On the seventh day after the birth of future Buddha, Queen Mayadaiwi died. The second queen, Gawdami became the queen. The step mother, Queen Gawdami loved Siddartha as though he was her own son. She would breast feed him. Three days after Siddartha was born, Queen Gawdami gave birth to a boy, who was named Nanda. Yet she favored Siddartha even over her own son. The King wanted his son to become the universal king who ruled the world rather than to become the Buddha. So he commanded that there were to be no old man, sick man, dead man or monk in the city parameters. He said to his servants that they must make sure that his son never saw the four great signs.
Prince Siddartha became one month old. On that day King Sudodana celebrated the ceremony of plowing the earth for growing rice. King Sudodana took his son to the ceremony. As the King was performing the ceremony, Price Siddartha was allowed to sleep in the shadow of a thaphay tree. Then the Prince got up, sat cross legged and began meditating to contemplate the Dharmma. When the King saw this extraordinary doing of his son, the King paid respects to his son for the second time.
When Prince Siddartha was sixteen, the King built three palaces, one for each season of summer, rainy and winter seasons for his son. The King also let his son enjoy variety of pleasures. One day, King Sudodana had a thought. He thought "My son is now grown. I should arrange the marriage for him with a suitable young woman. Then, I will give up the throne for him. If he is enjoying the pleasures of being a ruler, he would not want to become the Buddha. Then, he would instead become the universal ruler of the world". He then made an announcement to his ally kingdom that his son was going to be married and they should send princesses in order for Prince Siddartha to choose the wife.
When the royal families of ally kingdoms received the announcement, they were not very impressed with qualities of Prince Siddartha as a man. They said "Prince Siddartha is handsome, but he is not educated. He would not be able to support his wife and family. We should not give away our daughter to be married to him." When King Sodadana heard about this, he told his son about it. Then Prince Siddartha displayed his skills drawing the bow before a large audience. His skills were shown to be better than the most skillful archers. The audience gave great praises to Prince Siddartha.
