Editing The Buddha (section)

==Sources==

=== Historical sources ===

====Pali suttas====
{{Main|Early Buddhist texts}}

On the basis of [[philology|philological]] evidence, Indologist and Pāli expert [[Oskar von Hinüber]] says that some of the Pāli suttas have retained very archaic place-names, syntax, and historical data from close to the Buddha's lifetime, including the ''[[Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta]]'' which contains a detailed account of the Buddha's final days. Hinüber proposes a composition date of no later than 350–320 BCE for this text, which would allow for a "true historical memory" of the events approximately 60 years prior if the Short Chronology for the Buddha's lifetime is accepted (but he also points out that such a text was originally intended more as [[hagiography]] than as an exact historical record of events).{{sfnp|von Hinüber|2008|pp=198–206}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Witzel |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Witzel |date=2009 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:8457940 |title=Moving Targets? Texts, language, archaeology and history in the Late Vedic and early Buddhist periods |journal=Indo-Iranian Journal |volume=52 |issue=2–3 |pages=287–310|doi=10.1163/001972409X12562030836859 |s2cid=154283219 |issn = 0019-7246 }}</ref>

[[John S. Strong]] sees certain biographical fragments in the canonical texts preserved in Pāli, as well as Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit as the earliest material. These include texts such as the "Discourse on the Noble Quest" (''Ariyapariyesanā-sutta'') and its parallels in other languages.{{sfnp|Strong|2001|p=5}}

====Pillar and rock inscriptions====
{{multiple image
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| image1            = Lumbini_inscription_(complete).jpg
| image2            = Buddha Sakyamuni on the Rummindei pillar of Ashoka.jpg
| footer            = [[Ashoka]]'s [[Lumbini pillar inscription]] ({{circa|250 BCE}}), with the words "Bu-dhe" (𑀩𑀼𑀥𑁂, the Buddha) and "[[Shakyas|Sa-kya]]-[[Muni (Saint)|mu-nī]] " ([[wikt:𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻]], "Sage of the [[Shakyas]]") in the [[Brahmi script]]{{sfnp|Weise|2013|pp=46–47}}<ref name="Brill">{{cite book |last1=Bronkhorst |first1=Johannes |title=How the Brahmins Won |chapter=Appendix X Was there Buddhism in Gandhāra at the Time of Alexander? |date=2016 |publisher=Brill |pages=483–489, page 6 of the appendix |doi=10.1163/9789004315518_016 |isbn=978-90-04-31551-8 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/25308643 |access-date=1 May 2022 |archive-date=24 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424162155/https://www.academia.edu/25308643 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I. |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17632-1 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 |access-date=1 May 2022 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111053950/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Greek_Buddha/53GYDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA168&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

No written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or from the one or two centuries thereafter.{{sfnp|Bary|2011|p=8}}{{sfnp|Fogelin|2015}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prebish |first1=Charles S. |title=Buddhism: A Modern Perspective |date=1 November 2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-03803-2 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cILDj-pXQVYC&pg=PA29}}</ref> But from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, several [[Edicts of Ashoka]] (reigned c. 268 to 232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism.{{sfnp|Bary|2011|p=8}}{{sfnp|Fogelin|2015}} Particularly, [[Ashoka]]'s [[Lumbini pillar inscription]] commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace, calling him the ''Buddha Shakyamuni'' ([[Brahmi script]]: 𑀩𑀼𑀥 [[wikt:𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻]] ''Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī'', "Buddha, Sage of the Shakyas").{{efn|In [[Ashoka]]'s [[Lumbini|Rummindei Edict]] {{circa|260 BCE}}, in {{harvtxt|Hultzsch|1925|p=164}}}}{{sfnp|Weise|2013|pp=46–47}}<ref name="Brill"/> Another one of his edicts ([[Minor Rock Edict|Minor Rock Edict No. 3]]) mentions the titles of several ''[[Dharma|Dhamma]]'' texts (in Buddhism, "dhamma" is another word for "dharma"),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of dhamma |website=Dictionary.com |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dhamma |access-date=27 October 2020 |archive-date=25 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125120313/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dhamma |url-status=live }}</ref> establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the [[Maurya Empire|Maurya era]]. These texts may be the precursor of the [[Pāli Canon]].{{sfnp|Dhammika|1993}}<ref>{{cite web |translator-last=Bhikkhu |translator-first=Thanissaro |date=1993 |title=That the True Dhamma Might Last a Long Time: Readings Selected by King Asoka |website=[[Access to Insight]] |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/asoka.html |access-date=8 January 2016 |archive-date=28 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028112019/https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/asoka.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|Minor Rock Edict Nb3: "These Dhamma texts – Extracts from the Discipline, the Noble Way of Life, the Fears to Come, the Poem on the Silent Sage, the Discourse on the Pure Life, Upatisa's Questions, and the Advice to Rahula which was spoken by the Buddha concerning false speech – these Dhamma texts, reverend sirs, I desire that all the monks and nuns may constantly listen to and remember. Likewise the laymen and laywomen."{{sfnp|Dhammika|1993}}<br /><br />Dhammika: "There is disagreement amongst scholars concerning which Pali suttas correspond to some of the text. Vinaya samukose: probably the Atthavasa Vagga, Anguttara Nikaya, 1:98–100. Aliya vasani: either the Ariyavasa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, V:29, or the Ariyavamsa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, II: 27–28. Anagata bhayani: probably the Anagata Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, III:100. Muni gatha: Muni Sutta, Sutta Nipata 207–21. Upatisa pasine: Sariputta Sutta, Sutta Nipata 955–75. Laghulavade: Rahulavada Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya, I:421."{{sfnp|Dhammika|1993}}<br><br> See [https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/asoka.html ''Readings Selected by King Asoka''] for a translation of these texts.}}

"Sakamuni" is also mentioned [[:File:Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho inscription in Bharhut.jpg|in a relief]] of [[Bharhut]], dated to {{circa|100 BCE}}, in relation with his illumination and the [[Bodhi tree]], with the inscription ''Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho'' ("The illumination of the Blessed Sakamuni").<ref name="KTSS80">{{cite book |last1=Sarao |first1=K. T. S. |title=The History of Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya |date=16 September 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-15-8067-3 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5n9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=1 May 2022 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111053951/https://books.google.com/books?id=H5n9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=JL>{{cite book |last1=Leoshko |first1=Janice |title=Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-55030-7 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gS4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |access-date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111053950/https://books.google.com/books?id=gS4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Oldest surviving manuscripts====
The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the [[Gandhāran Buddhist texts]], found in [[Gandhara]] (corresponding to modern northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) and written in [[Gāndhārī language|Gāndhārī]], they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/SALANC.html|publisher = UW Press |title = Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara |access-date = 4 September 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170527215100/https://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/SALANC.html |archive-date = 27 May 2017 }}</ref>

=== Biographical sources ===
Early canonical sources include the ''Ariyapariyesana Sutta'' ([[Majjhima Nikāya|MN]] 26), the ''Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta'' ([[Dīgha Nikāya|DN]] 16), the ''Mahāsaccaka-sutta'' (MN 36), the ''Mahapadana Sutta'' (DN 14), and the ''Achariyabhuta Sutta'' (MN 123), which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The [[Jataka tales|Jātaka tales]] retell previous lives of Gautama as a [[bodhisattva]], and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts.{{sfnp|Schober|2002|p=20}} The ''Mahāpadāna Sutta'' and ''Achariyabhuta Sutta'' both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the [[Tushita|Tuṣita Heaven]] into his mother's womb.

The sources which present a complete picture of the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies from a later date. These include the ''[[Buddhacarita]]'', ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra]]'', ''[[Mahāvastu]]'', and the ''Nidānakathā''.{{sfnp|Fowler|2005|p=32}} Of these, the ''Buddhacarita''{{sfnp|Beal|1883}}{{sfnp|Cowell|1894}}{{sfnp|Willemen|2009}} is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet [[Aśvaghoṣa]] in the first century CE.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Olivelle|first1=Patrick|title=Life of the Buddha by Ashva-ghosha|date=2008|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8147-6216-5|page=xix|edition=1st}}</ref> The ''Lalitavistara Sūtra'' is the next oldest biography, a [[Mahayana|Mahāyāna]]/[[Sarvastivada|Sarvāstivāda]] biography dating to the 3rd century CE.{{sfnp|Karetzky|2000|p=xxi}}

The ''Mahāvastu'' from the [[Mahāsāṃghika]] [[Lokottaravāda]] tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE.{{sfnp|Karetzky|2000|p=xxi}} The [[Dharmaguptaka]] biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the ''Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra'',{{sfnp|Beal|1875}} and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The ''Nidānakathā'' is from the [[Theravada]] tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by [[Buddhaghosa|Buddhaghoṣa]].{{sfnp|Swearer|2004|p=177}}