[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The History of Buddhist Thought](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933) › c19 # The History of Buddhist Thought c19: Chapter XI. Buddha The History of Buddhist Thought c19 - **Language:** English ### Chapter XI. Buddha ### [c19.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.2) BUDDHA was not only “the teacher of the Way” and “the producer of the unproduced Path”: he was for the Buddhist the actuality of the central doctrine, the one who had lived it and reached the goal. Hence everything that we learn in the Scriptures about his personal history is coloured by dogmatic views concerning the nature and destiny of a Buddha and of those acts which were essential steps in his career. The records of personal details which we find in the Scriptures are generally not the Buddha-word but additions due mainly to classes of reciters (\*bhāṇaka\*) of the discourses. The two most important classes were the reciters of the Dīgha and the reciters of the Majjhima, and it is easy to see that they possessed traditions which sometimes became incorporated in the text. We also find divergent traditions, for the Jātaka commentator after telling how the four signs, which appeared to Gotama just before he left the world, occurred on different days, adds, “the Dīgha-reciters, however, say that they happened on the same day.”¹ Evidently unwritten divergent traditions existed. ### [c19.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.3) ¹ Jāt., i, 59. ### [c19.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.4) This is most obvious in the case of the statements attached to each discourse saying where and on what occasion it was given.² Some of these may be genuine records, but the fact that in the case of every discourse the same kind of statement is given makes it probable that many of them rest on surmise. Besides such formal statements we often find complete legends. These are most frequent in the Vinaya, where each rule is furnished with an account of the event which led to its promulgation; but legends of the same kind occur in the suttas, their insertion there being justified by the Buddha-word which they contain. Passages like these make it probable that they were part of a complete legend, but a continuous life of Buddha, except in a very concise form, is not found until long after the close of the Pāli Canon. In several schools the separate legends of the Vinaya were collected to form an avadāna, a complete account of the “heroic deeds” of the Master. In the Mahāsanghika school it was the Mahāvastu. From Chinese sources we hear of several Sarvāstivāda schools which had such a biography, and the Lalita-vistara is probably a Mahāyāna elaboration of a Sarvāstivāda avadāna. All these works conclude with the Enlightenment and the immediately following events of “setting in motion the Wheel of the Doctrine”. ### [c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.5) ² These statements are called \*nidānas\*, and sometimes are merely indicated, e.g. \*Sāvatthī nidānam\* “occasion at Sāvatthī”, or merely “Sāvatthī”, meaning that the whole usual statement about Buddha staying there is to be repeated. The commentator on the \*Buddhavamsa\* draws attention to the fact that this work begins without a \*nidāna\*. ### [c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.6) The Pāli Canon has no such work, but in several commentaries biographical accounts are found. Of these the most important is the Introduction to the Jātaka, the Nidāna-kathā. Its account of Buddha’s previous existences is based on the Buddhavamsa, and the story of his last existence is taken from the commentaries and the Canon. Its special importance is that it shows a definite stage in the growth of the Buddha doctrine, as it can be compared both with what we find in other schools and with the statements in the Canon. Its chief difference from earlier accounts lies in its developed doctrine of the Bodhisatta and his ten Perfections, the ten virtues which he practises during his preparation for Buddhahood. They are mentioned only in the two latest books of the Sutta-piṭaka. ### [c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.7) The author divides his account into three parts, nidānas, the “occasions” or causes which led to the events recorded in the tales. The first is the “distant occasion”, the whole period from the time when Gotama as the ascetic Sumedha saw Dīpankara Buddha, and made the resolution that he would not there and then realize the Doctrine, but would put that aim deliberately aside, and first win omniscience and become a Buddha. He resolved that after having done so he would “embark on the ship of the Doctrine, and take great multitudes across the ocean of transmigration, and then attain Nirvāṇa”. He meditated on the eight conditions for attaining Buddhahood, and especially on the ten Perfections, the ten virtues which Bodhisattas perfectly attain during their career—almsgiving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, exertion, patience, truth, resolution, friendliness, equanimity. Dīpankara prophesied that his vow would be fulfilled, and so did all the succeeding Buddhas, under all of whom he repeated his vow, until he was born as a god in the Tusita heaven. ### [c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.8) Then the second nidāna, “ the non-distant,” begins with his last birth up to his attaining of enlightenment. When the time for his last birth came, he made five great surveys (vilokana), and reflected on (1) the right time, when the age of men is neither too long nor too short for them to reflect on old age and death; (2) the continent, Jambudīpa (India), for only there are Buddhas born; (3) the country, which was the Middle District, and in it was Kapilavatthu; (4) the family, and he chose a kshatriya family, as that was then in greater honour than the brahmin caste, and king Suddhodana would be his father; (5) the mother, queen Māyā, because she was sober and had kept the five lay precepts from her birth. ### [c19.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.9) But Suddhodana was his father only in a legal sense.¹ At the midsummer festival queen Māyā took the eight Uposatha vows of abstinence, and entering her chamber fell asleep and dreamt a dream. In her dream the Bodhisatta in the form of a white elephant appeared to enter her right side. Her dream was interpreted by the brahmins, who said that she would have a son destined to be either a universal king or a Buddha. When the time of his birth drew near, she wished to go to her parents’ home, but on the way she alighted to sport in the Lumbinī grove, and there the Bodhisatta was born. Four Great Brahmās received him in a golden net, and from them the four Great Kings received him and gave him to human beings. Standing on the ground he faced the east, advanced seven steps, and said, “ I am the chief in the world.” ### [c19.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.10) ¹ Though the queen was not a virgin, this is what is generally understood by the term virgin birth. Both in the Mahāvastu (ii, 5) and Lalitavistara (46) she asks the king’s permission to spend the night alone. It is also implied in the Pāli by the fact of her taking the vows. ### [c19.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.11) In the heaven of the Thirty-three the gods were rejoicing at the news. An ascetic named Kāladevala (or Asita), who had acquired the eight Attainments, went up to this heaven and learnt the cause of their rejoicing. Coming down he went to the king’s abode and asked to see the child. The boy was presented to him, and the ascetic, who could remember the future as well as the past, perceived that his own death would take place before the boy became a Buddha. So he smiled and then wept, but he assured the people that it was on account of his own loss.¹ Five days afterwards the name-giving ceremony took place, and the brahmins again prophesied that the child would become either a universal king or a Buddha.² But one of them, Koṇḍañña, prophesied his buddhahood without a doubt. It was he who was the first to be converted by Buddha. The king was told that his son would abandon the world on seeing the four signs : an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a man who had renounced the world, so he set guards to ward off such omens. ### [c19.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.12) ¹ The resemblances of this story to that of Simeon in Luke, ii, 22 ff., have often been pointed out. It is generally admitted to be the most striking of the parallels in the legends to stories in the Gospels. If there is more than a parallel and actual borrowing on the part of the evangelist, the differences need explaining as well as the resemblances—why the ascetic wept and Simeon departed in peace, why the ascetic, who heard the news from the gods in heaven, should have been replaced by shepherds, and why Simeon is only introduced six weeks later, and then not at the child’s house. ### [c19.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.13) ² The name, not mentioned here, was Siddhattha, “ he whose aim is accomplished.” ### [c19.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.14) The rest of this first period consists of his life in his three palaces, his marriage (at the age of sixteen), and his skill and achievements in the arts. The most interesting incident is that of the ploughing festival. While his father with a golden plough was performing the ceremony, the nurses placed him under a canopy beneath a rose-apple tree. They left him, and he immediately sat up cross-legged and attained the first trance. When the nurses returned they found that the shadows of the other trees had moved, but that of the rose-apple tree had stayed. This event is based on a phrase in the Canon (\*Majjh.\*, i, 246), but other accounts place it much later, and one of them puts it on the day before the great Renunciation. ### [c19.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.15) When the gods thought that the time of his enlightenment was drawing near, they sent the four signs. At the sight of the first three he was much agitated in heart, but at the sight of the ascetic he decided to leave the world that very day. On returning from the park in his chariot his father sent the message that a son was born to him. He replied, “ Rāhula is born, a fetter is born,” and Rāhula became his son’s name. He passed in his glory through the city, and a maiden named Kisāgotamī, seeing him from the palace roof, in joy uttered this \*udāna\* : ### [c19.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.16) Happy indeed is the mother, Happy indeed is the father, Happy indeed is the wife, Who has such a husband as he. ### [c19.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.17) The Bodhisatta heard, and thought of the word “ happy ” (\*nibbuta\*, which also means “ extinguished ”). He thought, “ when the fire of passion is extinguished, the heart is happy ; when the fire of hate, the fire of stupidity are extinguished, it is happy ; with the extinction of pride, false views, and all the depravities and pains, it is what is called \*nibbutam\*, happy.” He sent her a precious pearl necklace for having taught him a good lesson. ### [c19.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.18) In the night he awoke to find his dancing girls sleeping round him in disgusting attitudes, and filled with loathing he ordered his charioteer to saddle his horse. He thought he would look at his son, but fearing to awaken his wife, stopped, and left the palace. With his charioteer behind him he fled, crossing three kingdoms until he reached the river Anomā. On the way he rejected the temptation of Māra, who promised him that in seven days he should be a universal king. ### [c19.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.19) He sent his charioteer back with his ornaments and the horse, but the horse died of grief. Cutting off his hair and beard, he received the eight requisites of a monk ¹ from a Mahābrahmā god, and went on to Rājagaha. There king Bimbisāra was so pleased at his behaviour that he offered him entire sovereignty. The Bodhisatta refused, but promised that when he had attained Buddhahood he would come first to Bimbisāra’s kingdom. He then joined Āḷāra Kālāma, but was not satisfied with his method of practising the attainments (of yoga) nor with that of Uddaka Rāmaputta, so he left them, and began to “ strive the great striving ”, the practice of austerities, which he continued for six years. Having carried this out to the uttermost he concluded that austerities were not the way to enlightenment, and began to take solid food again. Then the five monks who had joined him lost faith in him and left him. ### [c19.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.20) ¹ Three robes, bowl, razor, needle, girdle, and water-strainer ; cf. p. 19. ### [c19.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.21) Sujātā, the daughter of a landowner, had vowed to make a thankoffering to a certain god of a banyan tree. That night the Bodhisatta had dreamt five dreams, from which he knew that he would that day win enlightenment. He went and sat under the tree, and Sujātā, thinking he was the tree god, gave him the offering in a golden bowl. This is described in great detail, for it was the only food that he received during the next forty-nine days. After eating it he took the golden bowl (his own had miraculously vanished) and set it floating on the river, saying, “ if to-day I shall be able to become a Buddha, let this bowl go up stream; if not, let it go down stream.” It went up, sank in a whirlpool, and struck the bowls of the three previous Buddhas. ### [c19.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.22) Then he went in the direction of the Bodhi tree. On the way a grass-cutter gave him eight handfuls of grass for the seat. He sat down facing the east with the words, “ may skin, sinew, and bone dry up as it will, my flesh and blood grow dry in my body; but without attaining complete enlightenment I will not leave this seat.” At that time the god Māra, thinking “ Prince Siddhattha wants to escape from my realm, now I will not let him escape”, advanced from the north with his army, which stretched out to the mountains encircling the world. All the gods fled, but the Bodhisatta protected himself by thinking of the ten perfections, which in past lives he had perfectly practised. Māra sent storms of wind, rain, rocks, blazing weapons, charcoal, ashes, sand, and mud, but in vain. Māra then said, “ Siddhattha, get up from that seat, it does not belong to you, it belongs to me.” The Bodhisatta replied, “ Māra, you have not fulfilled the ten Perfections, nor the minor Perfections, nor the supreme Perfections, nor even the five great Renunciations, and other practices. This seat does not belong to you, it belongs to me.” Māra in rage then hurled his wheel weapon, but it became a canopy of flowers, and the Bodhisatta said, “ Māra, who is your witness that you have given alms?” A shout burst forth from Māra’s host, “ I am witness, I am witness.” Then Māra said, “ Siddhattha, who is your witness that you have given alms?” The Bodhisatta had no living witness, but with his right hand he touched the earth and said, “ of my great gift of the seven hundreds in my birth as Vessantara are you witness or not witness?” And the great earth with a roar surpassing the roar of Māra’s hosts, said, “ I was then your witness.” When Māra’s elephant heard the words, “ you gave, Siddhattha, the great gift, the highest gift,” he fell on his knees, and the host fled in all directions. The gods returned and sang a song of victory. ### [c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.23) It was while the sun was still over the horizon that the host was put to flight. In the first watch of the night the Bodhisatta attained the knowledge of his former existences, in the second the divine eye, and in the last the knowledge of Causal Origination. At dawn he penetrated the knowledge of omniscience, and the whole ten thousand world system was illuminated. Amid the wonders that appear when all Buddhas penetrate omniscience he uttered this udāna: ### [c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.24) Through worldly round of many births I ran my course, but did not find, Seeking the builder of the house ; Painful is birth again and again. House-builder ! I behold thee now, Again a house thou shalt not build ; All thy rafters are broken now, The ridge-pole also is destroyed ; My mind, its elements dissolved, The end of cravings has attained.¹ ### [c19.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.25) ¹ This \*Dhp.\*, 153, 154, and according to this tradition they are the first words of the Buddha-utterance. In the \*Vinaya\*, i, 2, another set of verses is given. The commentators record both traditions. Sanskrit accounts give still others. ### [c19.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.26) The last epoch, “the present occasion,” now begins. The next seven weeks were spent by the now Enlightened One (buddha) at or near the Bodhi tree. During the fifth week he sat under the goatherd’s banyan tree, where he was tempted by the three daughters of Māra, Craving, Hate, and Lust, but in vain. In the sixth week a storm arose, and a nāga (snake-king) protected him with his hood. On the forty-ninth day Sakka brought him a fruit and water, and two merchants, Tapassu and Bhalluka, who were passing, brought him food. But he had no bowl, so the four Great Kings brought four sapphire bowls, which he rejected, then four stone ones, which he accepted, and fitted them together so that they miraculously became one. And the two merchants took refuge in Buddha and the Doctrine. ### [c19.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.27) Going to the goatherd’s banyan tree Buddha deliberated whether he should teach the doctrine to others. Then Brahmā Sahampati, thinking that the world would be destroyed, came with a train of gods and implored him to teach. He promised, and thought first of going to his old teacher Āḷāra, but on applying his mind saw that he had died a week before. Then he thought of Uddaka, but he had died the evening before, so thinking of the five disciples who had left him he knew that they were in the deer park of Benares, and decided to “ set turning the Wheel of the Doctrine ” there. When the disciples saw him coming, they decided to pay him no reverence beyond offering him a seat. But Buddha knowing their thoughts pervaded them with love, so that they could not keep their resolve, but showed him all respect. They addressed him by name or as friend, but he explained that he was Sammāsambuddha, the fully enlightened. Then he preached the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, the discourse of setting in motion the Wheel of the Doctrine. Koṇḍañña at once attained the fruit of entering the stream, and the other four on each of the following days. On the fifth day he preached the Anattalakkhaṇa-sutta, on the marks of non-soul, and all attained arahatship. ### [c19.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.28) Afterwards he converted Yasa, a wealthy young man of Benares, and then his fifty-four companions, and when he had passed the period of Retreat, he sent the whole sixty out in different directions on alms pilgrimage.¹ He himself went on to Uruvelā, converting thirty noble youths on the way, whom he also sent on pilgrimage. At Uruvelā he converted the three brothers Kassapa, matted-haired ascetics, with their followers, and took them with him to Rājagaha. There he was honourably received by Bimbisāra, who presented a park called the Veḷuvana (bamboo grove) near Rājagaha for a monastery of the Order. At that time Sāriputta and Moggallāna, two friends who had left the world, were converted, and became the two chief disciples.² ### [c19.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.29) ¹ It does not here actually say preach, but in Vin., i, 21, the words are “ teach the doctrine, good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end in the spirit and the letter ; preach an entirely complete and purified religious life (brahmacariya) ”. ### [c19.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.30) ² Their conversion was due to Assaji, one of the five monks, who repeated to Sāriputta the verse :— ### [c19.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.31) The next spring he visited his father at Kapilavatthu. He was well received, but had to work a miracle in order to ### [c19.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.32) Of things that proceed from a cause Their cause the Tathāgata has told, And also their cessation ; Thus teaches the great ascetic. ### [c19.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.33) This is the famous verse which has been found inscribed in many places in North India. ### [c19.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.34) make the proud Sakyas do obeisance to him. He converted his father and Mahāpajāpatī his aunt; but his wife, who like him had adopted the ascetic dress, refused to go to see him. She said, “ if I have any excellence, my master will come himself to my presence, and when he comes, I will reverence him.” Buddha approved of her wish, went to see her, and she came swiftly, clasped his ankles, placed his feet round her head, and did reverence to him according to her desire. He also converted his half-brother, Nanda, son of Mahāpajāpatī, against his will, and his son Rāhula, and returned to Rājagaha. ### [c19.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.35) At that time a merchant of Sāvatthī, Sudatta, known by his title Anāthapiṇḍika (giver of alms to the unprotected), visited Rājagaha. He was converted, and invited Buddha to Sāvatthī. Then he presented the Order with the monastery of the Jetavana (grove of Jeta) which he purchased by covering the ground with gold pieces.¹ ### [c19.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.36) ¹ According to Vin., ii, 154, a small portion remained uncovered, and was completed by Prince Jeta, from whom the ground had been bought. ### [c19.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.37) Here the Jātaka account ends. The commentary on the Buddhavamsa, commenting on the life of Gotama, gives in almost the same words an account of the period from his decision to be born down to the first sermon, and in the introduction an account of the events from the Renunciation down to his promise to Brahmā that he would preach. Its most important contribution to the legend is the list of places where Buddha stayed on his alms pilgrimages during the first twenty years of his preaching. After that time he stayed at Sāvatthī, either at the Jetavana or at the monastery built by the great lay woman Visākhā in the Eastern Park (Pubbārāma). The importance of this list is that it helps to date a number of legends that occur in the Canon and the commentaries. They have been woven into a continuous legend in the Mālālankāravatthu.² But as the legends, when they occur in the Canon, are without any indication of date, the probability is that their chronological arrangement is due to the author of that list, and that the dates are merely the result of inference. There is a similar Tibetan chronology, but it takes no notice of the permanent residence at Sāvatthī, and the places mentioned show no sort of correspondence. ### [c19.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.38) ² This has been translated from the Burmese by C. Bennett (JAOS., 1853) as “ Life of Gaudama ”, and by Bishop Bigandet as The Life or Legend of Gaudama, 4th ed., 1911. ### [c19.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.39) The importance of these commentarial accounts is due to the fact that we are able to compare them with the Canon, both with regard to the development of the legendary and historical portion, and also (much more important for our present purpose) with regard to the doctrine of the nature of a Buddha. ### [c19.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.40) It is naturally in the distinctly legendary portion of the Canon that we chiefly find biographical matter. The \*Ambaṭṭha-sutta\* (\*Dīgha\*, i) gives the story of the founding of the Sakya clan by the sons of king Okkāka. The \*Mahāvastu\* (i, 348) also gives it, and continues it down to Suddhodana. This continuation occurs in the Pāli only in the commentaries, but it forms a continuous legend, and the portion in the \*Dīgha\* appears to be a piece of the legend inserted by the \*Dīgha\*-reciters. When we come to the birth of Buddha we find, at least in some portions of the Canon, a Bodhisatta doctrine. The \*Mahāpadāna-sutta\* (\*Dīgha\*, ii, 1) tells of six previous Buddhas and of the marvellous events at the birth of a Bodhisatta. These events are also recounted of Gotama himself in the “Sutta of the marvellous and wondrous events” (\*Majjh.\*, iii, 118). The Bodhisatta descends “mindful and conscious” from the Tusita heaven, he stays visible as a thread through a precious stone, is received by the gods at his birth, and his mother dies after seven days. The \*Mahāpadāna-sutta\* also gives the names of his caste, gotra, age, tree of enlightenment, two chief disciples, the number of his disciples, the names of his chief attendant, his father, mother, and city. ### [c19.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.41) In the \*Suttanipāta\* several ballads occur, which were the common property of different schools, the story of the sage Asita’s visit, Gotama’s meeting with Bimbisāra after leaving his home, and his temptation by Māra while practising austerities. This is not the story of the great contest, though this is referred to in the poem. These ballads imply a further extension of literary activity, as they appear to be based on the prose legends already existing in the nidānas of the reciters. ### [c19.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.42) Another incident connected with his birth is the list of the thirty-two auspicious marks on the body. These are given in several suttas. They are said to indicate that their owner will become either a universal king or a Buddha, and they are evidently a case of the widely spread art of fortune-telling by bodily marks, \*angavijjā\*, which is deprecated in the \*Brahmajāla-sutta\*. ### [c19.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.43) There is one reference to Gotama’s luxurious life in his three palaces and a description of his renunciation stated so vaguely that it seems to imply no knowledge of the well-known picturesque legend: ### [c19.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.44) Now before my enlightenment, while yet a bodhisatta and not yet fully enlightened, I thought, oppressive is life in a house, a place of dust. In the free air is abandonment of the world. Not easy is it for him who dwells in a house to practise a completely full, completely pure, and perfect religious life. What if I remove my hair and beard, and putting on yellow robes go forth from a house to a houseless life. Now at another time, while yet a boy, a black-haired lad in the prime of youth, in the first stage of life, while my unwilling mother and father wept with tear-stained faces, I cut off my hair and beard, and putting on yellow robes went forth from a house to a houseless life.¹ ### [c19.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.45) ¹ \*Majjh.\*, i, 240. ### [c19.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.46) Two accounts seem to be here combined, and the latter is not even in harmony with the legend. However, the main dates are given in a verse quoted both by Theravādins and Sarvāstivādins: ### [c19.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.47) At nine and twenty years of age, Subhadra, I left the world, my search for the good pursuing; Now in addition fifty years are over, Since I went forth and left the world, Subhadra. Morality, concentration have I practised, And knowledge, too, with single mind attentive, Preaching the limits of the noble doctrine; Outside the range thereof is no ascetic.² ### [c19.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.48) ² \*Av. Śat.\*, ii, 231; \*Dīgha\*, ii, 151. The Pāli is corrupt and omits lines 5 and 6. ### [c19.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.49) The attaining of enlightenment is told several times in the actual words of the attaining of the four trances and the destruction of the \*āsavas\*, as in the \*Sāmaññaphala-sutta\* (p. 47). It is quite abstractly put, and neither the fight with Māra nor even the tree is mentioned. But in the \*Ariyapariyesana-sutta\* (\*Majjh.\*, i, 160) there is a long piece of narrative, telling how he left his weeping parents, how he visited Āḷara and Uddaka and left them dissatisfied, and how he sought for the peace of Nirvāṇa and attained it. No details of the Enlightenment are given here. The narrative continues with his doubt whether to preach the doctrine, and his consent, which he gave when Brahmā came and implored him, next his intention to preach first to his old teachers, and his visit to Benares, where he found the five disciples, and convinced them that he was an arahat and fully enlightened, but there is no mention here of the so-called First Sermon. ### [c19.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.50) Much of this narrative also occurs in the Vinaya, but there it is in the third person. The Vinaya quotes many sutta passages verbally, and it is unlikely that it would alter the words of the sacred text. It is thus more probable that the story existed first as part of the tradition of the reciters, from where it was inserted both in the Vinaya and the sutta, but in the latter was changed to the first person. Another \*Majjhima\* passage gives an account of the extreme austerities before enlightenment, which appears to have once formed part of the same narrative or the same collection of traditions.¹ ### [c19.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.51) ¹ \*Majjh\*., i, 240; \*Lal\*., 314 (250), gives essentially the same account. ### [c19.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.52) The legend is continued in the Vinaya in connection with the rules for admission to the Order, the conversion of Yasa and his companions, the three Kassapas, Bimbisāra, and the two chief disciples; the visit to Kapilavatthu and the conversion of his family. The most significant of later events are the schism of Devadatta (see p. 24) and the admission of women. In the fifth year Suddhodana died, and his widow Mahāpājāpatī asked permission to enter the Order. Buddha with great reluctance consented, but prophesied that the good doctrine would last only five hundred years, otherwise it would have lasted a thousand.² ### [c19.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.53) ² \*Vin\*., ii, 253; this occurs also \*Ang\*., iv, 274; another case of legends common to sutta and Vinaya. ### [c19.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.54) All the Vinaya narratives are pure legend except where suttas happen to be quoted. The most extensive of the narratives is the \*Mahāparinibbāna-sutta\* (Dīgha, ii, 72). This is properly a legend, not a discourse at all. The only reason why it is among the suttas is that so many discourses in it are given as being uttered by Buddha at different stages of his journey.³ As has been pointed out (p. 29), M. Finot considers it to have been continuous with the legend of the first two Councils in the appendix to the Vinaya.⁴ It tells of Buddha’s journey from Rājagaha to Vesālī and his keeping Retreat there. At the end of Retreat (i.e. in October after the rains) he prophesied his attainment of Nirvāṇa in three months. He then went on by stages to Kusinārā,¹ where his death took place between two sāla trees. These data imply that it took place at the end of December, and this agrees with the statement that the sāla trees were in flower out of season. Later tradition, however, places the day on the full-moon day of the month Vesākha (April–May), which was also the day of his birth and enlightenment. ### [c19.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.55) ³ They have been identified by Rhys Davids in \*Dial\*., ii, 72. ### [c19.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.56) ⁴ This has been practically proved by Dr. Obermiller, who has shown that the two are actually combined in the Tibetan \*Vinaya-kshudraka\*. IHQ., 1932, p. 781. ### [c19.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.57) ¹ It was identified by Cunningham with Kasia in the Gorakhpur District. ### [c19.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.58) The \*Mahāparinibbāna-sutta\* underwent much elaboration in other schools. Several forms of it exist in Tibetan and Chinese. The latter have been discussed by Dr. Przyluski without reaching any definite conclusion as to the historicity.² A shorter form occurs in the Canon itself (\*Samy.\*, i, 157), but this may be an extract and not an earlier form. That the Pāli cannot be an early record is shown by the references to the practice of pilgrimages to the places of Buddha’s birth, his enlightenment, his first preaching, and his complete Nirvāṇa. ### [c19.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.59) ² “Le Parinirvāṇa et les funérailles du Buddha,” \*JA.\*, 1918, i, 485. ### [c19.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.60) These passages show us that when the Canon was closed there was in existence a legend whose main outlines were fixed much in the same form as we now know it. It is unnecessary here to discuss the details of the history. The early period is one which would naturally be less if at all known to the early disciples, and would also lend itself to the activities of devout imagination. For the later period there was continuous memory and tradition, which point to the work and activity of a great religious genius. ### [c19.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.61) There is one legend which has received a quite disproportionate amount of attention, the contest with Māra. In itself it is an important mythological legend, but it is never told in the Scriptures, and is never connected with any point of doctrine. Even in its developed form, as in the Jātaka, it has no doctrinal significance. Gotama there goes to the tree to win enlightenment, and Māra tries to drive him away because the seat is his. He fails to do so because Gotama has kept certain virtues in perfection, and Māra’s host flees. Then Gotama proceeds to meditate and attain complete knowledge. Thus in between the story of his visiting other teachers in his search for the right method with his years of striving and just before his enlightenment comes the fight with Māra without any organic connection. There can be little doubt that the figure of Māra the wicked (\*Māro pāpimā\*) comes from the brahmanic legend of Death the wicked (\*Mṛtyuḥ pāpmā\*).¹ If we knew more of the origin of this legend, the origin of the myth would no doubt be clear. There are other brahmanic legends of fights with monsters, such as Indra with Namuci, and Māra is once actually called Namuci (\*Sn.\*, 439). Whether it was originally a sun myth or a myth of the fight for the tree of immortality is a question for the comparative mythologists.² It is not now the fashion to assume that all the stories told by primitive peoples, which we call myths, were nature-myths. ### [c19.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.62) ¹ J. Scheftelowitz, “Neues Material über die manichäische Urseele und die Entstehung des Zarvanismus,” \*Z. f. Indol.\*, 1926, 317. ### [c19.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.63) ² J. H. C. Kern, \*Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme\* for the former theory. E. Senart, \*Essai sur la légende de Buddha\* for the latter. See also art. “Māra” in \*ERE\*. For the brahminical legend see Scheftelowitz. ### [c19.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.64) There is no evidence that the Buddhists understood it in either sense. They have preserved the story of the fight for the place under the tree, but have not made it an essential part of the story. The figure of Māra was adopted, but his character was changed. He is not merely the god of death, but lord of the realm of sense. That is where the story is made to fit into the Buddhist plan of salvation. Māra says, “prince Siddhattha wants to escape from my realm.” As a personification of lust or craving he appears in the Scriptures repeatedly. The figures in his army are Lusts, Aversion, Hunger and Thirst, Craving, Sloth and Indolence, Cowardice, Doubt, Hypocrisy, and Stupidity (\*Sn.\*, 436). Here we have the personified fetters that every disciple must break in his fight with Māra, lord of the senses. They appear again as the three daughters of Māra: Craving, Aversion, and Lust. In this character Māra appears as the tempter, asking Buddha both before and after his enlightenment to attain temporal dominion or to rely on good works. There is a whole section in the \*Saṃyutta\*, where Māra appears as the tempter of Buddha and the disciples. In scholastic Buddhism he is identified with the fetters and depravities. When the \*Dhammapada\* (40) says “fight Māra with the weapon of wisdom”, the commentator explains, “repel \*kilesamāra\*,” Māra of the depravities, and repeatedly in Abhidhamma greed appears as Māra’s share, Māra’s fish-hook, Māra’s realm. The four Māras of scholasticism are (1) the khandhas, (2) the depravities, (3) the god Māra, (4) death. ### [c19.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.65) As may be seen from the biographical details mentioned in the Scriptures, the Buddhists are more interested in those events of Buddha’s life that have a doctrinal significance than in those which appeal to the historian. A whole sutta is devoted to his conception and prenatal existence, and nothing further except the visit of Asita is told until he left the world. But not all these details can be referred to the state of the legend at one time. When we find him mentioned in some discourses as a great ascetic and teacher without any reference to a former existence or former Buddhas, we seem to have an earlier stage of tradition than that which puts him in the succession of former teachers. This is borne out by the fact that in the four Nikāyas only six previous Buddhas are mentioned. Even this does not appear primitive, but the names are common to all schools. In the Buddhavaṃsa, one of the latest works in the Canon, a list of twenty-seven is given, and under Buddha Dīpaṅkara, the twenty-fourth before Gotama, Gotama is said to have first made his vow to become Buddha. The other schools also mention Dīpaṅkara, but the numbers and names of the others vary considerably. This implies a later and independent growth of the legend. ### [c19.66](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.66) We do not know enough of the historical background of Buddhism to be able to say how the conception of a bodhisatta, a being predestined to buddhahood, began. With the belief in reincarnation the conception may well have originated among the Buddhists independently. But the Jains also have a list of twenty-three leaders preceding Mahāvīra, their last teacher. It is probable also that Mahāvīra’s predecessor, Pārśva, was a historical personage, so that for the Jains there was a starting point for the formation of a series. As both these leaders were earlier than Buddha, there was here also a starting point for a rival series by the Buddhists. It is, of course, possible to suppose that even before Buddha there were traditions of earlier Buddhas, but there was nothing in the texts to support this. The fact that there were stupas to earlier Buddhas in Asoka’s time proves nothing, for the doctrine of earlier Buddhas was then established. The doctrine of a Bodhisatta as a being who acquires six or ten perfect virtues in order to attain Buddhahood is certainly later than the bulk of the Canon. Even the Abhidhamma work \*Puggala-paññatti\*, which describes different characters from that of the vicious man up to the perfect Buddha, makes no mention of the Bodhisatta. ### [c19.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.67) We find descriptions of Buddha in the Scriptures which describe him merely as a great teacher. Not even his royal descent is there mentioned. He is described as one who has abandoned a great family circle, and has gone forth from a wealthy kshatriya family. He is beautiful and virtuous and a great teacher. In the words of the formula to be used when meditating on Buddha he is " the Lord, the Arahat, the fully enlightened, endowed with knowledge and conduct, the Sugata (he who has well gone), knower of the world, the supreme charioteer of men to be tamed, the Buddha, the Lord ". This is not the humanized portrait of a divine being, but an expression of the belief in an historical being, a belief which remained in spite of all the growth in the wonderful qualities that became attributed to him. In the description in the \*Majjhima\* of his attaining enlightenment he is spoken of as acquiring those qualities which any arahat attains. But as Buddha he differs by being the discoverer of this attainment, and the attainment itself implies the possession of marvellous powers far beyond those of ordinary men. The qualities of a Buddha became an increasing list of powers possessed by him alone. ### [c19.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.68) Already the Jains claimed omniscience for their leader. They are said to have held that he was " omniscient, all-seeing, and possessed complete knowledge and insight ; that whether walking or standing, asleep or awake, knowledge and insight were continually present ". This claim is ridiculed by the Buddhists, and the omniscient teacher is described as so ignorant that he goes for alms to a house not knowing that it is empty, or as having to ask his way to a village. Buddha is represented as denying that he claims such omniscience.¹ What he claims is the three knowledges, (1) that he remembers numberless past existences, as far back as he wishes, (2) that with his divine eye he can see beings passing away and being reborn according to their karma, (3) that with the destruction of the āsavas he has of himself attained and realized release of mind and knowledge in this life and abides in it. ### [c19.69](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.69) ¹ \*Majjh.\*, i, 482. ### [c19.70](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.70) These are the knowledges attained by all arhats, differing only in the length of time that they can remember. The question is raised in \*Majjhima\*, iii, 8, whether there is a monk endowed in every way with the qualities that the Lord possesses. The only difference there mentioned is that the Lord was the originator of the Path, the knower of the unknown Path, and the preacher of the Path that had not been preached. There we find the person of Buddha simply described in a way which is sometimes supposed to be a modern rationalized portrait. The special qualities and marvellous powers of Buddha are many, but we can see their growth from simple beginnings. The superhuman qualities ascribed to the arahat were enough to give them a start. We find them already developed in the ten powers (\*bala\*) of a Buddha: ### [c19.71](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.71) (1) He knows what is possible as possible, and what is impossible as impossible. ### [c19.72](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.72) (2) He knows the ripening of karmas, past, present, and future. ### [c19.73](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.73) (3) He knows whither all paths (of conduct) lead. ### [c19.74](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.74) (4) He knows the many and various elements or factors of the world (existence). ### [c19.75](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.75) (5) He knows the various intentions of individuals. ### [c19.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.76) (6) He knows the faculties of other beings, whether quick or slow, etc. ### [c19.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.77) (7) He knows the impurity, purity, and growth of the trances, releases, concentrations, and attainments. ### [c19.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.78) (8) He knows numberless former existences. ### [c19.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.79) (9) With his divine eye he sees beings passing away and being reborn according to their karma. ### [c19.80](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.80) (10) With the destruction of the āsavas he has of himself attained and realized release of mind and knowledge in this life and abides in it.¹ ### [c19.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.81) ¹ \*Majjh.\*, i, 69; \*Dhs.\*, 76; \*Mvyut.\*, 7; commentary in \*Vibhanga\*, 335–344. ### [c19.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.82) The last three of these are the three knowledges of the arhat and are those which Buddha was said to claim when he was asked if he was omniscient (p. 148). Apparently when that sutta was compiled there was no claim to omniscience. ### [c19.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.83) But this quality came to be attributed to him, though not in the form adopted by the Jains. It is found in the latest parts of the Canon, and appears to be a development of the doctrine of the ten powers. How omniscience differs from the knowledge involved in the ten powers is discussed by Buddhaghosa in commenting on the above passage. Other schools, he says, say that the knowledge of the ten powers is not knowledge of particulars, while omniscience is. But Buddhaghosa points out that this is not the principle of division. Through the ten powers Buddha knows each one’s particular duty, and omniscience is everything beyond this. It is ordinary human knowledge infinitely extended, but it is not the knowledge which produces release. By it one might know the trances or the magic powers, but not be able to perform them. One might know the Path, but could not thereby get rid of the depravities. That belongs to the three knowledges of the Path. They are intuitive and direct, and have to be realized. ### [c19.84](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.84) The omniscience attributed to Buddha is not what the Jains claimed for their leader, the view that complete knowledge is continually present, but that Buddha can so direct his attention that anything can come within the “knowledge net” (\*ñāṇajāla\*), the range of his knowledge. Still further classification is found in the scholastic list of the five eyes of Buddha: (1) the eye of flesh, which is keen enough to see to the distance of a league; (2) the divine eye (ninth power); (3) the eye of wisdom (\*paññā\*), which he possesses as the discoverer of the Path; (4) the Buddha-eye, by which he knows the hearts and intentions of individuals (sixth power); (5) the universal eye, or omniscience.¹ ### [c19.85](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.85) ¹ \*Mahānidd.\*, 355. ### [c19.86](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.86) The attributes of Buddha go on increasing, but the development is modified by the rise of the bodhisatta doctrine, so that the whole doctrine is one of the development of an individual from the time when he makes the vow and practises and cultivates for ages all the qualities that finally result in Buddhahood. The further development of the Buddha doctrine must, therefore, be considered along with the teaching concerning a predestined Buddha. ### [c19.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.87) The names and titles of Buddha are many. The \*Mahāvyutpatti\* has a list of eighty-one, many of them being merely poetical epithets. The best known of these is \*Śākyamuni\*, “the recluse of the Śākyas.” His personal name, not found in the Scriptures, is given as Siddhattha (Skt. Siddhārtha), “he whose aim is accomplished.” The name Gotama (Skt. Gautama) is not a personal name, but the name of his clan or gotra, and practically corresponds to a surname. As the Gautamas were a brahmin clan, it has been surmised that in this case the gotra was really that of the brahmin through whom brahmin rites were introduced, just as the neighbouring tribe of Mallas were called Vāsiṣṭhas from another brahmin gotra. The clan name was the usual name of address, unless a title was used, and hence brahmins are represented as addressing him as Gotama. The title used by disciples is Bhagavat, “Lord,” a term used also by the Jains and various Hindu sects for their special deity. The translation “Blessed One” is a mere transference from Christian hagiology. ### [c19.88](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.88) The essential name is Buddha, “the enlightened.” Jina, “conqueror,” is also found, but the Jains have adopted it as the special title of their own leaders. The name Tathāgata occurs as the name by which Buddha refers to himself. The derivation is not quite certain, for it might mean either “thus gone” (tathā-gata) or “thus come” (tathā-āgata), but similar compounds like su-gata (well-gone) and samyag-gata (duly gone) make the former the more probable. The word is quite clear in its literal meaning of “having arrived at such a state”. Patiṃ dṛṣṭvā tathāgataṃ, “having seen her husband reduced to such a condition,” is said of Damayantī in the Mahābhārata. Buddhaghosa analyses the word in both ways, and explains it as “having come (and having gone) like the former Buddhas”, i.e. having acquired the same qualities and performed the same essential actions. But Buddhaghosa goes on to take another meaning of tathā. If a thing is thus or so, it is opposed to what is not so, what is wrong, or perverse, vitatha. Hence an adjective tatha, “true,” has been evolved, and Buddhaghosa, starting from this, finds six other meanings in it. There is no doubt that for the devout Buddhist all the meanings are there. We can, therefore, admit that “he who has won truth” fairly represents one meaning which the later Buddhists found in it, but this meaning has been deduced from tathāgata, and it cannot be proved that this, and not tathāgata, was the original form.¹ There is no doubt that the Mahāvastu (ii, 266) understood it in its primary meaning, where it makes Kāla, the Nāga king, thus address Gotama on the day of his enlightenment: ### [c19.89](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.89) ¹ See Lord Chalmers, JRAS., 1898, p. 113; Mrs. Rhys Davids, translation of Dhammasaṅgaṇi, p. 294. Buddhaghosa’s tatha-āgata is grammatically better, but not more probable. ### [c19.90](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19.90) Even as Krakucchanda goes, Konākamuni, and Kāśyapa, So dost thou go (\*tathā gacchasi\*), O great hero, Buddha to-day wilt thou become. ## Linked texts (28) - [Mahāparinibbānasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.16.5.26.4) — Pāli - [Mahāsaccakasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.majjhima.36.9.1) — Pāli - [Cullavagga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp.khandhaka.cullavagga.10.1.1.1) — Pāli - [Mahāpadānasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.14.1.1.1) — Pāli - [Mahāsuññatasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.majjhima.122.26.6) — Pāli - [Gotamīsutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.anguttara.8.51.1.1) — Pāli - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka) — Pāli - [Vibhaṅga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.ap.vibhanga) — Pāli - [Mahāniddesa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.mahaniddesa) — Pāli - [Mahāvastu](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.mahavastu) — Sanskrit - [Dhammasaṅgaṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.ap.dhammasangani) — Pāli - [Suttanipāta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.suttanipata) — Pāli - [Buddhavaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.buddhavamsa) — Pāli - [Puggalapaññatti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.ap.puggalapannati) — Pāli - [Avadānaśataka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.avadanasataka) — Sanskrit - [Brahmajālasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.1) — Pāli - [Mahāvyutpatti](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.vidya.mahavyutpatti) — Sanskrit - [Sāmaññaphalasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha.2) — Pāli - [Dhammapada](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.dhammapada) — Pāli - [Dhammacakkappavattanasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta.5.56.11) — Pāli - [Anattalakkhaṇasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta.3.22.59) — Pāli - [Dīghanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha) — Pāli - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vinayapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp) — Pāli - [Majjhimanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.majjhima) — Pāli - [Suttantapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp) — Pāli - [Saṃyuttanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta) — Pāli - [Kasia](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kasia) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.thomas-1933.c19) · Pramāṇa