The Buddha's traditional birthplace, with Ashoka's pillar and its inscription standing among decayed brickwork.
The Brahmi inscription says Ashoka came in the twentieth year of his anointing because the Buddha Shakyamuni was born there; it was found in 1896. The Chinese pilgrims Faxian (early fifth century) and Xuanzang (seventh) left accounts of the area; the campaign board adds that Xuanzang already found it half ruined and that there is no reason to think it recovered. At the top of the pillar a later inscription, 'Om mani padme hum', wishes Prince Ripu Malla long victory and is dated Saka 1234 (1312, by adding 78), which is a later event.
In 1200 it is a stop on the pilgrim road across the tarai, not an establishment with revenue.
Who holds it
- Name
- No keeper is recorded
- Title
- No keeper
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia's Lumbini page is silent on the site between the eighth and fourteenth centuries.
How things stand that morning
Ruined; pilgrims pass.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1312 (later)A Khasa prince, Ripu Malla, visits and has his name carved on the pillar.Depends on: The Khasa kings' reach to the western tarai. Stopped by: Given only as a later event; the Khasa kingdom has to survive and expand first.
Places of note
- Ashoka's pillar: The pillar.
Where the sources disagree
- Wikipedia dates the Ripu Malla inscription 'Saka 1234, 13th-14th century' and does not convert it; we convert it as 1312.
Evidence: The pillar is certain; the 1200 state is inferred.
On the map: A point.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.