1. The Founder.
Buddhism is the religion which was
founded by a historical person in
India, who was later
called “the Buddha.” The founder
of Buddhism was
a man known as Gotama Siddhattha (in Pāli)
or
Gautama Siddhārtha (in Sanskrit). Although his date
is
not clearly ascertainable, he is the first man in Indian
history whose date
can be assigned to a limited period
with any degree of certainty. There is
a minor differ-
ence between Northern and
Southern traditions con-
cering the dates of
the life and death of the Buddha.
Southern Buddhists, following the
Ceylonese tradition,
accept the year 544 B.C. as the year of his death,
and
on that basis celebrated the 2,500th anniversary in
1956. European
scholars have rejected this chronology
as incompatible with the dates of
the Indian kings who
were contemporaries of the Buddha. Thus a
somewhat
later date is sought.
Many Japanese Buddhists accepted a Northern tra-
dition conveyed to China by a monk called Saṅgha-
bhadra in A.D. 489, according to which they
celebrated
the 2,500th birthday in 1932. However, the Jōdo,
Shin,
and Nichiren sects did not join with them since the
founders of
these sects had adopted the legend that
the year of the Buddha's death was
949 B.C., as fixed
by the Chinese priest Fao-lin (A.D. 572-640).
Needless
to say, even the followers of these sects do not believe
this
legend literally nowadays. Hakuju Ui, the late
Buddhist scholar of Japan,
comparing the legends set
forth in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese versions
of the
scriptures, fixed the date of the Buddha as 466-386
B.C. The
dates of King Aśoka, on whose life Ui based
his computations,
have been altered by recent research,
so the correct dates for Buddha would
be 436-383 B.C.,
if his arguments are to be accepted. Even though
there
is no agreement concerning the exact chronology, Jap-
anese and Chinese Buddhists were glad to collaborate
with Southern Buddhists in their 2,500th-year cer-
emonies honoring the Buddha.
Gotama the Buddha was born at Kapilavastu in what
is now Nepal near the
border of India, the son of a
nobleman of the Sākya clan. When
about twenty-nine
years of age, he left his wife, his little son, and
his
father, and renounced the world. As an ascetic he
became a
disciple of several teachers in succession, but
did not find satisfaction
in their teaching and resolved
to seek truth for himself. Finally, at the
spot now
known as Bodh-gaya in Bihar, he attained Enlighten-
ment at the age of thirty-five; he is therefore
called
the Buddha “the Enlightened One” or
“the Awakened
One.” From this time until his death at
the age of
eighty, he spent his life in teaching his disciples, con
stantly traveling, except in rainy seasons, in the area
along
the River Ganges to deliver sermons to people.
He died quietly, surrounded
by his disciples, at a place
called Kuśinagara near the border
between Nepal and
India.
