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.