Transitoriness and Transformations 107realistic. However by the time the Pali canon was crystallised, it had
to be added that when the Buddha asked questions, he was doing so
even though he already knew the answers; the idea of omniscience
was exerting its influence. Still, it was a clear belief of Theravada
Buddhism that the Buddha himself had ‘disappeared’ for all practi-
cal purposes at his death. In the Mahaparinibbana Suttaa stanza
put in the mouth of Brahma says that all beings that have life shall
lay aside what gives them individuality, ‘even as the teacher—being
such a one, unequalled among all the men that are, successor of the
prophets of old time, mighty by wisdom and in insight clear, hath
died,’ while Sakka, the king of the gods, says, ‘They’re transient all,
each being’s parts and powers; growth is their nature, and decay.
They are produced, they are dissolved again: and then is best, when
they have sunk to rest.’ The early sculptures, which show a blank
spot where the Buddha would have sat, also show this sense of
departure and absence. Even the Jataka stories, as has been noted,
while treating the Bodhisattva as a marvellous, almost ‘superhuman’
figure, also saw his limitations and faults.
Much of the Pali texts seem to suggest that the Buddha was
indeed a man who had become Enlightened. In others, he denies
being a man or a god; due to his Enlightenment he has ‘gone
beyond’ all these categorizations. Thus, while he sometimes refers
to himself as a ‘bhikkhu’, a ‘samana’ and as a ‘Brahman’, he is
more uniquely the ‘Tathagata’, a term which still puzzles transla-
tors. The whole of the Pali canon bears witness to the perfection,
the unsurpassable and unique presence of the Buddha. However,
though he is considered worthy of the utmost respect, he is meant
to be emulated, not worshipped.
The Questions of Milinda represents a transitional phase: the
Buddha, being gone, has no concern for the offerings of gifts but can
feel the pain of a splinter which has nothing to do with karma—but
he was in the process of becoming a superhuman being. Asvaghosha’s
Buddhacaritapresents, in contrast, the picture of a hero who is no
longer human, who knows no feelings, nothing of the dukkha
which is said to be at the heart of existence. He is born without the
pain of childbirth, with full consciousness; a near divine being, he
flies in the air, walks on water, rains in the sky, shines like a sun.
The historical being who achieved Enlightenment at a particular
moment, before which he was only a man, was disappearing from
popular consciousness.natural response of a human being caught within a powerful social
order that was based on clear social-economic exploitation with a
powerful state, limited scope for mobility, and little foreseeable ability
to being about change. Dependence on others rather than on individual
achievement grew out of this situation; and provided a material basis
for devotionalism.
With its bhakti element, Mahayana was a popular form of
Buddhism. While the rich merchants and nobles who supported
Mahayana could find themselves engaged in an ‘exchange’ rela-
tionship, benefiting from their economic support to monasteries
and the visible symbols of Buddhism, the poor could turn to the
Buddha, or the Bodhisattvas and other deities associated with the
religion, for solace. Mahayana Buddhism was also associated with
the incorporation of many indigenous deities who were taken as
objects of worship in one form or another.
At a philosophical level, Mahayana doctrines had three major
features.^3 First, there was an exaltation of the Buddha to an extent
where the historical Gotama was lost, and the Buddha—along with
Bodhisattvas and Buddhas of all kinds—became a cosmological and
eternal figure above and beyond all gods, transcending all universes.
Second, with this and with the idea of compassionate Bodhisattvas
concerned with the salvation of all sentient beings, the concept of
transfer of merit from the Buddha or Bodhisattva to the devotee
became accepted. Third, the doctrines of Mahayana, especially that of
sunyata, or the ‘emptiness’ of an absolute self or nature at the heart
of all beings, once again stressed the transitory nature of human exis-
tence and the cosmos, and represented a response to the scholasticism
of the Abhidhamma, as well as to the essentialism of Brahmanical
teaching. At the same time, in spite of the idea of ‘emptiness’, there
was a tendency in Mahayana to postulate an over-riding (or underly-
ing) ‘Being’ identified with the Buddha-nature.
The transformation of ideas about the Buddha can be seen quite
clearly in the literature. The early stories present him as a historical
being, in dialogue with others, asking questions, debating, having
doubts (for instance the initial one about how to teach the doctrine),
experimenting with useless ways such as asceticism. The mode is
106 Buddhism in India
(^3) However, see the works of David Kalupahana, for major reassessments of all of
these developments.