SPECIAL POST ON GAUTAMA BUDDHA,AUTHOR OF THE DHAMMAPADA. DESIGNED BY : Sanchari Bhattacharya Born :c.563 BCE or c. 480 BCE Lumbini, Sakya Republic (according to Buddhist tradition) Died :c.483 BCE or c. 400 BCE (aged 80) Kushinagar, Malla Republic (according to Buddhist tradition) Known for :Founder of Buddhism Predecessor :Kassapa Buddha Successor :Maitreya Buddha DISCLAIMER ALL CHARACTERS AND PLACES ARE IMAGINARY.IF ANY RESEMBLANCE IS FOUND THAT WOULD BE PURELY COINCIDENTAL. Traditional biographies: Biographical sources: The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā.Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa,and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE.The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE.The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive,and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. Lastly, the Nidānakathā is from the Theravāda tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century CE by Buddhaghoṣa.From canonical sources, the Jātakas, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies.The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts.The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautamas birth, such as the bodhisattvas descent from Tuṣita Heaven into his mothers womb. Nature of traditional depictions: Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such in conformity with the world; omniscience, and the ability to suppress karma.Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautamas life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies. Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, superman; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddhas time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure.Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of birth, maturity,renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death must be true.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:59:58 +0000