10 CHAPTER ONEno role in providing for one's happiness or misery; that morality was purely a
social convention; and that escape from the round of rebirth came only when
the round worked itself out. Peace of mind could be found by accepting one's
fate and by patiently waiting for the cycle, like a ball of string unwinding, to
come to its end.
The divergent viewpoints on these two issues formed the intellectual back-
drop for Siddhartha Gautama's quest for ultimate happiness. In fact, his Awak-
ening may be viewed as his own resolution of these issues, which provided a
view of personal survival and the role of causality in the cosmos that proved
influential for many centuries afterward, both in northern India and beyond.
1.3 THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE BUDDHA
The extant versions of the complete life of the Buddha were composed four
hundred or more years after his death. Drawing on much earlier material from
the canonical Sutras (Discourses) and Vinaya (Discipline); they fill in the gaps
in the canonical accounts with a fabric of myth (which many Buddhists be-
lieve to be true) and literary invention. The authors viewed the Buddha as an
epic hero, and their purpose was to celebrate his deeds. They were not histo-
rians but poets and propagandists. For instance, Asvagho~a (first century C.E.),
in his epic Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha), depicted Gautama as a genuine
human being; his narrative, even where it may not be historical, is dramati-
cally authentic. The hero is a mortal experiencing conflicts; undergoing gen-
uine temptations; trying, and ultimately rejecting, false courses; exercising
choice at every point; and prevailing, not through fate or divine intervention,
but through his own action. He is motivated by compassion for suffering hu-
manity and exhibits the martial virtues of courage, steadfastness, initiative, and
self-discipline. Throughout his ordeals he sustains a delicate sensitivity and an
unshakable dignity.
How similar is this attractive character to the historical person? Probably as
close as Asvagho~a could manage with the data and concepts at his disposal.
The quest for the historical Gautama, as that for the historical Jesus, is predes-
tined to a measure of failure. We cannot get behind the portraits that the early
communities synthesized for their founders; their reports are all we have. But
although the Sangha (Community) created the image of the Buddha, the Bud-
dha created the Sangha and in so doing impressed l:lpon it his personality. The
master exhorted his disciples to imitate him, and they formulated and trans-
mitted an image of him, along with his teachings, as a model for late.r gen-
erations to emulate. Although the process of formulation entailed some
distortion, the purpose of transmission ensured a measure of fidelity.
It should be noted that there is no single version of the Buddha's biogra-
phy in Buddhist literature, nor can any one version be considered historical.
There is no one use of the different aspects of the Buddha legend. Some ac-
counts, in order to inspire faith in the reader, stress the miraculous acts of the