Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.190

c8.190

Could those, who had once been Buddha's teachers, not turn to him as his first disciples, yet the quondam partners of his quest and struggle, those five ascetics, could, who had long vied with him in penances, and had forsaken him when they saw that he gave up the pursuit of salvation by self-mortification (vide antea, p. 107). They are staying at Benares, and our narrative represents Buddha as now wandering thither. It is quite possible that tradition here rests on old and trustworthy memories.* Benares has at all times been regarded by the Buddhists as the town in which the gospel of deliverance was first heard and believed.