A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s7.7

v2.c19.s7.7

We need only to read the texts, compared by Edmunds,¹ on the miraculous conception and birth of Christ and of Buddha, and the differences become obvious. It is true that there are miracles in both cases; but as the history of religion, mythology and folk-lore teach us, the birth of great men is attended by miracles everywhere. Greek mythology affords far closer parallels to the virgin birth than does the Buddhist legend.² As a matter of fact, Buddha is conceived and born of a married queen, and not of a virgin at all. Again, the texts about the temptation of Buddha by Māra and of Christ by Satan³ show more differences than points of agreement, and the temptation of Zoroaster by Ahriman proves that it cannot be a question of the mere borrowing of texts, but at most a matter of connections in religious history, harking back to far earlier times. Likewise in the legend of the transfiguration of Jesus, as compared with the account in the Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta of the radiance of the Buddha's body, I can see only a striking parallel, of great interest from the point of view of the history of religion, but not a loan from Buddhist literature.⁴