Upon this event, King Shuddodana consulted a sooth-sayer, Asita, to read his sons future. Asita told the king that Siddhartha would be one of two things: he could become a great sage and savior of humanity or a great king, perhaps even an emperor (Life of Buddha). Shuddodana was determined to have his first son become king so he set out to protect the child from anything that might lead to him taking the religious pathway. Siddhartha was contained in one of three palaces to prevent him from
Feeney 2 experiencing the “commonplace.” He was not allowed to see the elderly, sick or dead. Only beauty and health surrounded Siddhartha (Silva-Vigier).
Siddhartha grew up a strong and handsome man. As a prince of warrior caste, he trained in the arts of war. The king arranged for three palaces to be filled with 4000 girls each. Siddhartha was to choose a girl from the palaces but none of these pleased him. He found here at the end of the ceremony, she had refused to go to receive her gift. Siddhartha was appreciative of her selflessness and immediately fell in love with her. He won the hand of the beautiful princess from a neighboring kingdom by beating all other competitors at a variety of games. They married when Siddhartha and the princess were
Cited: Boeree, George. “The Life of Siddhartha Gautama.” Webspace. 1999. Shippensburg University. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. Bril, Jenifer. “Muhammad.” PBS. 2005. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. Eden, Jonathan. “Buddhism: An Introduction.” PBS. 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. Islam: Empire of Faith. Dir, and prod. Robert Gardner. Writ, Jonathan Grupper. Videocassete. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005. Life of Buddha. Writ., dir., and prod. Martin Meissonnier. Videocassette. ARTE France Development, 2004. Silva-Vigier, Anil De. The Life of the Buddha. London: Phaidon Press LDT, 1955. Yahyn, Harun. Islam and Buddhism. Honk Kong: Truth Publishing, 2001.