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"Ashok" -- Mythical Creation of 3 British Colonialists



Because they also predate any extant written texts, they constitute the very oldest documentary records of the historical Buddha's biography and teachings. Carved in the sandstone railings, cross-beams and gateways of reliquary stupas at places like Bharhut and Sanchi, these earliest surviving Buddhist documents consistently avoid depiction of the Buddha in human form--even in narrative episodes such as that on the right (Plate 5) where his presence is unmistakably called for by contextualizing clues of setting or the activities of other characters--in this case the monkey who danced for joy when the meditating Buddha (his presence implied by the platform beneath a bodhi-tree) accepted his offering of a bowl of honey. No such scruple prevented the Bharhut artist from showing the bodily form of the buddha in an earlier incarnation, however, when as a leader of a troop of monkeys (Plate 6)
 
The Truth Shall Set You Free: When Was Krishna Born?

When Was Krishna Born?

I had studied and taught Hinduism for many years before it dawned on me that Hinduism is spectacularly unhistorical. Whereas the typical textbook details the history of Judaism and Christianity, the chapter on Hinduism has almost no dates mentioned after the Vedic/Aryan Invasion Era. Why such blatant double standards in the methods of approach between religious traditions? Surely I am not the only person to notice the differences in presentation, and way Hinduism is treated so non-critically (no history, no socio-economic analysis, no source criticism).

The lack of critical focus, I think, is intentional, in order to avoid stating the uncomfortable truth: Hinduism worships blatantly fictional gods. Not fictional in the sense of “probably-doesn’t-exist,” which could be said about all gods. I mean fictional in the “characters in a fictional book” sense. That is the Hindu mentality: a cool god appears in a book, and people start worshipping him. Weird but true. This is the actual origin of the two of the most popular Hindu gods: Krishna and Rama, stars of the two most popular Hindu books, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, self-styled incarnations of Vishnu.

For a fuller discussion of the literary history of Krishna, see my post here.

We see an interesting analog in the West with those geeks in Britain and Australia who have been listing “Jedi” as their religion. The Jedi, of course, are fictional characters from the Star Wars movies. Although the Star Wars geeks think it is clever to screw with the government surveys, I am fairly certain they aren’t actually offering prayer and sacrifice to Obi Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader. If they do start praying to Luke Skywalker or Yoda, we will have an exact correspondence to what occurs in Hinduism. If you don’t believe me, try a simple research project: find out when Krishna was born.

To the mystical Hindu mind, the dates for Krishna’s birth are firmly established by the hard science of astrology, supplemented by a long series of textual guesswork! Let the inquiring mind feast upon this veritable Euclidian proof:



Krishna was born in the Rohini nakshatra, in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, on the 8th day of the waning moon at midnight… the 38th chapter of the Shri Vishnu Puran says that Kaliyuga started on the day Krishna died… another shloka in the Shrimad Bhagwat Purana (part 11, chapter 6) where Brahma … says that 125 years have passed since Krishna's birth; this is just before Krishna plans his death… the advent of Kaliyuga is traditionally taken to be 3102 BC, because all our panchangas or astrological journals maintain that 5,100 years of Kaliyuga had passed before 1999 AD. The belief is supported by mathematician Aryabhatta's astronomy treatise Aryabhattiya, the Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical text that dates back to 400 AD, and a 5th century inscription from a temple in Aihole. Deleting 125 years from the date … Krishna was born either in 3327 or 3228 BC. The rest he left up to his software, merely feeding in the planetary configuration that Krishna was supposedly born under, to generate the row of figures that conforms to the epochal moment.

In sum: “July 21, 3228 bc… satisfies every condition described during Krishna's birth.”

Wheew, glad we got that established!

Woops, in the same article, the author admits that these astronomical projections can be a bit less than sure: "But the dates, while drawn from the same source, strain in opposite directions.”
Thus we get dates out to 5561 BC. The variation is not surprising,

“Considering that there are 150 astronomical references provided about the characters and events in the Mahabharata… there is little consensus on what information is worth concentrating on. In addition, there is reason to believe that our scriptures ‘grew’ over time, incorporating events of every period. So there is precious little we can attribute collectively to one age. Many scholars in fact wonder if all the references to Krishna in the scriptures refer to one person or whether the Krishna of Vrindavan and the Krishna of the Mahabharata are two different people.


Well, I guess it makes my critical task easier if the same article that claims he was born in 3228 BC also points out that he is essentially a legend thrown together over time.

The hero of the Ramayana, Lord Ram, is theoretically even older than Krishna, being the previous incarnation of Vishnu (the 7th to be exact). So when did he live? By the logic of the yugas: over 2.5 million years ago. I say: why not??? If you are going about killing demons with your giant bow and arrows, and fighting along side of armies of intelligent flying monkeys, you might as well make it millions of years ago too, while you are at it!

Of course, more respectable astrologists put Lord Ram’s birthday in 5114 BC. January 10 of 5114 BC, actually! Again, the key to this reconstruction lies in the constellations and heavenly signs described in the book.

Of course, nothing in archeology corroborates anything civilized going on in India that long ago. The Harrappan settlements of the Indus Valley civilization, appearing as early as 3000 BC, evidence skillfully-laid canals and adobe bricks structures, but nothing on the order of the civilizations and technologies described in the Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana, not even in the iron age yet. Apparently, that is because in order to find the stuff from 7000 years ago “you'd have to dig more than 60 metres”.

Or just admit that a good book is a good book, even if it has nothing to do with history.

Not to say that Westerners are incapable of the similar silliness. The situation reminds me of the Book of Mormon, with its ridiculous descriptions of advanced American civilizations, which, woops, don’t seem to have left any actual physical evidence! The case of the Mormons, like that of the Hindus, indicates yet again that most people are not capable of excising critical thinking about a book once it has been invested with religious significance.

I am not unsympathetic. I know that it is a slow and painful process to come to terms with the fact that your religious ideas are fictional. Nonetheless, realizing that your particular incarnations of Vishnu are fictional might lead you down the path to a more truthful religion. After all, only the truth shall set you free.
 
Buddhist Art in India - by Radha Banerjee

Buddhist Art in India

By Radha Banerjee


The Early Symbols and their evolution

* The Bharhut Stupa
* The Sanchi Stupa
* Jaggapetta Stupa
* Amaravati Stupa
* Gandhara Art
* Mathura – A great Centre of Art
* The Gupta Art
* Post – Gupta – Developments
* Nalanda
* Nagapattinam




Indian art is an expression of Indian life and thought attuned to its vast natural background and its socio-religious traditions. It is not exclusive or sectarian in the narrow sense of the term. Its style, technique or general tenor has nothing to do with any particular religious outlook. It is fed and fostered upon a vast store-house of Indian traditions, symbols and designs. The term Hindu, Jaina or Buddhist art is but a popular nomenclature to distinguish one group of monuments, including painting, cave-temples and architecture, etc., from another stand point of the predominance of one or the other religious theme. Hence, by Buddhist art is meant popularly those monuments and paintings which have for the main purpose the edification or popularization of Buddhism. Fortunately enough in India and outside where Buddhism did exist, or still exists, there are innumerable monuments representing different phases of Buddhism and these help us to visualize the trend of Buddhist art through the ages.

In Buddhist legends and Mythology, Gautama Buddha has been represented as superior not only to the popular cult divinities of the soil, such as the Yakshas, Nagas, etc. but also to Indra, Brahma and others of the earlier Brahmanical pantheon. Everything with him has been described as transcendental. This is amply represented in Buddhist art.

The Early Symbols and their evolution

Buddhist art reflects very faithfully all the important aspects of Buddhism. In primitive Buddhism, Gautama Sakyamuni has been regarded as an ideal human being and quite naturally we find that the early Buddhist art of Bharhut, Sanchi, Bodh-Gaya and Amaravati and other places shows no anthropomorphic representation of the Master. His presence is indicated by means of an empty throne, or a Bodhi tree or a pair of foot-prints, or a dharma-chakra, symbolizing one or the other event of his life. As the time passed, Buddhism acquired greater popularity and drew adherents from all sections of the people. The discipline and austerities of the early Buddhism were beyond the comprehension of the ordinary followers of the religion. A religion without a personal god in whom one can repose faith had but little appeal to them. The demand of the popular mind as met by the Mahayanists who defied Buddha and introduced the concept of divine Bodhisattvas and several other deities. With the progress of time, the Buddhist pantheon was enlarged to include several hundred deities. Among the male deities, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara became the most popular because of his great compassion for the living creatures. He is an emanation of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha and his shakti Pandara (the Sukhavati-Vyuha or the Amitayus Sutra, translated into Chinese between A.D. 148-170, seems to refer for the first time to the name of Amitabha or Amitayus), Avalokitesvara is the personification of universal compassion. As described in the Karanda-vyuha he refused or renounced Nirvana in favour of afficted humanity. He is supposed to impart spiritual knowledge to fellow creatures so that all, by a gradual process, may advance on the path of salvation. Different forms of the Avalokitesvara have been mentioned in the Sadhana-mala, of these the important ones are Shadakshari Lokeshvara, Simhanada, Khasharpana. Lokanatha, Halahala, Nilakantha and few others.


The Bharhut Stupa

(The Sunga-Andhra epoch (2nd-1st Century B.C) was one of the most creative periods of Buddhist art. Though the Sunga rulers were followers of the Brahmanical faith and Buddhism was deprived of the State patronage which it enjoyed during the reign of the Mauryan rulers, like Asoka and some of his successors, there was no set-back in the propagation or popularity of the Buddhist faith. (Buddhist establishments flourished in Bodh-Gaya, Bharhut, and Sanchi in Northern and Central India, in Amaravati and Jaggayapeta in South India, at Bhaja, Nasik, Karle and Janta and at several other places in Western India. The art of this period consists mainly in the excavation of the rock-cut temples or viharas (some of which are embellished with paintings) and the erection of railings and toranas (gateways) to the Buddhist Stupas at different places). General Cunningham found remains of the railings and on gateway of the Stupa at Bharhut (Madhya Pradesh) during the years 1872-74 and had them deposited in the Indian Museum in the year following. The Stupa in question was built during the 2nd Century B.C. In the absence of the Stupa itself it is difficult to ascertain its shape and size. But it was probably similar to the Stupas represented on its panels and the almost contemporary Stupas of Sanchi. All these Stupas consist of hemispherical dome with a harmika above suppporting the umbrellas.

One of the main interest of the Bharhut sculptures consists in the representation of the birth-stories of the Gautama Budha. These stories (or the Jatakas) are of two main classes, those relating to the previous births of Buddha as a Bodhisattva (a Buddha potentia), and those of his last appearance as Gautama Shakyamuni when he attained Enlightenment of Buddhahood. The Jatakas represented on the Bharhut panels include Mahakapi-Jataka, Latuva-Jataka, Miga-Jataka, Sujata-gahuto-Jataka, Mahajanaka-Jataka and Vidhurapandita-Jataka, Chhadanta Jataka, etc.

The scenes on the Bharhut sculptures, relating to the life of Gautama Shakyamuni include, among others, the dream of Maya (Illustrating the descent of a Bodhisattva in the form of an elephant into the mothers womb), the defeat of Mara, Gautama’s Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, the worship of the Bodhi tree, the worship of Gautama’s hair-locks by celestial beings, the visits of king Ajatashatru of Magadha and of Prasenjit of Koshala, etc.

The worship of the Bodhi tree, seems to have been widely prevalent, as there are many representation of it on the sculptured panels of Bharhut, Sanchi and Amaravati. Again, in the Divyavandana it is related that the Bodhi tree was Asoka’s favourite object of worship. The lowest architrave of the Eastern Gateway Stupa I, Sanchi (1st Century B.C.) depicts the ceremonial visits of king Asoka and his queen, Tishyarakshita to the Bodhi Tree. In the centre of the panel are the tree and the temple of Bodh Gaya. On the left is seen a crowd of musicians and devotees carrying water vessels. On the right are the king and the queen descending from the elephant and payment homage to the Bodhi tree.


The Sanchi Stupa

In addition to Bharhut, the other important centres of Buddhist art and religion in north India during this period were Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) and Bodh Gaya(Bihar). The main interest of the art at Sanchi centres round the Great Stupa. Originally built of brick, during the reign of Asoka (3rd Century, B.C.), it was encased in stone and brought to its present dimension about a century later. The other additions, such as the erection of the toranas and the ground balustrade were done still later, probably about 50 B.C. of all the four gateways, the south gateways seems to be the oldest. On one of its architraves, there is an inscription showing that it was the work of one of the artisans of king Sri Satakarni (1st Century B.C.), who was evidently the son of Simuka, the founder of the Satavahana family of the Deccan. Of all toranas or gateways, the best preserved is the northern gateway which enables the visitor to have a complete idea of the appearance of all the gateways. Each gateway is composed of two square pillars with capitals at the top. These capitals of standing dwarfs or elephants support a superstructure of architraves. Finally, on the summit of the gateway is the dharma-chakra symbol in the middle. The pillars and superstructures are elaborately decorated with representation of Jataka legends (stories of Buddha’s past lives). There are also representations of the sacred trees, stupas and other motifs to indicate the presence of Gautam Buddha symbolically. As in Bharhut art, here also, in conformity with the tradition of early Indian art, there is no anthropomorphic representation of Buddha.

About 50 yards north-cast of the great stupa of Sanchi is another monument of the same nature but smaller in proportions. Inside this stupa the relics of two very important disciples of Buddha, Sariputta and Maha-Moggalana, were discovered by General Cunnigham.



Jaggapetta Stupa

A stylistic equivalent of the panels of Sanchi is to be found in a carving from a Jaggayapeta stupa near Amaravati on the Krishna river.This will show how little differences existed between different regions in the field of art. A monument to be ascribed to the early Sunga period is the old Vihara at Bhaja which is situated in the hills of the Western ghats to the south of Bombay. It is a rectangular chamber with several cells. The decoration of the Bhaja monastery includes among other the representation of Yakshas, a sun god on a four-horse chariot and Indra riding his vehicle, i.e., Airavat. The art of Bharhut and other early contemporaneous sites has a primitive simplicity. (It is permitted by naturalism, enlivened by humour, dance and music. From the standpoint of technique the figures are in low relief, somewhat flattened with angular limbs).

Although there are innumerable references in the Jatakas and other Buddhist literature to the pointed decorations, the earliest surviving examples of Buddhist paintings are met with at the oldest Chaitya Halls at Ajanta in the Deccan, dedicated in the 2nd Century B.C. The principal wall painting in cave 10 is devoted to the illustration of the Chaddanta Jataka.


Amaravati Stupa

The Buddhist art in South India during this period is best illustrated by the remains of the Maha-Chaitya (or stupa) of Amaravati. As the earliest Buddhist Sculptures found here are primitive in style resembling those of Bharhut, it can be presumed that the Maha-Chaitya was built during the 2nd Century B.C. to 250 A.D. Its earliest pieces as noted above, show affinities to Bharhut art. The images of Buddha were introduced here about the 1st –2nd Century A.D. The Amaravati art of this period is highly elegant and sensitive.


Gandhara Art

Buddhist art entered upon a new phase with the rise of Mahayana Buddhism during the 1st Century B.C. to 1st Century A.D. The period is remarkable in that it gave for the first time the figure art or the anthropomorplhic representations of the Buddha. Under the patronage of Kushana rulers (1st-2nd Century A.D.) a new school of art flourished in the Gandhara region, i.e. Peshawar and its neighbouring districts. Because of its strategic geographical position the region became a meeting place of various races and cultures. As a result of this, the art of the region shows mingling of both Indian and foreign ideas and motifs. Gandhara art is a hybrid product; though Buddhist in theme it is Graeco-Roman in style or technique as is evident from the physiognomy and drapery of the images. The artists of this region have produced a large number of Buddha and Bodhisattva images along with other Buddhist deities. Gandhara art flourished for about four to five hundred years and to a great extent it influenced the indigenous art of Mathura, Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. It exercised a profound influence upon the art of Afgahnistan and Central Asia The Buddha and Bodhisattva images of many sites in Central Asia show an affiliations to the Gandhara style. The art of the region received a greatblow at the hands of the Huna invaders. Mihirakula, a cruel king of the Huna had destroyed, as Xuanzang was told during his travel to this country, the Buddhist monasteries of the region. The main centres of Gandhara art were the cities of Peshawar and Taxila, and also Afghanistan where a large number of stupas, monasteries and sculptures have been unearthed by the archaeologists.



Mathura – A great Centre of Art

Mathura also was a great centre of art and culture during this period. Here flourished side by side all the important religions of India, such as Brahmanism, Jainism and Buddhism. It is believed that the first Buddha images were carved at Mathura simultaneously if not earlier, with the Gandhara school. Mathura has produced Buddha images of various dimensions. The Kushana Buddha or Bodhisattva images of Mathura served as the prototypes of the more beautiful specimens of the Gupta period. The workshop of Mathura exported several Buddhist images to various other places, such as Sarnath and even as far as Rajgir in Bihar. It is well known that Friar-Bala an inhabitant of Mathura had several Bodhisattva images set up at different places. Two of them were found at Sravasti and Sarnath. (The Kushana art of Mathura is somewhat heavy. The style and technique which the Kushana artists were trying to evolve were brought to the Gupta period. But the art of South India during this time is more elegant and sophisticated. The sculptured panels of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda, Goli, Ghantasals, belonging to the 2nd – 3rd Century A.D., are characterised by delicasy of forms, and linear grace.



The Gupta Art

The Gupta period (4th – 6th Century A.D.) marks the bright period of art in India. Gupta art is marked by restraint combined with a high aesthetic sense and discipline. The main centres of Buddhist art during this period were Mathura, Sarnath and Nalanda in the north. The Buddhist images of Mathura and Sarnath are some of the best specimens of Indian art, never equalled by any art creations of later period. The delicate folds of the transparent garment adorning the Gupta figures were done in a beautiful style. The profusely decorated halo is another special feature of the art of the Gupta figure. The delicate modelling of forms with meditative repose has rendered the Buddha and Bodhisattva figures of the Gupta period most attractive. The Gupta artists showed an equal ingenuity in the carving of metal images also. The bronze Buddha image from Sultanganj and also one from Dhanesar Khera together with a number of specimens found in north-western part of India are some excellent specimens testifying to the skill and ability of the Gupta metal carvers.

This period is also known for excavations of several rock-cut viharas and temples at Ajanta and Ellora, in Maharashtra, under the patronage of the Vakataka King. Caves 16,17 and 26 at Ajanta are excellent examples of pillared halls with usual cells with shrines in the back containing Budha figures. The beauty and variety of the pillars are remarkable. Caves 16 and 17 were excavated in the last quarter of the 5th Century A.D. by a Minister and feudatory of the Vakataka king Harisena. The mural paintings in the Ajanta caves of the Vakataka period contain representations of scenes from Buddha’s life from the conception to enlightenment. Some of them are devoted to the illustrations of Jataka stories, including one of Prince Visvantara, hero of immeasurable bounty. The Ajanta paintings both in composition and technique are characterised by a delicacy and depth of feelings. The artists excel not only in depicting human and animal figures but also in decorative genius. They adorned the ceilings, pedestals of columns, door and window frames, with patterns and motifs of kaleidoscopic variety. Several Buddhist caves are to be found also at Bagh (Madhya Pradesh) and Ellora (Maharashtra), containing numerous Budha and Bodhisattva figures (5th – 6th Century).



Post – Gupta – Developments

The Gupta art tradition was followed in later period also. The art of Nalanda , Kurkihar, Sarnath, Orissa and other places during the mediaeval period is based upon the Gupta art idiom. The north Indian Buddhism of the mediaeval period (8th – 11th Century A.D). is a peculiar synthesis of the Mahayana ideals and tantric elements. The concept of the Adi-Budha, the Dhyani-Buddhas, the divine Bodhisattvas as well as the concept of Shakti or the female energy figures most prominently in the Buddhist art of the period. One anachronism of Buddhist art in mediaeval period is the introduction of the crowned Buddhas with jewelleries. Though incompatible to the idea of renunciation which Buddha followed and preached, such images were made probably to lay emphasis on the concept of Buddha as a Chakravartin, the supreme universal monarch.


Nalanda

The art of Nalanda shows very high standard of stone carving as well as metal casting. The minute execution of the bronzes specially of the smaller ones, has excited the admiration of all art lovers of the world. Several Nalanda bronzes were exported to Nepal and Tibet and also to Java. Equally interesting are the palm leaf illustrations of the Buddhist manuscripts of the Pala period. Their minature size, colour scheme and linear grace show the skill of the painters of these illustrations. The Pala style of painting, as Pala sculptures and bronzes, very much influenced the art of Nepal, Tibet and the further East. Bodh-Gaya and Nalanda in Magadha drew pilgrims from different parts of the Buddhist world.


Nagapattinam

A flourishing centre of Buddhism in South India during the period was Naga-pattinam, near Madras on east coast. There existed here in the mediaeval period a colony of the Malaya Buddhists who, patronized by the Cholas erected here two temples in the 11th Century A.D., with the aid granted by the Sailendra kings of Java and Sumatra. One of the temples was called Rajarajaperumpalli and the Rajendracholaperumpalli. Naga-pattinum was a place of piligrimage for the Buddhists of different places in India as well as outside. Since 1856 about 350 bronzes have been found in these vihara sites. Some of them are of the early Chola times while the rest belong to the later Chola period. The Nagapattinam bronzes are some of the finest metal works of South India.
 
http://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/texts/the-buddha-a-short-bio-intro.htm

The Buddha: A Short Biography

John Strong



Introduction

The Lifestory of the Buddha

Historically speaking, we know very little for certain about the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the man who came to be known as "the Buddha." Although no one today seriously questions his actual existence in ancient India, debates still rage over the dates of his life, with the year of his death now being set anywhere between 486 and 360 b.c.e. And though few would doubt that his charisma had something to do with the formation of the religion we call "Buddhism" there is still much disagreement about the contents of his teachings and the nature of the religious community he is said to have founded.

To be sure, we can place what we do know about the Buddha and early Buddhism into reconstructions of the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of ancient India, and we can set this into the still broader framework of the history of religions. We know, for example, that the India of his day was caught up in a period of religious ferment and questioning, spawned by the rise of new urban centers and the breakdown of old political systems. This context saw the ongoing emergence of groups of renunciant questers (sramanas), as well as the formation of founded "heterodox" religions such as Jainism and Buddhism. As two prominent contemporary scholars put it, at this time,

A significant number of people, cut off from the old sources of order and meaning, were open to different ways of expressing their religious concerns and were quite ready to support those engaged in new forms of religious and intellectual endeavor. The historical Buddha responded to this kind of situation. He was a renouncer and an ascetic, although the style of renunciation and asceticism he practiced and recommended was, it seems, mild by Indian standards. He shared with other renunciants an ultimately somber view of the world and its pleasures, and he practiced and recommended a mode of religious life in which individual participation in a specifically religious community was of primary importance. He experimented with the practices of begging, wandering, celibacy, techniques of self-restraint (yoga), and the like -- and he organized a community in which discipline played a central role. Judging from the movement he inspired, he was not only an innovator but also a charismatic personality. Through the course of his ministry, he gathered around him a group of wandering mendicants and nuns, as well as men and women who continued to live the life of householders. (Reynolds and Hallisey, 1987, p.�321)

There is nothing inherently wrong with this portrait, and I am happy to espouse it. But it must be realized that this is not the way Buddhists tell the story of the Buddha. Instead, they narrate many tales that have been remembered and revered, repeated and reformulated over the centuries, and whose episodes have been accepted as inspiring and worth recalling, whatever their grounding in history. Together these stories make up a sacred biography, or rather, several sacred biographies, for we shall see that there are many versions of tales about the Buddha. These narrations may contain "fictions" about the Buddha -- legends and traditions that have accrued around him -- but these "fictions" are in many ways "truer," or at least religiously more meaningful, than the "facts." They are certainly more plentiful, more interesting, and more revelatory of the ongoing concerns of Buddhists. We may know very little about the "Buddha of history," but we know a great deal about the "Buddha of story," and the purpose of this book is to present the life of this Buddha of story.

The study of this lifestory commenced in earnest, in the West, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As scholars began to read Sanskrit and Pali biographical materials about the Buddha, they found themselves facing traditions they deemed to be unbelievable exaggerations or ridiculous superstitions. In light of these, some of them concluded that the Buddha was a mythic being and denied his historicity. At first, accepting the Hindu theory that portrayed the Buddha as an incarnation of the god Visnu, they proclaimed him to be a divinity, the particular god of the Buddhists whom they saw simply as belonging to a sect of Hinduism. Alternatively, tracing out complex and dubious etymological connections, they compared the Buddha to more familiar divinities of Western "paganism," among them the Roman god Mercury and the Scandinavian Woden. Then, in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the popularity of solar mythology, they read his biography as a great allegory recounting the saga of a sun god, giving solar twists to virtually all of the details of his life. Thus, for example, they viewed the Buddha's mother as a goddess of the dawn and interpreted her death soon after the birth of the Buddha as the dissipation of the matutinal mists in the light of the rising sun (her son); or they saw the Buddha's rival, his cousin Devadatta, as the moon, trying to contest with a solar hero. This was not only viewing the Buddha as a mythic being, but remythologizing his story in the process, making him into something the tradition probably did not intend.

Other scholars, however, took a different tack. Dismissing the exaggerations of the biographies as hyperbole, they sought to strip them away so as to demythologize the tradition and come to an understanding of the "real Buddha." In this, they mirrored to some extent the rationalist, positivist quest for the historical Jesus being undertaken by some of their contemporaries in Biblical studies. In some instances, however, the "real historical Buddha" they discovered tended to appear in peculiar guises, depending on their own enthusiasms and inclinations. He was sometimes seen as a reformer of the "evils" of the Hindu system, a sort of Protestant opponent of Hindu papism; or he was clothed in the mantle of one of Thomas Carlyle's Heroes, a great individual who changed the course of history; or he was viewed as a socialist, a radical revolutionary who sought an egalitarian society; or, if that was disturbing, he was praised as an intelligent, loving, and predominantly moral man, "an ideal Victorian gentleman" (Almond, 1988, p.79).

In this book, I shall follow none of these leads. As Alfred Foucher has pointed out, to make the Buddha into a myth is "to dissipate his personality into thin air," but to take away that mythic ambiance is to arrive at an "equally grave misapprehension" (1987, p.13). What is needed is a middle way between remythologizing and demythologizing, between myth-making and history-making, between seeing the Buddha as a god and seeing him as "just a man," In reading and in presenting the life of the Buddha, I shall, therefore, try to respect the extraordinary supernatural elements in the tales told about him, to understand them without explaining them away; and I shall try at the same time to honor the ordinary down-to-earth elements that root him in humanity, in a given time and place.

TEXTUAL SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF THE LIFESTORY OF THE BUDDHA

A few words should be said here about some of the sources that I will use. The full formulation of the biographical traditions about the Buddha took some time to develop and, in some ways, it is still an ongoing process since, even today, Buddhists continue to retell and rethink the significance of the life of their founder. Scholars have much debated the issue of when a continuous narrative of the whole of Gautama's life was first composed. Some have thought such a biography was written relatively soon after the Buddha's death. Others have claimed it was centuries before such an account was finally put together. The question of chronology is a very complicated and tricky one. Even when we know when a particular text was written or compiled, that does not mean that the tradition or story it incorporates originated at that time; it may, in fact, be far older, or it may, in some cases, be a later addition to the text.

Nonetheless it is possible to establish a rough relative chronology of sources. Adapting and simplifying a scheme presented by Etienne Lamotte, I would like to suggest that we distinguish three "layers" of tradition, without actually dating any of them.

First, there are biographical fragments found in canonical texts, presenting particular episodes of the life of the Buddha. These, for the most part, were written in Pali or Sanskrit although they may presently exist only in Tibetan or Chinese. For example, the "Discourse on the Noble Quest" (Ariyapariyesana-sutta) is a sermon in which the Buddha himself is said to recall his departure from home and his early meditative endeavors culminating in his enlightenment and his decision to preach. It is part of that portion of the Pali Canon known as the Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima Nikaya), but it also has parallels in a number of other Sanskrit and Chinese texts. Andre Bareau and others have made a career from comparing and contrasting parallel versions of such biographical texts in an attempt to identify layers of traditions, much as Biblical scholars might compare versions of the life of Jesus found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In "Sources and Further Reading," I have listed some of the canonical biographical fragments used in this book.

Secondly, there are fuller, more autonomous lives of the Buddha. These were also written, for the most part, in Sanskrit or Pali. Some of them may have been incorporated into the Buddhist canon, or into commentaries on canonical texts, but, in all cases, they also enjoyed separate existences as biographical compositions in their own right. Unlike the biographical fragments their purpose is not to recount a sermon, but to narrate a life. Some of these biographies (e.g. The Great Story [Mahavastu]) are incomplete, in that they do not trace the Buddha's life to its end but stop at an earlier point, such as his enlightenment or one of the early conversions made by him. Others (e.g.,the Acts of the Buddha [Buddhacarita]) are "complete" in that they extend their narration to his death and beyond. Again, a listing of all such biographies used in this book may be found in "Sources and Further Reading."

Finally, there are a host of comparatively late lives of the Buddha, composed in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet, and East Asia, sometimes in one of the so-called canonical languages (Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese) but often in local vernaculars (for example Sinhalese, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese). These all tend to be "complete." Some of them are simple narrative biographies; others are hymns of praise based on episodes of the Buddha's life. Some are stylistically very straightforward; others are tremendously ornate. In general, however, these sources are interesting for the local twists they give to stories about the Buddha, and also for the way in which they attempt to resolve certain problems and questions about the Buddha's life left unanswered (or not even posed) in more "classic" sources. I shall not hesitate to turn to some of these late materials as the occasion arises, and, again, translations of those used may be found in "Sources and Further Reading."

LIFESTORY AND PILGRIMAGE

In all of these sources -- both canonical and post-canonical -- it is possible to distinguish a number of factors at work in the ongoing formulations and reformulations of the Buddha's lifestory. One of these, clearly, was the development of the practice of pilgrimage in Buddhism. By all accounts, the Buddha at least began his career as a peripatetic teacher, occasionally stopping to give teachings in a place for a while, but before long, moving on. Perhaps as a result of this, in his lifestory, "where" something happened is as significant as "what" happened there. Each of the major events of the Buddha's life was associated with a distinct site which, of course, was also a place of pilgrimage. Early on, four of these places, in particular, were featured: the garden of Lumbini, just over the North Indian border in what is now Nepal, where the Buddha was born, and the nearby town of Kapilavastu where his father was a ruler and where he grew up. The Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, in what was the land of Magadha and is now the province of Bihar, in North India. This is where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The Deer Park at Sarnath near the city of Benares on the Ganges River. This is where the Buddha preached his first sermon. And the village of Kusinagari, the present town of Kasia, where the Buddha, lying between two trees, passed away, never to be reborn again, an event known as his parinirvana (complete extinction).

The Buddha himself is said to have advocated visits to these four places. As time went on, however, four "secondary" pilgrimage sites were added to this list to form a group of eight; these were listed and described in texts, and depictions of them on stelae came to be very popular in Indian Buddhist art. The identity of these four additional sites varies somewhat, but they all appear to be places commemorating "supernatural" events, and they all were fit into the Buddha's biography in between his first sermon and his death. The following are usually included: S�ravasti, the capital of the kingdom of Kosala, where the Buddha put on a great display of magical powers; Samkas�ya, upstream on the Ganges, where he descended from heaven after spending a rainy season preaching to the gods and to his mother who had been reborn there; Rajagrha, the capital of Magadha, where he is variously thought to have tamed a wild elephant, put an end to a schism, and converted such luminaries as King Bimbisara and Indra, the lord of the gods; and Vais�ali, where among other things, he received an offering of honey from a monkey, and is said to have announced his decision not to remain in this world. It should be noted that these four "secondary" sites are all situated in major cities or towns, in contrast to the four "primary" sites located in groves of trees in rather out-of-the way places. It would seem that as Buddhism spread to new urban centers, the lifestory of the Buddha grew in tandem, and there was a desire to incorporate those places into it.

It is also clear that each of these centers became a locale where pilgrims could recall not just a single event in the life of the Buddha but a whole set of stories. This has prompted scholars such as Alfred Foucher to speak of the Buddha's biography in terms of "cycles" of events located in particular places -- the cycle of Kapilavastu (concerning his birth and youth); the cycle of Magadha, featuring his enlightenment and its aftermath; the cycle of Benares (the first sermon), and so on. This development and amplification of the pilgrimage areas coincided, of course, with a further expansion of the biography. The cycle of Lumbini-Kapilavastu, for instance, was now no longer limited to just the event of the Buddha's birth but to a whole set of episodes relating to his infancy and youth. Thus one text, speaking of Kapilavastu, specifies the following places as being on the pilgrimage "circuit": the site where the baby Buddha was shown to his father and where the latter fell down to worship him; the place where he was presented to the gods of his clan and where the statues of those deities all broke and fell down at his feet; the place where the infant Buddha was shown to the brahmin soothsayers, and where they, seeing the signs on his body, predicted that he would become either a Buddha or a great wheel-turning monarch (cakravartin); the place where one soothsayer named Asita more accurately predicted that he would, for certain, become a Buddha; the place where the infant Buddha was suckled by his aunt and foster-mother, Mahaprajapati; the place where the young Buddha was taught how to write; the place where he trained and excelled in the arts appropriate to his royal lineage: how to ride a horse, how to drive a chariot, how to handle a bow, grasp a javelin, goad an elephant; the place where, somewhat later, he enjoyed himself in his harem with his wives; the place where, still later, he saw the signs of an old man, a sick man, and a corpse -- signs that inspired him to quest for an answer to life's sufferings; the place where he sat under a jambu tree and watched his father plowing a field and where he first entered into a meditative trance; finally, the place of his great departure, where he left Kapilavastu, and set out on his quest for enlightenment.

This kind of detail reflects the simultaneous and symbiotic growth of both biographical and pilgrimage traditions. On the one hand, sites became established as the places where certain stories happened; on the other hand, stories came to be told to explain the existence of certain sites. This was a process that could easily feed on itself, for, once a site was considered sacred, any unusual topographical feature in the area could be enough to give rise to a new story. Indeed, Alfred Foucher speculates that the authors of some biographies must have had available to them pilgrims' manuals -- guidebooks reflecting local oral traditions and topography. Thus, in the biography entitled the Living out of the Game (Lalitavistara), one reads of how an arrow shot by the young Gautama struck the ground with such force that it caused water to gush forth where it hit. One suspects that this was spawned by the existence in Kapilavastu of a particular spring, described in fact as the "Spring of the Arrow" by the Chinese pilgrims, Faxian (Fa-hsien) (fifth century) and Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) (seventh century).

As a result of this kind of intimate connection between place and event, in the course of time, biographical and pilgrimage traditions became more or less fixed, and the boundaries of the area in which the Buddha lived and preached, in Eastern and Central North India, were more or less defined. This, however, did not prevent Buddhists living outside of that region -- in Northwest India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and beyond -- from claiming that their lands too had been visited by the Buddha and from establishing pilgrimage centers at those sites. These extra-Indian journeys are often called "apocryphal" by scholars, and they are obviously of a different nature than the North Indian events recounted above. The Buddha's grand tour of sites in what is now Afghanistan and Kashmir, for instance, is said to have been made during the course of a single night, while he was in a meditative trance. Alternatively, the accounts of his journeys to Sri Lanka have him flying through the air in order to get there and show him using his supernatural powers to tame various non-Buddhist forces (yaksas and nagas) on the island. Nonetheless, the hagiographers who made up these traditions saw fit to insert them into existing biographies; thus the Buddha's three journeys to Sri Lanka are specified as having taken place in the ninth month, the fifth year, and the eighth year after his enlightenment.

LIFESTORY AND ART

Another important factor in the development of the legend of the Buddha was the influence of art. Some of the earliest narratives of the Buddha's life were not literary texts, but sculpted bas-reliefs, and these works of art and the moments they capture could easily influence the biographical tradition. If there is symbiosis in the relationship between the Buddha's biography and pilgrimage traditions, the same is true about its relationship to art. Simply put, what is recounted in story may affect what is sculpted in stone, just as what is sculpted in stone can influence what is recounted in story. There is nothing surprising in this; the impact of art on narrative is well-known. In Western culture, one need only think of how artistic depictions of, say, Jesus's nativity (e.g. cre(c)che scenes) or of his crucifixion have influenced the reading, imagining, and rewriting of those moments in his lifestory.

Etienne Lamotte has detected no fewer than thirty-four episodes from the life of the Buddha in the first century b.c.e. bas-reliefs at the Sanchi stupa, in Central India. A number of these, significantly, appear to predate any literary account of the same event. For instance, on one of the pillars of the North Gate at Sanchi, there is a representation of a monkey making an offering of a bowl of honey to the Buddha, whose presence is symbolized by a tree and an empty throne. (At Sanchi, the Buddha is represented only by symbols such as a tree, a wheel, or a set of footprints.) This recalls an event that is supposed to have taken place in the town of Vais�ali; the episode is commonly found in art, but it does not figure in literary accounts of the Buddha's life until centuries later. Clearly, alongside the biographical tradition there existed a sculptural tradition which interacted with it in sometimes complex ways. Etienne Lamotte (1988, p.�666) has described the process as follows:

Before laying hands on a chisel, the .�.�. artists undoubtedly consulted one or other biography of the Buddha in order to refresh their memories and ascertain this or that detail of the scene to be reproduced. It is no less certain that they questioned their employers and tried to meet the demands and preferences of their clients. Alongside the literary tradition recorded in the "Lives" of the period, there was also an oral tradition, publicly widespread, which had to be taken into account. There was necessarily much interaction between the two. The artists drew inspiration from the texts, but the texts in turn were influenced by the works created by the sculptors.

In this give-and-take, the technical exigencies of the artistic medium could sometimes be a factor (just as topographical facts could sometimes influence pilgrimage traditions). Thus, the statement in certain texts that the Buddha had "webbed hands" comparable to the feet of a swan probably stems from a misunderstanding due to a particular sculptural practice. At least according to Lamotte, the word "web" (jala) originally meant the "network" (jala) of lines on the skin, the visibility and particular configuration of which on the hands and feet were one of the physical signs of the Great Man (mahapurusa) (for a list of these signs, see Table 2.1 page 42). The fact that, in time, this original meaning was forgotten can be explained by the technical artistic practice of leaving a web of stone interconnecting the spread fingers of the Buddha's hand so as to reinforce them and keep them from breaking. The texts were thus reread and interpreted in light of the sculptures.

LIFESTORY AND RITUAL

In addition to the influence of the artistic tradition, it is also important to keep in mind the relationship between the developing biography of the Buddha and the practice of Buddhist rituals. Just as accounts of Jesus's Last Supper are linked to the Christian rite of Holy Communion, or just as the celebration of Passover involves a reading of the events of the Exodus, so too stories about the Buddha's life were to be recited and reenacted on ritual and festival occasions. In Southeast Asia today, for example, the consecration of a new Buddha image involves "infusing" or "programming" it with the lifestory of the Buddha. This must be ritually recited in front of the image so that it will know what it is to "be" a buddha. More specifically, as we shall see, certain events in the life of the Buddha were directly correlated to particular ritual acts. For instance, the bodhisattva's "Great Departure" from his home in Kapilavastu provided the model for the Buddhist rite of ordination of new monks. Still today, candidates for the monkhood ritually dress up in their finery, and ride forth from their homes as "princes," sometimes to be opposed by friends or relatives acting out the part of Mara, the "Evil One" (who opposed the Buddha's going forth), before arriving at the monastery where they exchange their "royal" garb for monastic robes and have their heads tonsured. Such ritual ordinations, of course, were not without their own repercussive influences on the biography. One suspects, for instance, that the whole literary account, at least in one text, of the bodhisattva being dressed up and adorned magnificently by the gods just prior to his departure at midnight on his Great Renunciation is an infusion of the ritual tradition back into the lifestory. We shall see that similar symbioses may be found in other events and episodes.

LIFESTORIES AND BUDDHOLOGY:

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A BUDDHA-LIFE BLUEPRINT

Finally, it is important to remember that not all Buddhist schools were in agreement about the nature and identity of the Buddha. Doctrinal developments, as well as other contextual considerations, could thus affect presentations of the Buddha's lifestory. I have, so far, spoken of the biography of the Buddha as though it were limited to his life as Gautama. That is, of course, nonsense. Buddhist acceptance of the doctrines of karma and rebirth made possible, perhaps even mandated, the extension of the Buddha's biography to include his many previous births (jatakas), during which he was a bodhisattva, a buddha-to-be. Thus, we find a text such as the Pali "Introduction" (Nidana-katha) to the Jataka Commentary (Jatakatthakatha) beginning its account of the Buddha's life, "four incalculable world periods plus one hundred thousand aeons ago" (Jayawickrama, 1990, pp.3ff.) when, in a previous life as the brahmin Sumedha, the bodhisattva first made the determination that he wanted to become a buddha someday. In the hundreds and thousands of births subsequent to this embarkation on the path, he was then variously reborn as a human, as a god, and as an animal. In these guises, he did good deeds, made merit, and strove in a variety of ways that eventually resulted in his finally attaining buddhahood as Gautama. Buddhahood thus was a long time in coming, but in achieving it, Gautama at last put an end to his rebirth process. This did not mean the end of his lifestory, however, since, in significant ways, it is possible to think of the Buddha's relics -- the remains of his physical body as well as the "body" of teachings which he left behind -- as continuing his life and biography, even up to the present. As we shall see, it is only some time in the future, with the expected loss of the Buddha's doctrine and the disappearance of his bodily relics, that his lifestory will truly finally come to an end.

After it does, however, it will in a sense be taken up again, to be lived once more by another buddha and then another and another and another. It is important to realize that, even in the earliest Buddhist traditions, the Buddha Gautama was not thought to have been unique. He had predecessors, the buddhas of the past whom he periodically encountered over the aeons during which he was striving for buddhahood; and he will have successors, some of whom are, right now, bodhisattvas walking the same lengthy path to buddhahood that he did. Gautama is important because he is "our" Buddha, i.e., the most recent one from our perspective, but his lifestory should not be limited to him alone.

Such a message is made clear in the "Discourse on the Great Legend" (Mahavadana-sutra) which exists in both Sanskrit and Pali versions. It narrates at some length the life of the Buddha, from birth through enlightenment, but it is not the life of the Buddha Gautama that it recounts but that of the past Buddha Vipasyi, who is said to have lived ninety-one aeons ago. In all its details, this lifestory is exactly like the lifestory of Gautama, except that the names -- of his disciples, his family members, the places where he dwelt, etc. -- have all been changed. The young Vipasyi does not grow up in Kapilavastu but in Bandhumati; he was not of the Gautama clan but of the Kaundinya; he attained enlightenment not under a fig tree but under a trumpet-flower tree; his two chief disciples were not Sariputra and Maudgalyayana but Khanda and Tissa, and so on. It is clear to scholars that this tale has been patterned on the life of "our" Buddha, Gautama, but the text, in fact, points us towards the opposite conclusion: that the life of "our" Buddha has been patterned on that of Vipasyi, or more accurately that both of their lifestories reflect a biographical paradigm, a Buddha-life blueprint, which they, and all buddhas, follow.

In time, the particulars of this bio-blueprint became quite detailed and specific. One Sanskrit text, for example, enumerates ten "indispensible actions" which every Buddha must necessarily accomplish in order to "be" a buddha. No buddha, we are told, can pass away into final nirvana until he has predicted that another person will become a buddha some day, has inspired in someone else an unswerving resolve for buddhahood, has converted all those whom he should convert, has lived more than three quarters of his potential lifespan, has clearly drawn distinctions between good and evil deeds, has appointed two of his disciples as most prominent, has descended from Heaven at Samkasya, has held an assembly of his disciples at Lake Anavatapta, has brought his parents to a vision of the truth, has performed a great miracle at Sravasti.

The Tibetan tradition favored instead a quite different list of the "Twelve Great Acts" of a buddha, starting with his existence in Tusita Heaven, his descent from that Heaven, and his entrance into the womb of his mother. It then goes on to narrate his birth, his skill at various arts, his life in the harem, his great departure from the palace, his practice of asceticism, his defeat of Mara, his attainment of nirvana, his first sermon, and his death and parinirvana.

But it was the Pali commentarial tradition that was to present the longest and most detailed list, expanding the number of obligatory deeds and facts to thirty. Here, it is clearer than ever that what makes a buddha is living the buddha-life. We are told that: on descending into his mother's womb, the bodhisattva must be aware that this will be his final birth; within his mother's womb, he should assume a cross-legged position facing outwards; his mother must give birth to him while in a standing position, in a forest grove. Immediately after his birth, he should take seven steps to the north, survey the four quarters and roar the lion's roar; his Great Departure occurs only after he has seen the four signs and the birth of his son; he must practice austerities for at least seven days and wear the yellow robe; on the day of his enlightenment, he must first have a meal of milk-rice. Then he should sit on a seat made of grass, concentrate on his breathing, defeat the forces of Mara, and attain full enlightenment in a cross-legged position. After enlightenment, he should spend seven weeks in the vicinity of the Bodhi tree; and the god Brahma must ask him to preach the Dharma, which he first does in the Deer Park at Sarnath. He should recite the rules of the community to an assembly of monks, reside mostly at the Jetavana monastery, perform the Twin Miracle at S�ravasti, teach the Abhidharma in Indra's Heaven, and descend from that Heaven at Samkas�ya. He should constantly abide in the attainment of fruits, survey the capacities of others during two nightly meditational trances, lay down new monastic rules only when necessary, recount jatakas when appropriate, and recite the Buddha-Chronicle in an assembly of his kinsmen. He should welcome monks who visit him, spend the rains-retreat where invited to do so, and daily carry out his duties prior to and after eating and in the three watches of the night. He should eat a meal containing (pork) meat on the day of his death, and pass into parinirvana after myriads of attainments.

Given such standardization and establishment of a "Buddha blueprint," it is perhaps not surprising that some schools of buddhism should come to think of Gautama and other buddhas as mere embodiments or projections of a transcendent pattern. This, of course, was not without its effect on the presentation of their lifestories. The biography known as the Great Story (Mahavastu), for instance, belongs to a school of Buddhism that emphasized the supramundane nature of the Buddha. In that work, Gautama is seen as conforming to the ways of the world but as basically being unaffected by them. Thus, he may seem to exert himself, but he feels no fatigue; he may sit in the shade, but he is not tormented by the heat of the sun; he may eat and drink, but he is never hungry or thirsty. Much the same kind of thing can be found in Living out of the Game (Lalitavistara) which never fails to magnify and glorify events in the life of the Buddha, emphasizing his purity and transcendental qualities.

Both of these texts reflect tendencies that came to be associated with the rise of Great Vehicle (Mahayana) Buddhism. This is not the place to embark on an analysis of the changes in Buddha doctrine that came about in the Mahayana tradition. Suffice it to point out that, in the Mahayana, the lifespan of buddhas in general, and of S�akyamuni in particular, was greatly extended to the point of being more or less eternal in duration. The notion developed that the Buddha had always been enlightened, that his life on earth was but a manifestation of a transcendent, unchanging, eternal Body of Truth, the Dharmakaya. Consequently, the Buddha's life-events -- his birth, quest, enlightenment, and death -- came to be seen not as transformative personal existential processes for him, but as a manifestation of his compassionate attempts to teach others and to be a model for them. In this context, the Mahayana schools also saw the opening up of the way to buddhahood for all beings. Inspired by the model of the Buddha and guided by his compassion, devotees began to think not just of their own salvation, but of the path to a realization of buddhahood that would help others. The description of that path was sometimes greatly elaborated, but at some point it still tended to incorporate the tradition of the Buddha's lifestory.

Enough has been said to make it clear that the lifestory of the Buddha is many-faceted, in some ways embodying and reflecting the whole history of the Buddhist experience. It is not without reason that we may speak of the "many lives" of the Buddha, not only to take note of the countless jatakas that are part of his lifestory, but also to do justice to the often striking divergences between different biographical traditions. In doing that, however, we must avoid the risk of obscuring the unitive function that the Buddha's lifestory has played throughout much of the Buddhist world. Of course, there are variant versions of different episodes, and we shall pay attention to some of them in the chapters below, but the overall outline of the story remains the same.

In this book, then, I propose to examine and discuss, chapter by chapter, the following topics: previous lives of the Buddha; his ancestry, birth, and youth as Gautama; his spiritual quest and enlightenment; his decision to preach and to establish a community; the growth of monasticism and his further spread of the doctrine by means of miracles and distant journeys; and finally his last days, complete extinction (parinirvana), and ongoing existence in his relics.
 
Five hundred years from now there's going to be some smart Charlie who will ask whether a man like Gandhi existed, and 'prove' he did not.

So what?

That's all I have to say on the subject.

"King Ashoka" is a mythical figure created by British Colonialists to justify their rule over the 570+ disparate tribes/clans in South Asia. Just how the Spaniards used the argument that "Metizo" Mexicans are mixed race with Spaniards, thus Mexico is a "European nation" to rule over the Mexican Native Aboriginals.

The "evidence" regarding Ashoka is scant to say the best, and dubious in reality. 3 main Englishmen set out on a task to decipher ancient fragments of carvings on stone (which is a "miracle" they self-taught themselves a language no one around them knew) in a matter of weeks and months --- of which they also became "experts" Pali and Sanskrit and Hindi. It is these same Englishmen who WROTE & DEFINED 'ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY' points to fraudulent and dubious nature.

Regarding the Buddha, there is much controversy. But here it is not so much trying to "prove" (your words) he didn't exist, but rather point out the great discrepancy in when he was said to have exist (~1000 BC to 100 AD). So there's no reason to be against the "Smart Charles" of the world.
 
I don't want to raise any questions on Indian history and Hindu religion.

But the previously provided link stating that Nasa found some 1.25Million year old man made bridge between India and SriLanka was found, is completely wrong!!

That is just an immature blog sort of thing which doesn't even have a hosting service of its own and the link it provided to Hindustan times is also fake.


Also being a serious reader of history, what archeological & human evolutionary data states is;

That the oldest written inscriptions found from any part of the world and any civilization is not before 10,000 years BC which is roughly 12,000 years. And the around 40,000 years BC when Humans (homo sepians) used to live in caves made the earliest of rock carvings.


And a general idea is that at the time only animal bones were used as weapons and man was only wise enough to light fire and keep fires burning even in rain by using a liquid/fluid found from the wood of a tree and being applied before that the surface to be lit. Even the invention of a wheel is expected to be around 10-12k BC.

Which means no bows, swords, daggers, weaponry, armor, gold, empires, sophistication, organised armies, chariots, horse riding, farming, cattle and even no house were available before this period.

Only reference that is in my knowledge of India in Greek writings is that of Hercules when he traveled India and fought with a multi-mouthed dragon like creature. Who is expected to be 5000BC before Alexander who himself appears at approx. 350BC).

Also the most suitable time of all the events of Hinduism at most can be around 5000BC.

Even in around 5000BC there were mammoths instead of elephants and saber tooth instead of Tigers.

The only human like race(but not humans) to exist were neantherdal, famous ancient british cavemen who lived over the earth for around 200,000 years before going extint at around 40,000 BC.

All the timelines mentioned above are extracts of scientific discoveries not wild guesses.
Hints of environment like animals & technological advancements make it easier to determine the timeline.
Hope this helps.
 
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The Truth Shall Set You Free: When Was Krishna Born?

When Was Krishna Born?

I had studied and taught Hinduism for many years before it dawned on me that Hinduism is spectacularly unhistorical. Whereas the typical textbook details the history of Judaism and Christianity, the chapter on Hinduism has almost no dates mentioned after the Vedic/Aryan Invasion Era. Why such blatant double standards in the methods of approach between religious traditions? Surely I am not the only person to notice the differences in presentation, and way Hinduism is treated so non-critically (no history, no socio-economic analysis, no source criticism).

The lack of critical focus, I think, is intentional, in order to avoid stating the uncomfortable truth: Hinduism worships blatantly fictional gods. Not fictional in the sense of “probably-doesn’t-exist,” which could be said about all gods. I mean fictional in the “characters in a fictional book” sense. That is the Hindu mentality: a cool god appears in a book, and people start worshipping him. Weird but true. This is the actual origin of the two of the most popular Hindu gods: Krishna and Rama, stars of the two most popular Hindu books, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, self-styled incarnations of Vishnu.

For a fuller discussion of the literary history of Krishna, see my post here.

We see an interesting analog in the West with those geeks in Britain and Australia who have been listing “Jedi” as their religion. The Jedi, of course, are fictional characters from the Star Wars movies. Although the Star Wars geeks think it is clever to screw with the government surveys, I am fairly certain they aren’t actually offering prayer and sacrifice to Obi Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader. If they do start praying to Luke Skywalker or Yoda, we will have an exact correspondence to what occurs in Hinduism. If you don’t believe me, try a simple research project: find out when Krishna was born.

To the mystical Hindu mind, the dates for Krishna’s birth are firmly established by the hard science of astrology, supplemented by a long series of textual guesswork! Let the inquiring mind feast upon this veritable Euclidian proof:





In sum: “July 21, 3228 bc… satisfies every condition described during Krishna's birth.”

Wheew, glad we got that established!

Woops, in the same article, the author admits that these astronomical projections can be a bit less than sure: "But the dates, while drawn from the same source, strain in opposite directions.”
Thus we get dates out to 5561 BC. The variation is not surprising,




Well, I guess it makes my critical task easier if the same article that claims he was born in 3228 BC also points out that he is essentially a legend thrown together over time.

The hero of the Ramayana, Lord Ram, is theoretically even older than Krishna, being the previous incarnation of Vishnu (the 7th to be exact). So when did he live? By the logic of the yugas: over 2.5 million years ago. I say: why not??? If you are going about killing demons with your giant bow and arrows, and fighting along side of armies of intelligent flying monkeys, you might as well make it millions of years ago too, while you are at it!

Of course, more respectable astrologists put Lord Ram’s birthday in 5114 BC. January 10 of 5114 BC, actually! Again, the key to this reconstruction lies in the constellations and heavenly signs described in the book.

Of course, nothing in archeology corroborates anything civilized going on in India that long ago. The Harrappan settlements of the Indus Valley civilization, appearing as early as 3000 BC, evidence skillfully-laid canals and adobe bricks structures, but nothing on the order of the civilizations and technologies described in the Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana, not even in the iron age yet. Apparently, that is because in order to find the stuff from 7000 years ago “you'd have to dig more than 60 metres”.

Or just admit that a good book is a good book, even if it has nothing to do with history.

Not to say that Westerners are incapable of the similar silliness. The situation reminds me of the Book of Mormon, with its ridiculous descriptions of advanced American civilizations, which, woops, don’t seem to have left any actual physical evidence! The case of the Mormons, like that of the Hindus, indicates yet again that most people are not capable of excising critical thinking about a book once it has been invested with religious significance.

I am not unsympathetic. I know that it is a slow and painful process to come to terms with the fact that your religious ideas are fictional. Nonetheless, realizing that your particular incarnations of Vishnu are fictional might lead you down the path to a more truthful religion. After all, only the truth shall set you free.

Nice way to just put words.. No logical explanation has been provided.

Harappan civilization is the only "KNOWN" excavation performed which is 3000 BC old. It has never ever been said that there can't be any older civilization exist, This is just merely implication that we have found oldest civilization as 3000 BC.

Regarding Birth of Lord Krishna, There are only small confusion regarding 3102BC or ~3200 BC as the positions of planets may be repetitive. As there can never ever be claimed any person's existence when we don't have DNA to verify (and to match with whom) we can mere guess based on carbon dating of that time. Just to tell you, ASI has searched lost city of Dwarka in Arabean Sea near Gujrat.

Lord Rama was older to Lord Krishna and he existed almost million year ago and that is true even search of ADAM's bridge by NASA. As per mythology he and his army made a bridge between India and Lanka (Sri Lanka) and yes it exist.
 
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Even in around 5000BC there were mammoths instead of elephants and saber tooth instead of Tigers.

The only human like race(but not humans) to exist were neantherdal, famous ancient british cavemen who lived over the earth for around 200,000 years before going extint at around 40,000 BC.

Do these people even read what they write?

So between 45000 BC and 5000 BC the earth was inhabited by winged angels?
 
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I don't want to raise any questions on Indian history and Hindu religion.

But the previously provided link stating that Nasa found some 1.25Million year old man made bridge between India and SriLanka was found, is completely wrong!!

That is just an immature blog sort of thing which doesn't even have a hosting service of its own and the link it provided to Hindustan times is also fake.


Also being a serious reader of history, what archeological & human evolutionary data states is;

That the oldest written inscriptions found from any part of the world and any civilization is not before 10,000 years BC which is roughly 12,000 years. And the around 40,000 years BC when Humans (homo sepians) used to live in caves made the earliest of rock carvings.


And a general idea is that at the time only animal bones were used as weapons and man was only wise enough to light fire and keep fires burning even in rain by using a liquid/fluid found from the wood of a tree and being applied before that the surface to be lit. Even the invention of a wheel is expected to be around 10-12k BC.

Which means no bows, swords, daggers, weaponry, armor, gold, empires, sophistication, organised armies, chariots, horse riding, farming, cattle and even no house were available before this period.

Only reference that is in my knowledge of India in Greek writings is that of Hercules when he traveled India and fought with a multi-mouthed dragon like creature. Who is expected to be 5000BC before Alexander who himself appears at approx. 350BC).

Also the most suitable time of all the events of Hinduism at most can be around 5000BC.

Even in around 5000BC there were mammoths instead of elephants and saber tooth instead of Tigers.

The only human like race(but not humans) to exist were neantherdal, famous ancient british cavemen who lived over the earth for around 200,000 years before going extint at around 40,000 BC.

All the timelines mentioned above are extracts of scientific discoveries not wild guesses.
Hints of environment like animals & technological advancements make it easier to determine the timeline.
Hope this helps.

Sir If you are disagree with my link provide, Please do a google a bit you will find many claims/counter-claims for the same. And what so ever findings you are discussed is the scientists or researcher's finding as of now and we are not still sure what is hidden in history and when it will be come up. Neither I support nor deny these facts as if they were true they would not be known as mythology.
 
Originally Posted by Pride
2) Kaaba a hindu temple?
Kaaba a Hindu Temple?


Maybe you can correct your countryman.

he was saying about a conspiracy theory. Of course there is certain section who belives it but the matter of fact is everything that has idols associated does not mean it is hindu
 
Let's review again. I'm going to highlight the parts that are particularly important!

The Truth Shall Set You Free: When Was Krishna Born?

When Was Krishna Born?

I had studied and taught Hinduism for many years before it dawned on me that Hinduism is spectacularly unhistorical. Whereas the typical textbook details the history of Judaism and Christianity, the chapter on Hinduism has almost no dates mentioned after the Vedic/Aryan Invasion Era. Why such blatant double standards in the methods of approach between religious traditions? Surely I am not the only person to notice the differences in presentation, and way Hinduism is treated so non-critically (no history, no socio-economic analysis, no source criticism).

The lack of critical focus, I think, is intentional, in order to avoid stating the uncomfortable truth: Hinduism worships blatantly fictional gods. Not fictional in the sense of “probably-doesn’t-exist,” which could be said about all gods. I mean fictional in the “characters in a fictional book” sense. That is the Hindu mentality: a cool god appears in a book, and people start worshipping him. Weird but true. This is the actual origin of the two of the most popular Hindu gods: Krishna and Rama, stars of the two most popular Hindu books, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, self-styled incarnations of Vishnu.

For a fuller discussion of the literary history of Krishna, see my post here.

We see an interesting analog in the West with those geeks in Britain and Australia who have been listing “Jedi” as their religion. The Jedi, of course, are fictional characters from the Star Wars movies. Although the Star Wars geeks think it is clever to screw with the government surveys, I am fairly certain they aren’t actually offering prayer and sacrifice to Obi Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader. If they do start praying to Luke Skywalker or Yoda, we will have an exact correspondence to what occurs in Hinduism. If you don’t believe me, try a simple research project: find out when Krishna was born.

To the mystical Hindu mind, the dates for Krishna’s birth are firmly established by the hard science of astrology, supplemented by a long series of textual guesswork! Let the inquiring mind feast upon this veritable Euclidian proof:



Krishna was born in the Rohini nakshatra, in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, on the 8th day of the waning moon at midnight… the 38th chapter of the Shri Vishnu Puran says that Kaliyuga started on the day Krishna died… another shloka in the Shrimad Bhagwat Purana (part 11, chapter 6) where Brahma … says that 125 years have passed since Krishna's birth; this is just before Krishna plans his death… the advent of Kaliyuga is traditionally taken to be 3102 BC, because all our panchangas or astrological journals maintain that 5,100 years of Kaliyuga had passed before 1999 AD. The belief is supported by mathematician Aryabhatta's astronomy treatise Aryabhattiya, the Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical text that dates back to 400 AD, and a 5th century inscription from a temple in Aihole. Deleting 125 years from the date … Krishna was born either in 3327 or 3228 BC. The rest he left up to his software, merely feeding in the planetary configuration that Krishna was supposedly born under, to generate the row of figures that conforms to the epochal moment.
:woot::hitwall::rofl::lol:

In sum: “July 21, 3228 bc… satisfies every condition described during Krishna's birth.”

Wheew, glad we got that established!

Woops, in the same article, the author admits that these astronomical projections can be a bit less than sure: "But the dates, while drawn from the same source, strain in opposite directions.”

Thus we get dates out to 5561 BC. The variation is not surprising,

“Considering that there are 150 astronomical references provided about the characters and events in the Mahabharata… there is little consensus on what information is worth concentrating on. In addition, there is reason to believe that our scriptures ‘grew’ over time, incorporating events of every period. So there is precious little we can attribute collectively to one age. Many scholars in fact wonder if all the references to Krishna in the scriptures refer to one person or whether the Krishna of Vrindavan and the Krishna of the Mahabharata are two different people.


Well, I guess it makes my critical task easier if the same article that claims he was born in 3228 BC also points out that he is essentially a legend thrown together over time.

The hero of the Ramayana, Lord Ram, is theoretically even older than Krishna, being the previous incarnation of Vishnu (the 7th to be exact). So when did he live? By the logic of the yugas: over 2.5 million years ago. I say: why not??? If you are going about killing demons with your giant bow and arrows, and fighting along side of armies of intelligent flying monkeys, you might as well make it millions of years ago too, while you are at it!

Of course, more respectable astrologists put Lord Ram’s birthday in 5114 BC. January 10 of 5114 BC, actually! Again, the key to this reconstruction lies in the constellations and heavenly signs described in the book.

Of course, nothing in archeology corroborates anything civilized going on in India that long ago. The Harrappan settlements of the Indus Valley civilization, appearing as early as 3000 BC, evidence skillfully-laid canals and adobe bricks structures, but nothing on the order of the civilizations and technologies described in the Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana, not even in the iron age yet. Apparently, that is because in order to find the stuff from 7000 years ago “you'd have to dig more than 60 metres”.

Or just admit that a good book is a good book, even if it has nothing to do with history.

Not to say that Westerners are incapable of the similar silliness. The situation reminds me of the Book of Mormon, with its ridiculous descriptions of advanced American civilizations, which, woops, don’t seem to have left any actual physical evidence!
The case of the Mormons, like that of the Hindus, indicates yet again that most people are not capable of excising critical thinking about a book once it has been invested with religious significance.

I am not unsympathetic. I know that it is a slow and painful process to come to terms with the fact that your religious ideas are fictional. Nonetheless, realizing that your particular incarnations of Vishnu are fictional might lead you down the path to a more truthful religion. After all, only the truth shall set you free.
 
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