Studies in Early Buddhist Histriography

Ghoshal, U.N.
The Indian Historical Quarterly
Vol.17:2
June 1941
P.149-159


P.149 Studies in Early Buddhist Histriography Buddhism introduced into Indian literature two of its branches till then imperfectly, if at all, developed. These were the branches of sacred biography and church-history. It is true that the antecedent Vedic literature was not wanting in enumerations of teachers and successions of teachers of the Brahmanical sacrificial ritual.The Braahma.nas contain va.m'sas (generlogies) giving lists of teachers, sometimes fifty or sixty in lineal succession, who are credited with handing down one or other portion of the ritual from the fods. Apart from these general lists, individual teachers like Yaaj~navalkya nad 'Saa.n.dilya are quoted as authorities for distinct portions of the later Vedic Sa.mhitaas and the Braahma.nas. But these authors were essentially interpreters of the sacred tradition which had gathered into a great mass in course of time. It was therefore no wonder that the va.m'sas remained mere lists of names without even the elements of a biography. On the other hand the rise of various religious movements at the epoch of the rise of Buddhism, brought into the forefront a number of persons who were marked out from their predecessors by their more or less distinctive teachings, who personified as it were in themselves the whole of their message. Nothing, therefore, could be more natural than that the lives of these Masters should from the first form the subject of reverent investigations by their disciples. What we have said about the biographies of these teachers would apply in a like manner to the history of their religious orders. It is only with two of these religious movements, Buddhism and jainism and more specially with the first, that the student of early Indian histriography is concerned. It would obviously be improper to judge by the modern critical standards the old Buddhist hisorical or quasi-historical texts such as we find embedded in the Paali and Sanskrit canonical literatures. They transport us to an atmosphere where heroic poetry was very much in vogue, where beast- P.150 fables delighted the hearts of the learned and unlearned alike, where the doctrines of rebirth and karma were held to have undisputed sway over the lives and actions of men. The pious monks, probably the reciters (bhaa.nakas) of the disourses, who composed the texts long after the event, looked upon their Master as the great Pathfinder, possessed of the threefold knowlege and the ten powers, who had qualified himself for his hight calling by his strenuous striving in previous successive rebirths. (1) And yet it is not unprofitable to study their works if only to discover the successive layers of the legend and the principles of their growth. In the present paper I shall confine myself to a small portion of my subject,viz., the biography of the Buddha, reserving the lives of Buddhist saints and the history of the Buddhist Church for a separate treatment. In the whole range of Paali canonical literature, there is no connected biography of Buddha. Interspersed with the canonical texts on Doctrine and Discipline, however, is a number of episodes describing the Master's ancestry and birth, His infancy and youth, His renunciation, austerities and enlightenment, His career as a wandering preacher and lastly His nirvaa.na. The same appears to have been the case with the oldest parts of the Sanskrit canon. Out of these separate legends were woven in later times and with numerous additions, complete biographies of the Buddha, such as we find in the Paali commentaries and chronicles as well as in the Sanskrit Mahaavastu and Lalitavistara. The form and contents of the early Buddhist historical or semi-historical texts were determined by the circumstances of their origin. Like all expanding religions Buddhism was split up in course of time into a number of schools or sects. The present Paali canonical literature represents the scriptures of only one of these schools, the Theravaadins. There is good reason to believe that a canonical literature essentially similar to this one existed already in the time of A'soka.(2) The canonical literature of other schools has been preserved in the form of Sanskrit fragments recently brought to light in Central Asia, as well as in Tibetan and Chinese translation. It is however a curious fact that the sacred works of these sects at first were handed down by oral tradition alone and were not put to writing till centuries ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 1. For the conception of Buddha's personality in the Paali canon, see E.J. Thomas, History of Buddhist Thought, pp. 148-150. 2. Cf.Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, vol.II,p.18; E.J.Thomas, Early Buddhist Scripturs, Introduction, p.xxi. P.151 afterwards. Thus according to a tradition of the Diipava.msa and Mahaava.msa which has been accepted as trustworthy, the Paali Tripi.taka along with its commentaries was fixed in writing for the first time under the Si.mhalese king Va.t.tagaama.ni in the first century B.C.(3) Now the oral mode of transmitting the canon has been traditional in India since the early Vedic times and it has been shown in the case of the Vedic literature how it was possible by a series of elaborate arrangements to preserve the purity of the sacred texts with conspicuous success. In so far as the Buddhist doctrinal teachings are concerned, the oral transmission was attended with the same happy results. A comparison of the scriptures of the Theravaadins with those of the Mahaasa^nghikas and the Sarvaastivaadins shows not only a common doctrinal basis but also a common arrangements of discourses and monastic rules.(4) In the case of the stories and legends of Buddha's life, however, there was from the first a strong doctrinal motive for transforming his personality into that of a Superman. In this process of transformation, the authentic facts of the Teacher's life tended to be obscured or forgotten, while numerous legends gathered around the various incidents of his career from his conception to his Nirvaa.na. How early these legends found their way into recognition will appear from the fact that the romantic tales of Buddha's miraculous conception and birth and the dogmatic beliefs about the six preceding Buddhas occur in the texts of the Paali as well as the Sanskrit canon. Beginning with ancestry of the Buddha, we have a Paali canonical discourse, the Amba.t.tha sutta of the Diigha Nikaaya which gives a story of the folk-lore type about the origin of the 'Saakyas. There the origin is traced to the eponymous ancestors, four brothers and their sisters, who, expelled by their royal father at the behest of their step-mother, took refuge on the Himalayan slopes where they intermarried with each other to preserve the purity of their race.(5) From the polemical way in which this story of 'Saakya origins is put forward ¢w as an answer to a proud Braahma.na's description of them as menials ¢w it would seem that there was at this time ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 3. Cf. Winternitz, op. cit., p.8. 4. Cf. E. J. Thomas, Early Buddhist Scriptures, Introduction, p.xii. 5. For the Amba.t.tha sutta, see Text in D.N., P.T.S.edition, vol, I,pp.92-93; tr., Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, vol.I, pp.114-15. On the relation of this legend to the Raama story in the Raamaaya.na and especially in the Dasaratha Jaataka, see, E.J.Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.10-12 and the authorities quoted there. P.152 some dispute about the ancestry of the 'Sakya people. Whatever that may be, the above story marks a deliberate attempt to ennoble the origin of the Buddha, which is not justified by the incidental allusions to the comparative insignificance of the 'Saakya stock in other parts of the canon.(6) Of the genealogy of the Buddha, the Paali canon gives very slender details. Only in such admittedly late suttas as the Mahapadaana sutta of Diigha Nikaaya and the Buddhava.msa involving the dogmatic belief in a succession of Buddhas, do we come across the names of Gautama's father and mother along with his birth-place. There is no trace in the Paali canonical literature of any attempt on the one hand to connect the 'Saakyas with Mahaasammatra, the first king of the present cycle according to Budhist beliefs, and on the other to carry forward the descent of 'Saakya kings to Buddha. Such connected accounts are found for the first time in the Paali commentaries and chronicles, in the Mahaavastu and in the Vinaya of the Sarvaastivaadins.(7) There can be little doubt that these later developments were inspired by the Puranic accounts of the descent of royal houses from the fabled Manu, the son of Vivasvaan. Of the conception and birth of the Buddha, we have a number of stories or legends alike in the Theravaada (Paali) canon and in the canon of the Sarvaastivaadins and other sects. In its simplest and most general form it occurs in the So.nada.n.da sutta of the Diigha Nikaaya where it is said that the Sama.na Gotama is "well-born on both sides, of pure descent through the mother and through the father back through seven generations with no slur put upon him and no reproach in respect of birth."(8) With this contrast the elaborate account in the Acchariya-abbhuta-dhamma-sutta of Majjhima Nikaaya, which AAnanda recounts to the assembled monks "exactly as he has heard it from the lips of his Master." The Bodhisattva lived in his Tu.sita form during the whole term of his existence. Leaving this form, he entered his mother's womb to the accompaniment of a measureless vast effulgence. As soon as he enters his mother's womb, four deities guard the four cardinal points to keep watch over the precious child, while the ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 6. Cf.E.J.Thomas, op. cit., p.20. 7. Cf.tr.of Buddhagho.sa's commentary on Ambattha Sutta in Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.7-10; Mahaavastu, vol. 1, pp.338ff.; Rockhill, Left of the Buddha, ch. 1, etc. 8. Text in D.N., P.T.S. ed., vol. 1, p. 115; tr. in Rhys Davids, Dialogues. vol. I, p.147. P.153 mother is freed from all physical and mental ailments. The mother gives birth in an erect position and the child as it issues out from his mother's womb is received by the gods and bathed with two jets of water starting from mid-air. Then he takes seven strides to the north proclaiming his pre-eminence. This is attended as before by the outburst of supernatural effulgence.(9) The above extract, it will be seen, professes to trace Buddha's antecedent existence in the Tu.sita heaven ("Heaven of Delight"). To what extent this pious belief in the previous lives of the Buddha was developed thus early is shown by the existence of two separate works, the gaathaas of the Jaataka and the Cariyaapi.taka,as constituents of the canon. The characteristic incident of the Bodhisattva assuming the form of a white elephant, however, before entering his mother's womb, is not found till we reach the later works like the Nidaanakathaa and the Lalitavistara. Another sutta of the Paali canon,the Naalakasutta of the Sutta Nipaata of which parallel versions occur in the Lalitavistara and the Nidaanakatha introduces us to one of the most famous episodes of the Buddha's infancy. This is the visit of the sage Asita to see the Holy Child shortly after His birth. The metrical introduction (Vatthugaathaa) of the Naalakasutta which contains this legend belongs to the class of metrical narratives or ballad out of which the later Buddha epic has grown.(10) Not only in its form but in its contents it anticipates the later works. For it describes, through the mouth of the sage, the Bodhisattva's possession of the external marks of the Superman and the famous prophecy of his attaining the summit of ¡¼ lightenment.(11) In the Mahaapadaana sutta of the Diigha Nikaaya the career of the Buddha is brought into relation with the Buddhist concept of the great time cycles (kalpas) and their divisions which ae marked by diminishim durations of the span of human lives. In course of these kalpas, we are told there have arisen several Buddhas, viz., Vipassi, Sikhi, Vessabhu, Kaku andha, Konaagamana, Kassapa and Gotama. The lives of these Buddha ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 9. Text in Majjbima Nikaaya,P.T.S.ed.,vol.III,pp. 119-112; tr. in Chalme¡¼ Further Dialogues, part II, pp. 223ff.; in Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.30-31. 10. C.f.Winternitz,op.cit.,p.96 and the authorit- ies there quoted. 11. See Sutta Nipaata,679-98; tr. in Thomas, Early Buddhist Scriptures, pp.1 Cf. also Nidaanakathaa, V. Fausb¡¼ll's ed. of the Jaataka,vol. I, pp.54ff.; and tr. Rhys Davids,Buddhist Birth Stories, pp. 157-160. Also Cf. Lalitavistara, Lefman¡¼ ed., pp.101ff. and tr. in Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp. 39-41. P.154 follow uniform pattern. For the text gives for each of them in identical phraseology his particular time-cycle, his jaati and gotta, his tree fo enlightenment, his two chief disciples and his usual attendant, his parents and birth-place. What is more, the miraculous story of Gotama's conception and birth such as we have quoted from the Majjhima Nikaaya text above-mentioned is found to be repeated verhatim in the case of the first Buddha.(12) The lives or legends of the Buddhas are described at great length in another work of the Paali canon to which we have referred above. This work is the Buddhava.msa which is incorporated in the Khuddaka Nikaaya. It gives in as many chapters the legends of the twenty-four Buddhas supposed to have preceded Gotama in the past twelve kalpas and it winds up in the last chapter with a sort of auto-biography describing in Gotama's won words his last earthly existence. The tendency wowards schematization which was noticed above is still more prominent in the present text where the same principal incidents are repeated in a very monotonous fashion about the career of each of these Buddhas. It will be noticed from the above that we have here, as in other cases, an initial stage of plain and matter-of-fact narrative. In the next stage the narrative has grown into a mythological account professing to trace the story to Buddha's antecedent existence in the Tu.sita heaven and claiming a supernatural conception and birth for the holy child. In the lasst stage the legend has been intertwined with Buddhist cosmological and cosmogonic concepts of kalpas with their outcrop of Buddhas and the whole has been standardised according to a uniform pattern. The stories or legends of Buddha's renunciation, austerities and enlightenment are told in a number of passages in the Paali canon. In the Ariya- pariyesana sutta("Discourse of the Noble Quest") of the Majjhima Nikaaya, the Bodhisattva tells us that he at first pursued what was subject like himself to rebirth, decay and the rest. Then when he reflected on their vanities, he was led to pursue " the consummate peace of Nirvaa.na which knows neither rebirth nor decay, neither disease nor death, neither sorrow nor impurity." He then started, despite the wishes of his parents who wept and lamented, to go forth from the householder's to the homeless life. He sought instruction successively from AAlaara Kaalaama and Uddaka ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 12. Text in Digha Nikaaya, P.T.S. ed., vol. II, pp. 2ff.; tr.in Rhys Davids,Dialogues, part II, pp. 5ff. P.155 Raamaputta,but finding no satisfaction he came to the township of Uruvela where he sought and won " the consummate peace of Nirvaa.na." (13) Antoher equally connected account occurs in the Mahaasaccaka sutta of the Majjhima Nikaaya, which speaks of the Renunciation in still more general terms and describes the austerities at great length. Here we are told that the Bodhisattva reflevting on the contrast between life at home and life in the open donned the yellow robes and went forth from the householder's to a homeless life. There flashed on him the three allegories which led him to practise the hardest austerities till at last, convinced of their futility, he renounced his fasting and was able to enter into the five successive trances and attain the supreme knowledge.(14) In contrast with the above more or less general accounts we have other legends and traditions dealing with this specific episode of the Buddhas's career. A passage in the A^nguttara Nikaaya attempts to give a dramatic turn to the incidents of the Renunciation. The Buddha, we are told, was a delicately nurtured youth having for himself three lotus pools and three palaces (one for the cold, one for the hot and one for the rainy season). There came to him the poignant reflection on old age, sickness and death and all the elation in life disappeared. (15) It seems unlikely that the above is based on a genuine historical tradition if only because of the essentially poetical character of the story of the three palaces which is likewise told of Vipassi Buddha in the Mahaapadaana sutta above quoted(16) and of the noble youth Yasa in the Mahaavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka.(17) With the further development of the legend in which Gautama's abstract reflections are made to take the concrete shapes of an aged man, a sick man and a corpse, followed as a dramatic contrast by the sight of a contemplating hermit, we are not here concerned. It is, however, important to remember that even this development which is found in Nidaanakathaa, (18) the Sarvaastivaadin ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 13. Text in Majjhima N., P.T.S. ed., vol. I, pp. 160-175: tr. in Chalmers, Further Dialogues, Part I, pp. 113-118;in Thomas, Early Buddhist Scriptures, pp.9-15,23-29. 14. Text in majjhima N., P.T.S. ed., vol.I, pp. 240 - 249; tr. in Rhys Davids, Dialogues, pp.173-178; Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.62-68; Thomas, Early Buddhist Scriptures, pp.19-22. 15. Text in A^nguttara N., P.T.S. ed., vol. I, p. 145; tr. in Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.47, 51. 16. Digha Nikaaya, vol. II, p.21. 17. Vinaya Pitaka, I,7.I. 18. Tr.in Thomas, Life of the Buddha, pp.52-53. P.156 Vinaya, (19) and other works, is anticipated in the story of Buddha Vipassi as described in the Mahaapadaana sutta avove mentioned.(20) The canonical texts above-quoted are silent about the temptation of Maara which plays such a conspicuous part in the later Buddhist works as well as in the Buddhist art from the Gandhaara school downwards.The Padhaanasutta("Discourse of Striving") of the Sutta Nipaata, however, of which parallel versions exist in the Sanskrit Mahaavastu and Lalitavistara, contain the first suggestion of this legend. In this sutta not only is Maara said to have vainly tempted Buddha while engaged in the performance of his austerities, but Lust, Aversion, Hunger and Thirst are personified as Maara's armies and Maara himself is said to have surrounded Buddha with his elephant arrayed in battle.(21) It is easy to understand how the dramatic rendering of Buddha's spiritual struggles during his strivings developed in the later legend into the story of an actual conflict between the Bodhisattva and the Power of Evil at the moment of the former's attaining the supreme enlightenment. The story of the Buddha's last year,his nirvaa.na and his funeral is told in a number of texts in the Paali as well as Sanskrit canonical literature. These consist, on the one hand, of the Sagaatha sutta of the Sa.myutta Nikaaya and the oft-quoted Mahaaparinibbaa.na sutta of the Digha Nikaaya and on the other hand, of the Nirvaa.na suutras of the Sanskrit Sa.myukta AAgama as well as those of the Vinaya of the Sarvaastivaadins and Muula-Sarvaasti- vaadins. Of these, the Sanskrit sa.myukta AAgama and the Muula-Sarvaastivaadin Vinaya are preserved in translation in the Chinese Tripi.taka while the Sarvaastivaadin Vinaya is preserved in the Dulva section of the Tibetan Bkah-gyur. To the French scholar Jean Przyluski belongs the credit of the most thorough examination of the different Parinirvaa.na texts, making it possible to trace the gradual accretions of the legendry matter therein. Thus, in the first place, regarding the so-called `stanzas of lamentation' uttered by various personages, human and divine, immediately after Buddha's death, Przyluski observes: ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 19. Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, pp. 22ff. 20. Text in Diigha Nikaaya, vol.II, pp.21-29; tr. in Rhys Davids, Dialogues, pp. 18-22. 21. Text of Padhaanasutta in Sutta Nipaata, 425- 429;Cf. Mahaavastu, vol.II, p.238 and Lalitavistara, p.327. P.157 In the canon of the Sthaviras as much in that of the Muula-sarvastivaadins, we discern in the last analysis two parinirvaa.na suutras: one very short, almost entirely recorded in verse (Sa.myukta AAgama and Paali Sa.myutta Nikaaya), the other, which reproduces the stanzas of the first, while inserting in it long developments in prose (Vinaya of the Muulasarvaastivaadins and the Mahaaparinibbaa.nasu- tta)." (22) Proceeding further with his analysis of the stanzas above-mentioned. Przyluski points out that while the versified portions of the Avadaana'sataka and the Muulasarvaastivaadin Vinaya predicate of the Buddha a simple funeral the prose portions of the Muulasarvaastivaadin Vinaya and the Paali Mahaa parinibbaa.na Sutta attribute to him a pompous funeral like that of cakra vartins. His view on this point may be explained in his own words a follows: " Before being deified 'Saakyamuni was in the eyes of the faithful no essentially different from other men. He was a bhik.su par excellence. The most ancient tradition accordingly recorded that he had the funeral ¡¼ a religieux and was shrouded in the ciivaras. Meanwhile the popular ¡¼ science had conceived a type of kings superior to the greatest monarches ¡¼ the earth...This grand movement of ideas had a profound repercussion upon the legend of the Buddha. The legend of King Mahaasudassana is perhaps the most typical example of this kind. It was bodily inserred in the Ta-pan nio-p'an-king and the other nirva.nasuutras. But the redactors of Diigha pr¡¼ ferred to isolate it for making it an independent sutta. This legend h¡¼ for its object to show that 'Saakyamuni in his past existences was a puissa cakravartin king. The ancient ceremonial of Buddha's funeral appeared from that time to be very vulgar. The sacred body, marvellously beautiful could not have been shrouded in coarse clothes, common and sloven¡¼ Ere long it was admitted that the funerals of 'Saakyamuni had been as po¡¼ pous as those of cakravartin kings. It was even pretended that short before his death, he had clearly expressed his intentions on the subject. In the above account we can trace the development of the concept of Buddha's personality from an ordinary monk to a Superman, equivalent of a universal Emperor. Another line of evolution may be tra¡¼ ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 22. Le Parinirvaa.na et les funerailles du Buddha in Journal Asiatique, Mai-¡¼ 1918,pp.511-512,English tr. by the present writer. 23. J.Przyluski, op. cit.,pp.514-515, English tr. by the present writer. P.158 in the account of the last journey of Buddha forming the prelude to the closing scenes of his life in the different redactions of the Nirvaa.na-suutras. On this point again we can quote the views of the French scholar just mentioned. "The udaanas (verses of the Muulasarvaastivaadin Vinaya) enable us to go back to an epoch when the Magadha kingdom was the citadel of Buddhism. At this stage which we might call the era of Raajag.rha, the account of the last journey of the Buddha consisted essentially of a series of discourses which Bhagavat was supposed to have pronounced in course of the route....Vai'saali was then in contemplation only for mentioning the last look cast at it by the Master and perhaps also for the reception of Buddha by the courtesan Ambapaali. The diffusion of Buddhism in the V.rji country marked the beginning of a second period. Vai'saali acquired a puissant influence in its church. It attracted, while giving them an original turn, a certain number of traditions till then localised elsewhere. A new episode of the biography of the Buddha, the scenes of 'the rejection of life,' was likewise laid at Vai'saali. The theologians introduced into the account the words of blame addressed to AAnanda and a new theory on the stages of the moral life....All these traits which characterised the period of Vai'saali are much more accentuated in the Mahaaparinirvaa.nasuutra than in the Parinirvaanas- uutra of the Muulasarvaastivaadins. Finally, the new faith spread into new regions and stretched to the foot of the Himalayas. The opulent city of 'Sraavastii, ennobled in its turn, attacted to its territory a great number of legends and edifying scenes. Under the influence of this new current the account of the last journey of Buddha broke up, and some of its elements, transported towards the north, were finally gathered up by the compilers of the Sanskrit Ekottara'AAgama." (24) Let us conclude this brief survey with some general remarks on the nature and services of early Buddhist Histriography. We have seen how the canon presents us as yet not with a connected narrative of the Buddha's biography, but with detached notice relating to the most striking episodes of his career. These notices obviously do not belong to the same chronological or intellectual stratum. Some texts (or portions of the same text) are simple and matter-of-fact accounts,while others are embellished with much legendary and dogmatic matter. We have thus on the one hand ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 24. Przyluski, op. cit., Nov-Dec.1918,pp.455-456. P.159 the picture of a very human Teacher, earnest in imparting his message to all and sundry, remorseless in vanquishing his opponents with his logic and withal overflowing with human sympathy and kindness. On the other hand there is conjured up before our eyes a Superman having a long series of prototypes in the remote past, the chief incidents of whose career are marked by miracles and legends. In so far as the oldest narratives are concerned, we may grant that they are not the compositions of eye-witnesses but we have no doubt that they have handed down the genuine tradition of the Founder's career. The strange view of R.O. Francke which took upon Gautama Buddha as but a dogmatic conception has been condemned on just and proper grounds. (25) To the other arguments advanced against Francke's view, we may add one derived from the analogy of Caitanya's biography. It is a fact that the biographical notices of this great Bengal saint of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, unlike those of the Buddha go back to the Teacher's own life-time. One of these contemporary writers Muraari Gupta, tells us how Caitanya, after the great spiritual crisis of his career(his visit to Gayaa and initiation by II'svarapurii) was proclaimed as portion of Vi.s.nu. What is more, he was consecrated as a deity in the presence of a large number of his disciples and his own image was set up for worship in a number of different places almost immediately after he has assumed the vow of sannyaasa.(26) If such was the fate of Caitany in his won life-time, it was no matter for surprise that the historica Buddha should have been invested with extra-human attributes in the course of oral transmission of his teachings. For the rest, the stories of the Buddha's life in the Paali canon are not without interest for subsequen times. They lay down in broad outline the legend which was filled in ¡¼ the authors of the Atthakathas, the source-books of the Paali commentarie and chronicles and by the later compilers of Sanskrit quasi-canonical work.Thus was formed what may be called the standard biography of the Buddha which dominated Buddhist art and literature till it was thrown into the sha¡¼ by the rise of Docetic ideas in the schools of Mahaayaana Buddhism. ¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w¢w 25. See Winternitz, op. cit., pp. 598-601 and the authorities there quoted. 26. See Bbiman Bihari Majumdar, Caitanya-Cariter Upaadaan (in Bengali). Pu¡¼ lished by the Calcutta University, 1939, pp. 590-605.