Manual of Indian Buddhism c4.2

c4.2

The history of Buddha, such as may be extracted from the canonical writings, is so marvellous that all who are standing outside the pale of Buddhism reject, more or less, its truthfulness. A few of the unbelievers have gone to such lengths as to see in that history the remoulding of an ancient myth. Others, less radical, are of opinion that it will be possible by stripping the tale of its miraculous and mythical elements to find out the historic nucleus. Those are apt to believe that by the aid of their critical manipulations they can produce an image which is extremely like the original. Without denying the worth of critical disquisitions or entering into the merits of the different reconstructions of the traditional history, we must limit ourselves in the following pages to a condensed account of the principal feats in the career of the Sublime Being whom all Buddhists acknowledge and revere as their Lord, Bhagavat, as the fountainhead of all Dharmas; who, according to his own words, throughout myriads of ages had prepared himself, out of charity, before becoming a Buddha, to free sentient beings from the misery of existence. The history of that Buddha may be said to be true in an ideal sense. To a certain extent we agree with SPENCE HARDY² that "we must be content with the legend in its received version", though we would not subscribe to what he adds: "with all the accumulations it has gathered in successive ages", because these supposed accumulations are found in the sacred books, which are not separated from the epoch of Nirvāṇa by ages³.