Introduction
Siddhartha Gautama was a Shakya prince, son of Suddhodana and Maya Devi, who renounced his household life and eventual claim to rule the Shakya clan to seek an end to suffering, becoming the founder of Buddhism.
Family
- Father: Suddhodana
- Mother: Maya Devi
- Spouse: Yasodhara (married)
- Children: Rahula
Renunciation, Enlightenment, and Teaching
Siddhartha left the palace at Kapilavastu at age 29 after encountering old age, sickness, death, and a wandering ascetic — the "Four Sights" that convinced him worldly life could not resolve suffering. He practiced severe asceticism for six years without achieving his goal, then, adopting a more balanced "middle way," attained enlightenment (bodhi) while meditating under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya. He spent the following 45 years teaching the Dharma across the Gangetic plain, gathering a large monastic community (Sangha) and lay following, before dying (attaining parinirvana) at Kushinagar.
This article follows the Pali Canon and its commentarial tradition as the primary early Buddhist textual source; where sources genuinely disagree on a detail (such as an exact parentage), that disagreement is noted rather than resolved into a single invented certainty.