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| | Lumbini |
 | | On the full-moon day of May in 623 BC, Maya Devi was traveling in state from the Sakyan capital of Kapilavatthu, to Devadaha, her parents’ home, to deliver her first child in keeping with the ancient tradition of her people. |
 | | In 249 BC, the great Mauryan emperor Asoka, who ruled nearly the whole of India from 273 to 236 BC, visited Lumbini as part of his pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist places and worshipped in person the sacred spot where the Buddha was born. |
 | | (Note: The coronation of Asoka took place in 269 BC, four years after his reign.)After the devastation of Buddhist shrines in India by the Muslims in the 13th century AD, Lumbini was deserted and eventually engulfed by the tarsi forests. |
| www.buddhistpilgrimage.info /lumbini.htm (1568 words) |
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