiya (Suddhodana), you are the king of gods, for you begot the sage who is truly named.
The father of the great seer is called Suddhodana. The mother of the awakened one was called Māyā, who, having cherished the bodhisatta with her womb, after the breaking up of the body rejoices in the three heavens.
She, Gotamī[1]Feminine form of the surname Gotama. (Māyā), having died, having descended from here, being possessed of divine sensual pleasures, rejoices in the five strands of sensual pleasures, surrounded by the groups of gods.
I am the son (the disciple) of the Buddha, who endures what is beyond endurance, the son of the incomparable Venerable Aṅgīrasa.[2]Which may mean ‘Shining One’, or mean a member of the Aṅgīrasa tribe. You, Sakiya (Suddhodana), are my father’s father; truly you are my grandfather, Gotama.
Kāḷudāyī’s verses: Theragāthā 533–536, trans. G.A.S.