Similar inscriptions have been discovered throughout India, proving to the satisfaction of such scholars as Burnouf, Prinsep, Turnour, Lassen, Weber, Max Muller, and Saint-Hilaire, that Buddhism had become almost the state religion of India, in the fourth century before Christ.[100] Sec.3.

Sakya-muni, the Founder of Buddhism.
North of Central India and of the kingdom of Oude, near the borders of Nepaul, there reigned, at the end of the seventh century before Christ, a wise and good king, in his capital city, Kapilavastu[101].

He was one of the last of the great Solar race, celebrated in the ancient epics of India.

His wife, named _Maya_ because of her great beauty, became the mother of a prince, who was named Siddartha, and afterward known as the Buddha[102].

She died seven days after his birth, and the child was brought up by his maternal aunt.