Historical Siddhārtha Gautama

           

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era in India during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign ofAjatshatru, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain teacher;^[] however most scholars do not consistently accept all of the details contained in traditional biographies

                    

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE,^[ but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. However, at a symposium on this question held in 1988,^] the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. According to Pali scholar K. R. Norman, a life span for the Buddha of c. 480 to 400 BCE (and his teaching period roughly from c. 445 to 400 BCE) "fits the archaeological evidence better". These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all other historians. The discovery of a possible Buddhist shrine dated to 550 BCE at the Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini may push back the Buddha's birth date, but some archaeologists caution that the shrine may represent pre-Buddhist tree worship, and that further research is needed.

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born in the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE.^[25] It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch.^[25] According to the Theravada Tripitaka scriptures (from Pali, meaning "three baskets"), Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-dayNepal, around the year 563 BCE, and raised in Kapilavastu.