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Concept
Śuddhodana
Summary
Śuddhodana (शुद्धोदन; Pali: Suddhōdana), meaning "he who grows pure rice," was the father of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha. He was a leader of the Shakya, who lived in an oligarchic republic, with their capital at Kapilavastu.
In later renditions of the life of the Buddha, Śuddhodana was often referred to as a king, though that status cannot be established with confidence and is in fact disputed by modern scholars.
Sudhdhodhana king's earliest predecessor was King Maha Sammatha(or the first king of the Kalpa). Śuddhodana's father was Sihahanu and his mother was Kaccanā. Suddhodana's chief consort was Maha Maya, with whom he had Siddhartha Gautama (who later became known as Shakyamuni, the "Sage of the Shakyas", or the Buddha). Maya died shortly after Siddhartha was born. Suddhodana next elevated to chief consort Maya's sister Mahapajapati Gotami, with whom he had a second son Nanda and a daughter Sundarī Nandā. Both children became Buddhist monastics.
At the age of 16, Siddhartha married his cousin Yasodharā, the niece of Maha Maya and Mahapajapati. Yasodhara's father was traditionally said to be Suppabuddha, but by some accounts it was Dandapani.
Though frequently depicted and referenced as a king, most recent scholarship on the matter refutes the notion that Śuddhodana was a monarch. Many notable scholars state that the Shakya republic was not a monarchy but rather an oligarchy, ruled by an elite council of the warrior and ministerial class that chose its leader or rājā. While the rājā may have held considerable authority in the Shakya homeland, he did not rule autocratically. Questions of consequence were debated in the governing council and decisions were made by consensus. Furthermore, by the time of Siddharta's birth, the Shakya republic had become a vassal state of the larger Kingdom of Kosala. The head of Shakya's oligarchic council, the rājā, would only assume and stay in office with the approval of the King of Kosala.
The earliest Buddhist texts available to us do not identify Śuddhodana or his family as royals.
Official source
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