The founder of Buddhism,
Siddharta Gautama, was born as a member of the Kshatriya
or warrior caste some 600 years before Christ. He was
the son of king Suddhodana and queen Mahamaya of the Sakya
republic, a small Indian kingdom in Kapilavastu at the
Nepalese foothills. As such, he was often referred to
as Sakyamuni, meaning the "sage of the Sakya tribe".
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