tellation Visa on a Tuesday in May, in
the year 2478 (K.Y.); he retired to the jungle in the year 2506; became
Buddha in 2513; and, passing out of the round of rebirths, entered
Paranirvana in the year 2558, aged eighty years. Each of these
events happened on a day of full moon, so all are conjointly celebrated
in the great festival of the full-moon of the month Wesak
(_Vaisakha_), corresponding to the month of May.

9. Q. _Was the Buddha God?_

A. No. Buddha Dharma teaches no "divine" incarnation.

10. Q. _Was he a man?_

A. Yes; but the wisest, noblest and most holy being, who had developed
himself in the course of countless births far beyond all other beings,
the previous BUDDHAS alone excepted.

11. Q. _Were there other Buddhas before him?_

A. Yes; as will be explained later on.

12. Q. _Was Buddha his name?_

A. No. It is the name of a condition or state of mind, of the mind
after it has reached the culmination of development.

13. Q. _What is its meaning?_

A. Enlightened; or, he who has the all-perfect wisdom. The Pali
phrase is _Sabbannu_, the One of Boundless Knowledge. In Samskrt it is
_Sarvajna_.

14. Q. _What was the Buddha's real name then?_

A. SIDDHARTHA was his royal name, and GAUTAMA, or GOTAMA, his
family name. He was Prince of Kapilavastu and belonged to the
illustrious family of the Okkaka, of the Solar race.

15. Q. _Who were his father and mother?_

A. King Suddhodana and Queen Maya, called Maha Maya.

16. Q. _What people did this King reign over?_

A. The Sakyas; an Aryan tribe of Kshattriyas.

17. Q. _Where was Kapilavastu?_

A. In India, one hundred miles north-east of the City of Benares, and
about forty miles from the Himalaya mountains. It is situated in the
Nepal Terai. The city is now in ruins.

18. Q. _On what river?_

A. The Rohini, now called the Kohana.

19. Q. _Tell me again when Prince Siddhartha was born?_

A. Six hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era.

20. Q. _Is the exact spot known?_

A. It is now identified beyond question. An archaeologist in the
service of the Government of India has discovered in the jungle of the
Nepal Terai a stone pillar erected by the mighty Buddhist sovereign,
Asoka, to mark the very spot. The place was known in those times as
the Lumbini Garden.

21. Q. _Had the Prince luxuries and splendours like other Princes?_

A. He had; his father, the King, built h