Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2703

v2.c31.2703

Māyā, Mahāmāyā.—The mother of the Buddha.¹ Her father was the Sākyan Añjana of Devadaha, son of Devadahasakka, and her mother Yasodharā, daughter of Jayasena.² Daṇḍapāṇi and Suppabuddha were her brothers, and Mahā Pajāpatī her sister. Both the sisters were married to Suddhodana in their youth, but it was not till Māyā was between forty and fifty that the Buddha was born.³ She had all the qualities necessary for one who was to bear the exalted rank of being the mother of the Buddha: she was not too passionate, she did not take intoxicants, she had practised the pāramī for one hundred thousand kappas, and had not, since her birth, violated the five sīla. On the day of her conception she kept her fast, and in her sleep that night she had the following dream: the four Mahārāja-gods took her in her bed to Himavā and placed her under a sāla-tree on Manosilātala. Then their wives came and bathed her in the Anotatta Lake and clad her in divine robes. They then led her into a golden palace and laid her on a divine couch; there the Bodhisatta, in the form of a white elephant, holding a white lotus in his gleaming trunk, entered into her right side. This was on the day of the Uttarāsāḷhanakkhatta, after a festival lasting seven days, in which she had already taken part.