Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.81

c8.81

The noble boy Siddhattha was born in the country and the tribe of the Sakyas ("The Powerful") somewhere about the middle of the sixth century before Christ. Better known than this name which he seems to have borne in the family circle, are other appellations. As a preaching monk wandering through India he was to his contemporaries "The ascetic Gotama"—this surname the Sakyas had, in accordance with the custom of Indian noble families, borrowed from one of the ancient Vedic bard-families; to us no name for this renowned of all Indians is so familiar as that with which the disciples who accepted his faith have expressed his authoritative position as the overthrower of error, as the discerner of the truth which gives deliverance, the name Buddha, i.e., "the enlightened," "the knower."