A History of Indian Literature v2.c21.13

v2.c21.13

In addition to this, the accounts of the Buddhists regarding Gotama Buddha and his contemporaries are in striking agreement with those of the Jainas regarding Mahāvīra, and the two currents of tradition supplement each other.³ Lastly, when we call to mind that it has repeatedly happened in India, down to quite modern times, that founders of a religion or of a religious sect are deified even during their own lifetime, then we can only call it exaggerated, barren scepticism to doubt that Gotama Buddha lived just as certainly as did Keshub Chunder Sen, the founder of the "Brahmo Samaj of India," who died in 1884, and who was worshipped as a deity by some of his adherents as early as in the year 1868.¹