Where does it say in the Three Baskets that Buddha used to be a prince?

Upvote:1

Wikipedia says in the article on the Shakyas:

He was known in his lifetime as "Siddhartha Gautama" and "Shakyamuni" (Sage of the Shakyas). He was the son of Śuddhodana, the elected leader of the Śākya Gaṇarājya.

From the article on Śuddhodana:

"Though frequently depicted and referenced as a king, most recent scholarship on the matter refutes the notion that Śuddhodana was a monarch. Many notable scholars state that the Shakya republic was not a monarchy but rather an oligarchy, ruled by an elite council of the warrior and ministerial class that chose its leader or rājā. While the rājā may have held considerable authority in the Shakya homeland, he did not rule autocratically."

So, while clearly being scion of the most elite household, Buddha would not have inherited his father's status, and does not fit the usual understanding of 'prince'. Yet, not much is gained by forcing a more elaborate definition into every mention of Buddha's origins. Except perhaps to note the society of the Shakyas was unusual in the ancient world for being governed remarkably like modern states now (just as Athens was unusual, and produced Socrates..).

Upvote:3

In the following sutta, the Buddha described the delicate and opulent life that he led in his life as a prince, without actually saying that he was a prince.

“Bhikkhus, I was delicately nurtured, most delicately nurtured, extremely delicately nurtured. At my father’s residence lotus ponds were made just for my enjoyment: in one of them blue lotuses bloomed, in another red lotuses, and in a third white lotuses. I used no sandalwood unless it came from Kāsi and my headdress, jacket, lower garment, and upper garment were made of cloth from Kāsi. By day and by night a white canopy was held over me so that cold and heat, dust, grass, and dew would not settle on me.

“I had three mansions: one for the winter, one for the summer, and one for the rainy season. I spent the four months of the rains in the rainy-season mansion, being entertained by musicians, none of whom were male, and I did not leave the mansion. While in other people’s homes slaves, workers, and servants are given broken rice together with sour gruel for their meals, in my father’s residence they were given choice hill rice, meat, and boiled rice.

AN 3.39

The following sutta provides a hint about the Buddha's father:

“I considered: ‘I recall that when my father the Sakyan was occupied, while I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. Could that be the path to enlightenment?’

MN 36

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