Wikipedia:Gautama Buddha Birthplace sources and quotes

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini to be the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, in accord with the Jataka-tales and a 6,5 meters high pillar, erected there by King Ashoka in 245 BCE. This is most likely Lumbini, present-day Nepal, which lays close to Tilaurakot and Piprahwa. Based on stone-inscriptions, Lumbei, Kapileswar-village, at the outskirts of Orissa (east-coast of India), has also been proposed by some.

Kapilavastu is regarded as the place where he grew up. The location of ancient Kapilavastu may either be Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal, or Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh (northern India), which both lay close to Lumbini.

Biographies
Biographies on the Buddha were written only several centuries after his life and death, which contain both historical fact but also "legendary and mythological embellishments".

Lumbini, present-day Rummindai, Rupandehi district, Nepal
Lumbini is a small place close to the administrative boundary of Kapilvastu. The most recent administrative division of districts in Nepal kept Lumbini just outside of Kapilvastu district, but it is still in Lumbini zone.

Lumbini is regarded to be the birthplace of the Buddha in Buddhist Jataka narratives. It was discovered in 1896 by archaeologists. One of the objects found was a 6,5 meters high pillar, erected by King Ashoka in 245 BCE, containing the following inscription: "King Piyadasi (Ashoka), beloved of devas, in the 20 year of the coronation, himself made a royal visit, Buddha Sakyamuni having been born here, a stone railing was built and a stone pillar erected to the Bhagavan having been born here, Lumbini village was taxed reduced and entitled to the eight part (only)."

Written sources
The Nidanakatha, the introductory to the Jataka tales, the stories of the former lives of the Buddha, narrates the story of the Buddha's conception and birth: "Situated in southwestern Nepal, approximately 250 kilometers from Kathmandu is the sacred gardens of Lumbini where it is said that the Buddha was born either in 623 or 642 BCE, over 2600 years ago. According to Buddhist tradition, Maya Devi was on her way to her parent's home in Devadaha one May day when she stopped to rest under a seal tree. After bathing in a nearby pool, known as Puskarni, Maya Devi - a virgin, became impregnated and immediately fell into labor and gave birth to Prince Siddharta Gautam - the future Buddha."

Peter Harvey also mentions this story: "Nidanakatha 552-3 relates that, near the end of her pregnacy, Mahamaya journeyed from Kapilavatthu to the home of her relatives to give birth, as was the custom. On the way, she and her party passed the pleasant Lumbini grove, where she stopped to enjoy the flowers and the birdsong. here she went into labour and, holding on to a Sal tree, gave birth standing up."

Lumbini was visited by Emperor Asoka in ca. 260 BCE and ca. 249 BCE. After this second visit a stone pillar was erected to commemorate the vent.

Web-sources
UNESCO lists Lumbini as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. .

Lumbei, Kapileswar, Orissa, present-day India


Based on a stone-plate inscription, found in 1928, to some authors speculate, Lumbei, at the east-coast of present-day India, to be the site of ancient Lumbini. The stone-plate is a forgery, probably copied from a book borrowed from a member of the Ramakrishna mission.

Gopinath Mohāpātra - Two birthplates of Buddha
According to Mohāpātra, in 1928, a farmer from Kapileswar found "the inscribed broken stone slab set in the mud wall of his hut" and brought it to a local museum. Mohāpātra assumes this fragment to be a portion of an Ashokan pillar. The inscription was translated: "(...) Priyadasi, the beloved of gods. Offered his worship here, as Buddha, the Shakyamuni was born here. (...)""

U.C. Mohanty - Extract from "Two Anecdotes Narrated by Two Archaeologists"
Regarding the authenticity of Kapileswara Ashokan inscription, acquired from Biren Roy by University of Calcutta, U. C. Mohanty recounts Prof. Nirmal Kumar Bose, "On one occasion I was talking with a sculptor of Pathuria Sahi in Puri, who was my intimate associate. In course of our talk the Maharana enquired about the Buddha’s inscription, that he carved for Biren Babu. I became curious and enquired how he had got the script of the inscription. Maharana narrated how Biren Babu borrowed a book from the Sannyasi of the Ramakrishna Mission which contained the original script. This statement left no doubt in my mind that the very book from which the inscription had been copied, was my own book that I had lent to the monk of the Mission."

Mohanty further quotes Prof. Bose, "When this discovery was announced Government made some local enquiries through the Collector of Puri. But Biren Roy was shrewed enough to bribe a Brahmin of Kapileswar with a ten rupee note and this Brahmin deposed before the Revenue Officer that the inscription had been discovered from a broken wall of his house while it was being reconstructed.""

Hartmann
Hartmann discusses the hypothesis and states, "The inscription has generally been considered spurious (...)"

He quotes Sicar: "There can hardly be any doubt that the people responsible for the Kapilesvara inscription copied it from the said facsimile not much earlier than 1928."

Harry Falk
He analyzed the inscription in detail and speculated that it was a copy of the Asokan pillar inscription, sold as a souvenir to pilgrims at Lumbini during the Indian middle ages.

Ajit Kumar Tripathy - The Real Birthplace of the Buddha
Tripathy follows Mahāpātra, making additional claims and speculations which are mostly unsourced.

Cakradhara Mahāpātra - The real birthplace of the Buddha
Mahāpātra also mentions stone-inscriptions which state that Lumbei is the real birthplace of the Buddha.. Regarding Mahāpātra's book, Huntington comments, "it is of little scholarly value, if the reader has a fairly thorough knowledge of the archaeology of the pilgrimage route." Harry Falk comments on Mohāpātra's book: "His arguments may be passed over in silence."

Web-sources
Various web-pages mention Orissa. Unfortunately none of them mentions written sources or publications. This web-page analyses all reasons for the claim of Orissa, and debunks the claim using extensive written sources.

Kapilavastu
Some sources suggest, by inference, that Kapilavastu is the birthplace of the Buddha. Kapilavastu (formerly Taulihawa), present-day Nepal, lies near to the border of present-day India. It is probably not the site of ancient Kapilavastu.

Written sources
The authors quoted here do not claim Kapilvastu as his birth place. Rather they claim that Buddha was born in the Sakya Republic, which had Kapilavastu as its capital.

A.K. Warder 2000 (first edition 1970, third revised edition 2000)
Warder writes: "The Buddha [...] was born in the Sakya Republic, which was the city state of Kapilavastu, a very small state just inside the modern state boundary of Nepal against the Indian frontier."

Hans Wolfgang Schumann, 1998 (first print 1982)
Schumann writes: "Kapilavatthu, de vaderstad van de Boeddha, waarin hij de eerste 29 jaar van zijn leven doorbracht, ligt niet ver van de grens die tegenwoordig het koninkrijk Nepal van het staatsgebied van de republiek India scheidt. De vader van de Boeddha heette Suddhodana 'Die zuivere rijst verbouwt' en behoorde tot de stam de Sakiya's. De Sakiya's waren khattiya's en behoorden dus tot de (toen nog) hoogste kaste, de krijgs- of beter: ambtsadel, die het bestuur en de rechtshandhaving van de Sakiya-republiek tot taak had. Uit hun midden werd, indien nodig, de nieuwe raja gekozen, de president der republiek en voorzitter van de raadsvergadering. In het midden van de zesde eeuw v. Chr. was het Suddhodana die het raja-ambt vervulde."

In translation: "Kapilavatthu, the home town of the Buddha, where he lived the first 29 years of his life, is not far from the border that now separates the kingdom of Nepal from the area of the Republic of India. The father of the Buddha was called Suddhodana, "Who grows pure rice," and belonged to the tribe of the Sakiya. The Sakiya's were Khattiya's and thus belonged to the (then) highest caste, the martial caste, or better: nobility of office, tasked with the administration and enforcement of the Sakiya republic. From their midst was elected, if necessary, the new raja, the president of the republic and president of the council. In the middle of the sixth century BC, it was Suddhodana who fulfilled the office of raja."

Maurice Walsh, 1995
Walsh writes: "He belonged to the Sakya clan dwelling on the edge of the Himalayas, his actual birthplace being a few miles north of the present-day Indian border, in Nepal. His father was in fact an elected chief of the clan rather than the king he was later made out to be, though his title was raja - a term which only partly corresponds to our word 'king'. Some of the states of North India at that time were kingdoms and others republics, and the Sakyan republic was subject to the powerful king of neighbouring Kosala, which lay to the south."

Peter Harvey, 1990 (first publication, reprint 1995)
Harvey writes: "We know that Gotama was born in the small republic of the Sakka (Skt Sākya) people, which straddles the present border with Nepal and had Kapilavatthu as its capital."

Harvey also writes: "In the early Buddhist texts, there is no continuous life of the Buddha, as these concentrated on his teachings. Only later, between 200 BC and 200 AD, did a growing interest in the Buddha's person lead to various schools producing continuous 'biographies', which drew on scattered accounts in the existing Sutta and Vinaya collections, and floating oral traditions. These 'biographies' include the sarvastivadins' Lalitavistara, the Theravadins' Nidanakatha, and Asvaghosa's poem, the Buddhacarita. The details of these are in general agreement, but while they must clearly be based around historical facts, they also contain legendary and mythological embellisgments, and it is often not possible to sort out one from the other. While the bare historical basis of the traditional biography will never be known, as it stands it gives a great insight into Buddhism by enabling as to see what the meaning of the Buddha's life is to the Buddhists: what lessons it is held to contain."

Historical location of Kapilavastu
Tilaurakot, present-day nepal, and Piprahwa, present-day India, both belonged to the Sakya-territory. According to Asher, there is not sufficient evidence to identify Piprahwa/Ganwaria or Tilaurakot as the ancient Kapilavastu. Kevin Trainor states,"At present, both sites are promoted by their respective countries as the location of Kapilavastu, and both draw Buddhist pilgrims (...)."

Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal
Tilaurakot, in Kapilavastu district, present-day Nepal, lies near to the border of present-day India. It may have been the historical location of Kapilavastu.

Written sources
Swoyambhu D. Tuladhar gives an overview of the historical city of Kapilavastu in The Ancient City of Kapilvastu - Revisited. Schumann states: "In order to stress their claim to possess the historical Kapilavatthu, the Nepalese government in 1961 'renamed' Tilaurakot and the entire surrounding district Kapilavastu (the Sanskrit form of Kapilavatthu), so that the place appears under this name on recent maps. Indian aechaeologists, on the other hand, maintai that Kapilavatthu is identical with Piprava (...)."

Web-sources
Chandrashekhar Athavale: "Nepal however continued to be absolutely adamant and decided on its own that Tilaurkot was Kapilavastu and even renamed the district of Taulihawa, in Nepal, as Kapilavastu."

Reasons For

 * Extensive fortifications and indications of a moat and boundary wall, which suggest a royal seat
 * Accounts of two Chinese pilgrims and other written evidence point roughly to Tilaurakot as Kapilvastu
 * Terracotta sealing that mentions "Sa-ka-na-sya", that is "of the Sakyas"

Reasons Against

 * No clinching incription-based evidence
 * The geography does not match the account given by the Chinese pilgrims

Written sources
Nakamura states that Indian archaeologists judge Piprahwa to be the site of ancient Kapilavastu. According to Nakamura, "Decision should be made after further investigation".

Huntington discusses claims of Piprahwa and Tilaurakot (Nepal) to be the site of ancient Kapilavastu. He concludes that the exvacations under Srivastava "have established that the site (Piprahwa) was known as Kapilavastu some five to six hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni (...), demonstrating at least the capability of it having been the Kapilavastu site."

Web-sources
Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India is being mentioned by Victoria and Albert Museum.

Victoria and Albert Museum: "During the 1970s excavations at the site revealed a stupa which had an inscription dated to the Kushan period, confirming that this (Piprahwa) was the site of Kapilavastu. Further excavations nearby revealed a thick walled structure which it is believed could have been the royal palace of the Buddha's family."

However the details of the correlation between the stupa and Piprahwa being the present day Kapilvastu is not provided, because the period of Kushan Empire is pre-dated by the period of reign of Ashoka Emperor whose Ashoka Pillar signifies Tilaurakot, Nepal as present day Kapilvastu.

Chandrashekhar Athavale has extensively written on Piprahwa.

Reasons For

 * Excavation of a casket whose inscription indicated it contained the Buddha's bone fragments
 * Inscriptions on 5th-century BCE seals

Reasons Against

 * No palace-like constructions or fortifications to suggest a seat of the royal family. Only stupas and prayer halls, indicating it to be a monastic site.
 * The excavation that lead to the discovery of casket was not properly recorded, with some accusing it to be a fraud

General

 * Trainor, Kevin (2010).In Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-55624-8; pp. 436-437
 * Trainor, Kevin (2010).In Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-55624-8; pp. 436-437
 * Trainor, Kevin (2010).In Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-55624-8; pp. 436-437
 * Trainor, Kevin (2010).In Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-55624-8; pp. 436-437
 * Trainor, Kevin (2010).In Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-55624-8; pp. 436-437

Websites

 * Kapilavastu


 * Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal


 * Orissa c.q. Kapileswar, present-day India


 * Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India


 * Lumbini, present-day Nepal