Maya- Buddhist FigureMortal"Queen of Kapilavastu"

The Dream of the White Elephant

On the full moon night of the month of Asalha, Queen Maya of Kapilavastu dreamed. The Four Guardian Kings carried her to the Himalayas and laid her beneath a great sala tree. A white elephant, holding a white lotus in his trunk, circled her three times, struck her right side, and entered her womb. Maya awoke knowing what had happened. Court brahmins interpreted the dream: she would give birth to either a universal monarch or a Buddha who would enlighten the world.

The Birth in Lumbini

Near the end of her pregnancy, Maya set out for her childhood home of Devadaha to give birth according to custom. Along the way she stopped in Lumbini Garden among the flowering sala trees. As she reached up to hold a branch, she went into labor and gave birth standing, gripping the tree. The infant emerged from her right side without causing her pain, took seven steps in each direction, and declared: "I am the chief of the world, the best of the world, the foremost of the world. This is my last birth. There will be no more becoming again." Emperor Ashoka visited Lumbini in the 3rd century BCE and erected a pillar marking the spot.

Death and the Tusita Heaven

Seven days after the birth, Maya died. The Nidanakatha records that the mother of every buddha dies seven days after delivery. Her son would be raised by her sister Mahapajapati Gotami. Maya herself was reborn in the Tusita Heaven, the realm where bodhisattvas dwell before their final birth and where the future Buddha Maitreya now resides.

Teaching His Mother the Dharma

Years later, after his enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha ascended to the Tusita Heaven to teach his mother the Abhidharma. He spent the entire three-month rains retreat there, returning to earth each day at Sankassa to take his meal, then climbing back. When he finally descended for good, Brahma held a parasol over him and Indra carried his bowl.