Gautama Buddha (also known as Siddhattha Gotama, Siddhrtha Gautama, or Buddha Shakyamuni) was an ancient Indian ramaa. He is considered as the founder of Buddhism, and most Buddhist schools see him as a savior, the Enlightened One who unearthed an old path to liberate oneself from clinging and craving, and to break the cycle of birth and rebirth. He taught for about 45 years and amassed a sizable monastic and lay following. His teaching is founded on his understanding of how dukha arises (the unsatisfactoriness of clinging to ephemeral states and things) and how dukha ends”the condition known as Nibbna or Nirvana (extinguishing of the three fires).

The Buddha was born into a noble Shakya clan family, but rejected lay life later on. He awakened to grasp the mechanism that keeps individuals stuck in the cycle of reincarnation after several years of mendicancy, meditation, and austerity, according to Buddhist tradition. After that, the Buddha journeyed throughout the Ganges plain, preaching and establishing a holy community. The Buddha preached a medium path between sensuous pleasure and the Indian ramaa movement’s rigorous austerity. He preached mental training that encompassed ethical training, self-control, and contemplative techniques like jhana and awareness. Brahmin priests’ behaviors, such as animal sacrifice and the caste system, were also criticized by the Buddha.

He was given the name Buddha a few centuries after his death, which means “Awakened One” or “Enlightened One.” The Buddhist community gathered Gautama’s teachings in the Vinaya, his monastic regulations, and the Suttas, literature based on his talks. These were passed down by oral tradition in Middle-Indo Aryan languages. Later generations wrote additional works such as Abhidharma treatises, biographies of the Buddha, Jataka tales collections of stories about the Buddha’s former incarnations, and more discourses, i.e. the Mahayana sutras.

He was also known by various names and titles, including Shakyamuni and Siddhrtha Gautama (Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) (“Sage of the Shakyas”).

The Buddha frequently refers to himself as Tathgata in early literature (Sanskrit: ). The phrase is typically translated as “one who has thus gone” (tath-gata) or “one who has thus come” (tath-gata), probably referring to the Buddha’s spiritual attainment’s transcendental character.

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