Sujata

Sujata, also Sujātā, or Nandabala , was a farmer's wife, who is said to have fed Gautama Buddha a bowl of kheer, a milk-rice pudding, ending his six years of asceticism. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a tree-spirit nature deity that had granted her wish of having a child. The gift provided him enough strength to cultivate the Middle Way, develop jhana, and attain Bodhi, thereafter becoming known as the Buddha

In a previous life, she is said to have met Padumuttara Buddha, who predicted that one day she would be the first lay disciple of a Buddha of the future.

The village of Bakraur near Bodh Gaya is believed to be her home. The Sujata Stupa was dedicated to her there in the 2nd century BCE. There is also the Sujata Temple, which today is a place of pilgrimage and a popular tourist site.

Story The main sources used by the authors mentioned below are the Lalitavistara Sūtra, Chapter 18 , and Aśvaghoṣa, which, in his poem Buddhacharita, Canto 12, mentions Sujata under the name Nandabala. Sujata, sometimes called Nandabala, was the daughter of a wealthy landowner named Seniya , from the village of Sanani (now called Bakraur), near the forest of Uruvela (now called Bodh Gaya), which is situated by the bank of the Lilajan River.

Single, she wanted to find a good husband and have a child. The villagers told her that inside the banyan tree was a god who could grant her wish. So she began to make a daily offering, imploring the Deva to fulfil her double wish. Finally, she married and gave birth to a son

Every year since then, on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month, she has placed a bowl of payasa (or kheer, rice pudding), at the foot of the tree as an offering to thank the deity. More than twenty years passed during which Sujata never forgot to make her annual thank-you offering.

One night, Sujata dreamt that a Deva was saying to her:

Sujata previous life At the time of Padumuttara Buddha, the future Sujata was the daughter of a rich man from the town of Hamsavati. As she listened to the holy man speak, she saw the first female lay disciple take Three refuges. She told herself that one day she too would do the same. She made an offering to Padumuttara, and expressed her wish to him. He predicted that one day, she too would become the first disciple of a Buddha to come. Thousands of years passed and the young girl was reborn. She was Sujata, and her wish would be granted by Buddha Gautama.

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