Maya

Lore & Background

In the Buddhist commentaries, Maya was on a traditional journey to her familial home in Devadaha where she would give birth, but her labor started as they were in Lumbini. The Buddha was then born in the gardens and Maya died soon after the birth of the Buddha, generally said to have been seven days afterwards. Maya was then reborn, or came to life again, in a Buddhist heaven, a pattern that is said to be followed in the births of all Buddhas. Thus Maya did not raise her son, who was instead raised by her sister and his maternal aunt, Mahapajapati Gotami. Maya would, however, on occasion descend from Heaven to give advice to her son. According to legend, one full moon night, sleeping in the palace of her husband Śuddhodana, the queen had a vivid dream. She felt herself being carried away by four devas (spirits) to Lake Anotatta in the Himalayas. After bathing her in the lake, the devas clothed her in heavenly cloths, anointed her with perfumes, and bedecked her with divine flowers. Soon after a white elephant, holding a white lotus flower in its trunk, appeared and went round her three times, entering her womb through her right side. Finally the elephant disappeared and the queen awoke, knowing she had been delivered an important message, as the elephant is a symbol of greatness. According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha-to-be was residing as a bodhisattva in the Tuṣita heaven, and decided to take the shape of a white elephant to be reborn on Earth for the last time.

Reader's Guide

In Buddhist literature and art, Queen Maya is portrayed as a very beautiful fecund woman in the prime of life. Although sometimes shown in other scenes from her life, such as having a dream foretelling her pregnancy with Gautama Buddha or with her husband King Śuddhodana seeking prophecies about their son's life, shortly after his birth, she is most often depicted whilst giving birth to Gautama, an event that is generally accepted to have taken place in Lumbini in modern-day Terai. Maya is usually shown giving birth standing under a tree and reaching overhead to hold on to a branch for support. Buddhist scholar Miranda Shaw states that Queen Maya's depiction in the nativity scene follows a pattern established in earlier Buddhist depictions of the tree spirits known as yaksini.

Did You Know?

• Māyā (माया) means 'skillful creator' in Sanskrit.
• After her death, Maya was reborn as a male deva named Māyādevaputta in the Tusita heaven (according to some commentaries) or Tāvatiṃsa (in others).
• Seven years after the Buddha's enlightenment, Maya came down to visit Tavatimsa Heaven, where the Buddha later preached the Abhidharma to her.
• In Chinese, she is known as Móyé-fūrén (摩耶夫人, 'Lady Māyā'); in Tibetan as Gyutrulma; in Japanese as Maya-bunin (摩耶夫人); in Sinhalese as මහාමායා දේවී (Mahāmāyā Dēvi); and in Burmese as Médaw Maya (မယ်တော်မာယာ, Mother Māyā).