Mahapajapati Gotami
Mahapajapati Gotami, 560 B.C., foster mother of the buddha. She was one of the wives of King Suddhodana of Kapilvastu. When her elder sister, Maya Devi, died only a few days after the birth of her son, Siddhartha, she took over the care of the child on whom she lavished all her affections, in preference to her own son. She, later, along with 500 women of the Sakya clan, accepted Buddhism and became a nun.