Śuddhodana

Śuddhodana led the Shakya, an oligarchic republic centered at Kapilavastu, in what is now the borderlands between India and Nepal. His name meant "he who grows pure rice." His son, Siddhartha Gautama, would become the Buddha. Later Buddhist tradition elevated Śuddhodana to the status of king, though modern scholars dispute whether he held that title — the Shakya operated as a republic, not a monarchy. What remains undisputed is the departure: the father who raised him could not hold him.