Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t13.4

v1.c7.s7.t13.4

According to legend, the founder of this faction was Gautama or Gotama, around the 1st century CE. Regarding the life experience of Gotama, considerable components of the available materials people now can see have legend features, so generally it is not very clear. There are many viewpoints about his era. The academic world often compares the contents of his writings with contents of writings of other factions in order to speculate the approximate period of Gotama.