During his youth, Siddhartha excelled in school and lived the life of an exemplary prince. During Siddhartha's adolescent years, his father was criticized for not educating his son in physical skills and military arts. Because of this criticism, a contest was arranged in which Siddhartha competed with neighboring princes. Several descriptions of the details of the contest are recorded in various texts and in each, Siddhartha emerges victorious. One of the most interesting contests was the archery competition in which Siddhartha won by stringing a bow that no other contestant could string and shooting an arrow through seven trees to hit a target behind a tree and ultimately kill a boar on the far side of the target. Similar results occured in all other events of the contest.

A key feature of the narrative is that the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta ("Servant of the Gods") is bested in all of these events and as a result becomes Siddhartha's bitter nemesis.