Rāhula

Buddhist · mortal · mythic · mortal

A CHILD ORDAINED AT SEVEN BY HIS OWN FATHER, and named — the tradition says — for a fetter.

Parentage

Reference treatment of the life of the Buddha and the family of Gautama Buddha: Suddhodana was a powerful leader of the Shakya tribe and Maya was his wife; Maya died shortly after Siddhartha was born and her sister Mahapajapati Gotami was elevated to chief consort; at the age of 16 he was married to his cousin Yasodhara, who was also 16; it took Yasodhara a long time to conceive a child, a boy named Rahula born on the day Siddhartha left the palace; Yasodhara was also a sister of Devadatta, who became a disciple of the Buddha and then, by some accounts, a dangerous rival; Rahula became a novice monk at the age of seven and spent the rest of his life with his father; at the persistent request of his stepmother Mahapajapati Gotami and with the advocacy of his attendant Ananda, the Buddha eventually established an order of nuns.