LUMBINI, the grove in which, according to Buddhist legend, the Buddha was born. There are two references to the name in the Pali scriptures, the first in the narrative poem prefixed to the Nalaka-sutta in the Sutta-nipata, where it is related how the gods rejoicing in the sky inform the sage Asita that "the Bodhisatta, the incomparable jewel, has been born for weal and happiness in the world of men, in a village of the Sakyas, in the Lumbini coun try" (janapade Lumbineyye). The other reference is in the Kathavatthu, one of the latest works in the Canon. The detailed story of the birth as known to Pali Buddhism first occurs in the introduction to the commentary on the Jataka. This account says that Queen Mahamaya, when her time was come, desired to go to her parents' home at Devadaha. On the way she alighted to sport in the Lumbini grove, her pains came upon her, and there the future Buddha was born. The earliest canonical accounts of the birth are not in the Pali Canon, but in the Sanskrit scriptures of two other schools, the Mahavastu (ii., 18), and the Lalitavistara (ch. 7). Neither of these works can be put earlier than the 3rd or 4th century A.D., but the discovery of an inscription of Asoka makes it probable that the whole legend was established at least as early as the 3rd century B.C. The inscription was found in 1896, a few miles within the border of Nepal and some miles east of the site which had already been identified as Kapilavatthu, the city of Buddha's family. It contains one doubtful word, but the inscrip tion has always been accepted as genuine, and it is clear that it records that "Piyadasi [i.e., Asoka], after he had been consecrated
20 years, came in person and worshipped, because here was born Buddha akyamuni. He both caused a stone [horse?] to be made, and caused a pillar to be set up, because here the Lord was born. He made the village of Lummini free of taxes and paying (only) one-eighth part [of the crop]." This makes the dates 245 B.C., according to the accepted chronology of Asoka's reign. There is a shrine at the place, now known to the Nepalese officials and hill men as Rupadei. Fames statement that it is locally called Rum mindei has never been verified. The shrine contains a bas-relief representing the birth of the Buddha. The legends with their fan tastic details are not historical documents, but the archaeological evidence which has accumulated increases the probability that they have originated in a historical event.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Sutta-nipata (trans. by Fausboll, 1924) ; Kathd vatthu, vol. i. (1897; trans. as Points of Controversy, 1915) ; Jeitaka, vol. i. (1877; trans. as Buddhist Birth Stories, 2nd ed., 1925) ; Lalita vistara (Calcutta, 1877; trans. by P. Foucaux, Paris, 5884). Maki vastu (Paris, 1882-97). Epigraphia Indica, vol. v., p. 1 seq.; A. Barth in J won. des Savants, Feb. 1897, p. 65 seq.; P. C. Mukherji, A Report on a Tour of Exploration of the Antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal (Cal cutta, 1901) ; Inscriptions of Asoka, ed. by E. Hultzsch (1925).
(E. J. T.)