The woman who made him the Buddha

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly plus Wikipedia edit

Austere ascetic Siddhartha fasting

Which woman made the Buddha ("the Awakened One or Enlightened One"? A person might answer, Queen Maya.

But she "made" Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. She passed away a week after the prince's birth. She didn't raise him.

Others might say, Queen Pajapati, Queen Maya's sister, who was also married to Siddhartha's father, King Suddhodana. She raised him.

Still others would give credit to his wife and cousin, Princess Yasodhara (whose actual name was Bimba). She helped. They were born on the same day and were married off, according to Shakyian/Scythian custom at the young age of 16.

• UCLA Distinguished Professor of Buddhism Robert Buswell taught us that at every important point in the Buddha's life there was a woman at the turning point.

After Siddhartha renounced and set off toward the East on a quest for enlightenment, he studied under one yogi and then another.

Disappointed that neither of their paths led to ultimate enlightenment and complete liberation from rebirth and suffering, he set off on his own to practice the foolish path of extreme austerities. This failed to provide either calm or insight, the two signature marks of Buddhism.

Sacred burial mound (stupa) dedicated to Sujata in Bakraur, India

Ascetic Siddhartha with Sujata's gift

So one might argue that the woman who made him was the one who saved him. And her name was Sujata (Sujātā), a milkmaid.

She is said to have fed Gautama Buddha a bowl of kheer, a milk-rice pudding, ending his six years of severe asceticism. Such was Siddhartha's emaciated appearance that she wrongly thought that he was a tree-spirit (dryad, woodland deva) who had granted her wish to have a child.

The offering (dana) provided Siddhartha enough strength to cultivate the Middle Path, develop the mentally-purifying meditative absorptions (jhanas), and attain enlightenment (bodhi). He thereafter became known as the Buddha [1, 2, 3].

Sujata and her maid offer Siddhartha endurance

The village of Bakraur, near Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove") is believed to be her home. The Sujata Stupa or sacred reliquary and burial mound was dedicated to her there in the 2nd century BCE [4]. Source

Of course, this answer of which woman "made" the Buddha is conventional and misleading. For what really made the Enlightened One is karma (intentions, actions, deeds with the power to yield a result). Ultimately, things are impersonal, with things playing their role to bring about an outcome. Indeed, things are not what they seem to us.

1. Prasoon, Shrikant (2007). Knowing Buddha: [life and teachings]. [Delhi]: Hindoology Books.
2. Lonely Planet; Blasi, Abigail (2017). Lonely Planet India. Lonely Planet.
3. Dwivedi, Sunita; Dalai Lama (foreword) (2006). Buddhist heritage sites of India. New Delhi: Rupa & Co.
4. Geary, David; Sayers, Matthew R.; Amar, Abhishek Singh (2012). Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Buddhist Site: Bodh Gaya Jataka. Routledge. pp. 35–36.