Column | A thousand Buddhas

We have all heard how there is no one single Ramayana, there are many — 300 at least. But no one tells us there is not just one Buddha; that there are dozens, maybe thousands, perhaps even millions, as per the earliest Buddhist scriptures. Also, there are hundreds of versions of his tale, in Pali and Sanskrit and Chinese and Japanese. No one clarifies that the historical Buddha we are so familiar with is a 19th century European invention.

India had forgotten Buddha by the time the British arrived. So, effectively, the British rediscovered him in the 19th century. The discovery of Pali manuscripts from Sri Lanka and Buddhist sites in the Gangetic plains was the greatest triumph of the Asiatic Society and Archaeological Survey of India. The British scholars were convinced that this cultural amnesia about Buddha was a deliberate cover-up, a Brahmin conspiracy. They used the Buddha to put clueless Hindu intellectuals on the defensive. And it worked.

A European creation?

In the vast literary corpus of Buddhism were found stories of Gautama Buddha travelling to Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand in his lifetime. There were fantastic tales of him fighting Mara, the demon of desire, and realistic ones of his death following a bout of dysentery after eating pork or mushrooms. European historians took it upon themselves to decide which of these stories were true. Thus, a historical Buddha was imagined.

He died, depending on which text was consulted, a century, two centuries, maybe eight centuries before Ashoka’s coronation. Japanese scholars of the early 20th century listed over 40 theories about Buddha’s birth date. The site of his birth and death were identified based on traditional pilgrim routes, not evidence.

The Orientalists argued that the Pali texts were older, more conservative, more historical, while Sanskrit texts were later corruptions. But that is not backed up by evidence. The earliest Buddhist manuscripts were recently discovered in Gandhara, dated to 100 BC. Many of them are in Sanskrit. They speak of many Buddhas, following a repetitive pattern that is also found in contemporary Jain mythology, and even in Valmiki’s Ramayana. They also do not speak of the ‘four noble truths’. These are simply mentioned amongst other truths. No one knows which language Buddha spoke in. Pali was a language used by Sri Lankan Buddhist monks around 500 AD, to distinguish themselves from rival Mahayana schools.

Of masculinity and Krishna lore

The earliest biographies of the Buddha (Buddhacharita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu) were compiled only by 200 AD, roughly when the Ramayana and Mahabharata were also compiled. By this time, images of Buddha’s conception, his birth, enlightenment and death had started appearing on the railings surrounding stupas in Sanchi, Bharhut, Mathura and Gandhara. He had started being shown in human form, with Vedic gods such as Indra and Brahma bowing to him. None of the early biographies refer to the ultimate episode, the death or parinirvana. This came from Mahaparinibbana-sutta, dated to 500 AD.

In the early biographies, Buddha’s wife is not named and is simply mentioned as Rahula’s mother. There are indications that a wife and a son were introduced only to establish Buddha’s masculinity. In the Chinese Ocean Sutra, there are many magical tales of how courtesans who doubt Buddha’s manliness are taught a lesson by him, appearing as a client.

There are stories where the prince of the Sakya clan has two wives, and sometimes even three. Yashodhara is won in a competition; Mrigaja praises his beauty; Gopa falls in love with him. Yashodhara embodies pure love while Gopa embodies carnal love, in late Tantrik Buddhist texts, perhaps influenced by Krishna lore.

In Pali versions, Buddha’s son Rahula is born on the day of his departure. In Sanskrit versions, the child is conceived on that night. There are stories stating that the pregnant Yashodhara gave birth to Rahula on the day Buddha attained enlightenment. She was accused of infidelity and had to prove her purity, much like Sita.

That we translate Gautama’s transformation into Buddha as ‘enlightenment’ rather than ‘heightened awareness’ reveals how intimately the construction of Buddha’s history is linked to European Orientalists of 19th century, who saw in him the Aryan sage they were looking for — outside the Christian world, and also outside Hindu idolatry.

They presented Buddhism as a Protestant movement, a rejection of Vedic ritualism. They were constructing Indian history using the framework of European Christian history. They established Buddha as historical in contrast to the mythic Ram and Krishna of the Hindus.

That wound festers even today, since many scholars and activists still assume these European inventions as facts. No one wants their religious leader to be just a myth — a creation of faith, a construction of the faithful. But it almost always is.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the author of 50 books on mythology, art and culture.