King Suddhodana was the ruler of Kapilvastu. Prince Siddhartha was his only son. He was brought up with all the luxuries which could be bought by money. He wanted to keep Prince away from pains and sufferings of the world.
At the time of Prince’s birth great pandits foretold, “The fortune of my Lord, the Prince, is more than Kingdom.” At the growing up the Prince’s strange behaviour made the king more worried to him. Though the Prince loved his wife Yashodhara, he would startle in sleep and utter strange words. King dreamt seven visions that irritated him badly and then the hermit described the meaning of these seven visions.
Due to all the above incidents King feared very much about the future of the Prince. So he was not in favour of permitting the Prince to move out the city.
Seeing the strong desire of the Prince to visit the city, king ordered to decorate the city. He ordered that weak, old and sick persons should not come before the Prince.
