Kapilavastu is a district in southwestern Nepal in which there was a
kingdom ruled by the Sakya dynasty during the 8th century BCE.
Kapilavastu gets its name from the sage Kapila whose hermitage was
here.

The Sakyas were a people who had settled in a forest of saka trees
south of Himalayas and between the Rohini and Rapti rivers. They grew
rice and raised cattle. The Sakya community consisted of stoneworkers,
iron smiths, woodworkers, weavers and potters. They built a city and
called it Kapilavastu.

In the early 7th century BCE, Kapilavastu was ruled by King
Suddhodana. A neighboring kingdom, Devadaha bordered Kapilavastu on
the east. Matrimonial relations developed between the Koliya royal
family in Devadaha and the Sakyas.

In 575 BCE, King Suddhodana married two sisters Mahadevi and Prajapati
from Devadaha.

Twelve years later a child was born who was to become the Buddha. His
name at birth was Siddhartha. Gautama was the name of his clan. He was
born on the full moon day of the month of Vaisakha in 563 BCE.

He lived in his father’s palace in Kapilavastu. According to legend,
his father went to great lengths to provide a pleasant home
environment for his son and went to great lengths to insulate him from
the misfortunes of life.

Archeological excavations at Tilaurakot, the site of Suddhodana’s
palace have unearthed hundreds of coins, pieces of pottery,
terra-cotta figurines, and stone and metal tools, beads and bangles.
Some of these objects have been dated from the 6th century BCE to the
2nd century CE.

At the age of 16, Siddhartha was married to Yasodhara of Devadaha.
After twelve years of marriage, the bore a son, Rahula.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha Gautama renounced his life as prince,
husband and father, and resolved to discover the key to freedom from
human suffering. He left the palace one night, shaved his head and
became an ascetic.

Six years later, after attaining enlightenment, he began his teaching
career of 45 years.

Soon after his enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha, also known as
Sakyamuni returned briefly to Kapilavastu to see his father, his aunt
who had raised him, his wife, and his son.

A place called Kudan is where the Buddha first greeted his father. It
is about 4km south of Tilaurakot. At this time, the Buddha already had
a few hundred monks who accompanied him. To provide a place for them
to practice with their teacher, King Suddhodana built a monastery at
Kudan.

Today there are several mounds of bricks here, but their age is
uncertain. They may be ruins of temples or monasteries built later. In
1962, the site was partially excavated, but items found that could be
accurately dated were no older than the 9th century CE. Further
archaeological work will be required to ascertain the history of this
site.

In 483 BCE, at Kusinagar the Buddha passed away.

Within a couple hundred years of the Sakyamuni Buddha, the idea of
previous Buddha’s began to appear. By the time of king Asoka (3rd
century BCE), many believed that there had been other human Buddhas
before Sakyamuni.

According to both Hinayana and Mahayana teachings, Sakyamuni was
preceded by Krakuchhanda, Kanakamuni and Kasyapa. These are referred
to as Manusi (human) Buddhas. Interestingly, both Krakuchhanda and
Kanakamuni were born and attained enlightenment within 5 miles of
Tilaurakot.

The story of Krakuchhanda told by a renowned Buddhist scholar of
Srilanka, Malalasekera (1983) seems to me to be more apocryphal than
historical, telling that Krakuchhanda stood forty cubits tall, and
died at an age of forty thousand years. According to the story, he
practiced austerities for only eight months, and attained
enlightenment while sitting under a sirisa tree.

During his pilgrimage, King Asoka marked the site of Krakuchhanda’s
enlightenment by erecting a stone pillar at Gotihawa, just 3km west of
Kudan.

Scholar Malalasekera (1983) describes another Manusi Buddha,
Kanakamuni who ostensibly came after Krakuchhandu but before
Sakyamuni. The story tell us that he was 30 cubits tall and lived for
thirty thousand years. Apparently he attained enlightenment while
sitting under an Udumbara tree.

King Asoka identified a site where Kanakamuni attained enlightenment
at Niglihawa, about 5km northeast of Tilauakot. He erected a stone
pillar there and inscribed it in the Brahmi script and the Pali
language. Translated by V. Smith, the inscription says,

“His Majesty King Priyadarsina [Asoka]in the 14th year of this reign
enlarged for the second time the stupa of the Buddha Kanakamuni and in
the 20th year of his reign, having come in person, did reverence and
set up a stone pillar.”

Today the pillar is broken into pieces, two of which can be seen at
Niglihawa. The inscription is clearly visible.

In recent times, this pillar was discovered in 1893 by a Nepalese
officer on a hunting expedition.