On Buddha Pūrṇima, the full moon night in Vaiśhākha (according to the Hindu calendar that usually falls in April or May), Lord Buddha was born. He was the founder of the Buddhist religion and he is said to be the ninth avatar of Viṣhṇu. On Buddha Pūrṇima, Buddha attained his enlightenment after preaching his five principles of life and the path of eight-fold truth. He attained Nirvāṇa and left the mortal world on this day itself. Buddha Jayanthi celebrates three most important events in Buddha’s life and pilgrims from all over the World visit Bodhh Gaya to participate in the Buddha Pūrṇima celebrations that includes prayer meets, sermons and religious discourses, recitation of Buddhist scriptures, group meditation, processions and worship of the statue of Buddha.

The Buddhist mythology says that Prince Siddhārtha (Lord Buddha) was born around 543 BC who had lived a luxurious life till his age of twenty nine. He was under the shelter of his father’s instructions and was completely unaware about the ups and downs of lives. Once he persuaded one of his charioteers to take him out of the palace to know what was happening in the outside world and was shocked to the harsh realities of life when he viewed an old man, a sick and disabled person and a dead body for the first time in his life. Lastly he looked at an ascetic who was found to be in peace and this led Siddhārtha to search for the true meaning of life, disown the luxury and worldly pleasures and look for enlightenment. He wandered to many places and ultimately attained Enlightenment in Bodhhgaya under a 'pīpal' tree. Since then he was known as Gauthama Buddha or the 'Enlightened One'.