Sujata (milkmaid)

Sujata
Sujata offers Milk-Rice to the Buddha
(art of Ayutthaya).
Personal life
Known forOffering kheer, thus breaking the seven year-long fast of Gautama Buddha, opening the way to his enlightenment.
Religious life
ReligionBuddhism

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.

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