Life of the Buddha

A Review of Rajendra Alwis's book ‘Siddhartha Gauthama’

- By CHANDRE DHARMAWARDANA

Gautama Buddha has been such a towering figure for over twenty six centuries of human history that there is no shortage of authors attempting to put together his life story cast as that of a supernatural being.

Asvaghosa's “Buddhacharita” appeared in the 1st century in Sanskrit. It is the story as narrated in the Lalitavisture Sutra that became translated into Chinese during the Jin and Tang dynasties, and inspired the art and sculpture of Gandhara and Barobudur. Tenzin Chogyel's 18th century work Life of the Lord Victor Shakyamuni, Ornament of One Thousand Lamps for the Fortunate Eon is still a Penguin classic (as translated by R. Schaeffer from Tibetan).

Interestingly, there is no “Life of the Buddha” in Pali itself (if we discount Buddhagosha's Kathavatthu), and the “thus have I heard” sutta's of Bhikku Ananada, the personal assistant to the Buddha, contain only a minimal emphasis on the life of the Buddha directly. This was entirely in keeping with the Buddha's exhortation to each one to minimize one's sense of “self “ to the point of extinction.

However, it is inescapable that the life of a great teacher will be chronicled by his followers. Today, there is even a collective effort by a group of scholars who work within the “Buddha Sutra project”, aimed at presenting the Buddha's life and teachings in English from a perspective grounded in the original Pali texts. The project, involving various international scholars of several traditions contribute different viewpoints and interpretations.