The forgotten son of India
When Prince Siddhartha was born, the priest said to the King, — -Either your son will become a great king or a great monk.
So, Siddhartha’s father raised him to see only prosperity in life, no sorrow, no grief, no pain.
But as fate would have it, one day Siddhartha saw a corpse and asked his charioteer- what it was and what it meant.
Before that, young Siddhartha had never known of death or illness or sorrow.
And then happened the inevitable quest — his journey to becoming the enlightened one — “The Buddha”.
Siddhartha became the Guru for many spiritual seekers.
and King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty, became the biggest follower of Buddhism.
Not only Ashoka accepted Buddhism, but he also, went on to creating many Stupas and monuments across the country.
Even sent Monks to now neighbouring countries like: SriLanka, Myanmar and most of Central Asia to spread the message of peace and “Dhamma”.
No one would have predicted that the teachings of Gautama Buddha would be forgotten from the land He was born and became enlightened under a Bodhi tree.
You see, when Bharat was first invaded, the easy targets were these Buddhist monks, as they would never fight or choose violence.
So, not only were they slaughtered but many of their scriptures and text at Nalanda university were burnt for days.
Luckily, the sending out of knowledge by Ashoka, to the different lands, had the original Buddhist texts preserved.
and that is exactly how, the present day India, would or could know and learn whatever they can about a lost King from their History.
