Suddhodana: Encyclopedia - Suddhodana

Suddhodana was the father of Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. He was the King of the Shakya people, who lived in what is now Nepal. It was prophesied that Siddhartha would become a great war-lord. However, if he saw four signs, an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a monk, he would instead become a great religious leader. After hearing this, Suddhodana tried to keep Siddhartha shielded from the outside world so that he would never see the four signs, and become a powerful ruler instead. However, his plan did not su

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Suddhodana", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki