Editing The Buddha (section)

=== Nature of traditional depictions ===
[[File:BimaranCasket2.JPG|thumb|One of the earliest anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, here surrounded by [[Brahma (Buddhism)|Brahma]] (left) and [[Śakra (Buddhism)|Śakra]] (right). [[Bimaran Casket]], mid-1st century CE, [[British Museum]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yaldiz |first1=Marianne |title=Investigating Indian Art |date=1987 |publisher=Staatl. Museen Preuss. Kulturbesitz |page=188 |quote=The earliest anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha that we know so far, the Bimaran reliquary}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Verma |first1=Archana |title=Cultural and Visual Flux at Early Historical Bagh in Central India |date=2007 |publisher=Archana Verma |isbn=978-1-4073-0151-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_os7mOK9v38C&pg=PP4 |page=1 |access-date=12 July 2018 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111053955/https://books.google.com/books?id=_os7mOK9v38C&pg=PP4 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Queen Maya Birth.jpeg|thumb|[[Maya (mother of the Buddha)|Māyā]] miraculously giving birth to Siddhārtha. [[Sanskrit]], [[palm-leaf manuscript]]. [[Nalanda|Nālandā]], Bihar, India. [[Pala Empire|Pāla period]]]]
In the earliest Buddhist texts, the [[nikāya]]s and [[Āgama (Buddhism)|āgamas]], the Buddha is not depicted as possessing [[omniscience]] (''sabbaññu''){{sfnp|Anālayo|2006}} nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (''lokottara'') being. According to [[Bhikkhu Analayo]], ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the [[Mahayana sutras]] and later [[Pali]] commentaries or texts such as the ''Mahāvastu''.{{sfnp|Anālayo|2006}} In the ''Sandaka Sutta'', the Buddha's disciple [[Ananda]] outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing<ref>{{cite web |author1=Tan, Piya (trans) |author-link1=Piya Tan |date=2010 |title=The Discourse to Sandaka (trans. of Sandaka Sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 2, Majjhima Paṇṇāsaka 3, Paribbājaka Vagga 6) |website=The Dharmafarers |publisher=The Minding Centre |url=http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/35.7-Sandaka-S-m76-piya.pdf |access-date=24 September 2015 |pages=17–18 |archive-date=9 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109050837/http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/35.7-Sandaka-S-m76-piya.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> while in the ''Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta'' the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" ([[abhijñā]]).<ref>MN 71 Tevijjavacchagotta [Tevijjavaccha]</ref> The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as [[Alara Kalama]] and his forty-five-year career as a teacher.<ref>{{cite web |date=2005 |title=A Sketch of the Buddha's Life: Readings from the Pali Canon |website=Access to Insight |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/buddha.html |access-date=24 September 2015 |archive-date=22 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222123834/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/buddha.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Traditional biographies of Gautama often include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. ''lokottara'') and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the ''Mahāvastu'', over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in [[conformity]] with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma".{{sfnp|Jones|1956|p={{page needed|date=October 2020}}}} As noted by Andrew Skilton, the Buddha was often described as being superhuman, including descriptions of him having the 32 major and 80 minor marks of a "great man", and the idea that the Buddha could live for as long as an aeon if he wished (see DN 16).{{sfnp|Skilton|2004|pp=64–65}}

The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the [[Jain Agamas (Śvētāmbara)|Jain scriptures]], and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in [[History of India|Indian history]] for which significant accounts exist.{{sfnp|Carrithers|2001|p=15}} British author [[Karen Armstrong]] writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure.{{sfnp|Armstrong|2000|p=xii}} [[Michael Carrithers]] goes further, stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.{{sfnp|Carrithers|2001|p={{page needed|date=May 2022}}}}