Query: The depicted life of the Buddha in various literatures is not correct. Is it so?

Reply: No one can dispute the fact that Gautama Buddha was a historical figure, but since most of the historical facts of his life are mixed with legendary material and supernatural stories, it is not possible to present an accurate historical account of the Buddhas life. It appears that Indians of ancient times had little interest in preserving historical accounts of individual sages and thinkers, however renowned or illustrious they might have been. They laid more stress on their spiritual messages and not on their individual personalities and that was of more abiding interest to them and they took care to preserve them with utmost care.

The best example can be given of Vedas and Upanishads. The whole of Vedic and Upanishadic literature contains no historical accounts of any sage or seer. Though we come across only the names of certain sages and seers and their prominent disciples, or those who listened to their expounding doctrines and theories. It is no wonder, therefore, that a biography of the Buddha has not come down to us from ancient times. Whatever biographical works on the Buddha appeared at later times are found to contain elements of supernatural and legendary material from which it is difficult to separate the bare historical facts of his life.

The earliest biographical work is the Buddhacharita, which was composed about six hundred years after the Buddhas death. It is a poetic composition in Sanskrit by the Indian philosopher-poet Ashvaghosha, who lived in the first and second centuries CE. Another biographical work is the Lalitavistara, whose author is unknown. This is also a Sanskrit work, partly in prose and partly in poetry, the poetic versions being mostly a versified presentation of the prose passages. It has twenty-seven chapters, and it seems to have been composed in second and third century C.E. Mahavastu is another biographical work, mainly in Sanskrit, which seems to be of somewhat later origin and is not the composition of single author.

Apart from these books, some autobiographical materisls that relate mostly to the Buddhas post-enlightenment period are found scattered in the Buddhist Canonical literature. Therein the Buddha is found explaining his doctrines to various learned Brahmins, prominent lay people and rulers of different states. All these throw light on the social, political and religious milieu of those parts of India that were visited by Buddha in the sixth century BCE.

What we receive, a few thousand years later, is an account of a life that encapsulates the whole of Buddhist understanding. While what is fact and what is legend will never be known, the Buddhist path does not depend

on the historical accuracy of the story. The truths found in the story may not be historical, but they serve as metaphors, and through the account of the Buddhas life and experiences, fundamental truths have been illustrated.

The Buddha preached and proclaimed the Dharma, the spiritual path, which he said, is eternal. He was therefore not an inventor of a new Dharma, but a torchbearer, a discoverer and propagator of ancient and eternal Dharma. The path, the Dharma, is central, but the Buddha did not create it. Therefore the path does not depend upon Buddha for its existence, and the Buddha himself said that he only spoke of what he had rediscovered the path of the Enlightened Ones:

I have, O monks, seen an ancient path, an ancient way, travelled by Enlightened Ones of former times. (Samyutta Nikaya, ii, p.106)

It is by following this path that men crossed the ocean of existence in the past, cross it now and will cross in future. (Samyutta Nikaya, ii, p.168)

In other words, the Dharma did not originate from from or depend on the Buddha, the person, but knowledge of the Dharma certainly depended on him.

He was a channel through which the Dharma was made known and expressed to people who were drawn to him.

Although the focus of Buddhism is on the Buddhas teachings, it is always preferred to be aware of an account of Buddhas life as a source of inspiration. His life illustrates very beautifully the spiritual journey of Buddhism, a journey made to realize the state of perfect wisdom the state of complete enlightenment from which the Buddha taught.