A History of Indian Literature v2.c21.5

v2.c21.5

It is true that we are taking it for granted that Gotama Buddha did really live. R. Otto *Franke* (ZDMG 69, 1915, 455 f.)—like E. *Senart* and A. *Barth* before him—doubts even this, and is of opinion that "the so-called doctrine of Buddha is perhaps only the collection of a bundle of didactic elements from the vast treasury of philosophical thoughts" which came into being in India in the centuries preceding the Christian era. In another passage (OZ 4, 1915-16, p. 10) the same scholar says: "For me Gotama Buddha is not a bit less mythical than his six 'mythical predecessors'"; "Buddha" according to him is but a dogmatical conception, and all the seven Buddhas are but "paradigmata of the dogmatical Buddha," who to him is apparently nothing more than "a form, grown