The History of Buddhist Thought c9.3

c9.3

So far as these traditions preserve doctrinal teaching about the nature and career of a Buddha they are highly important, but it is not until the sacred literature and its doctrines have been examined that their historical elements can be considered. Fragments of biography are to be found in the Buddhist Canon. There we find the teacher represented as wandering from place to place as an ascetic, and claiming to have become enlightened and free from all worldly ties. His disciples, who all follow the same ascetic life, are instructed by him to follow the path which he has discovered and, unlike the priests of the prevailing religion, he also gives moral discourses to lay people. His high birth as a member of the kshatriya or warrior caste is often emphasized, especially in opposition to the brahmins. Several other rival schools are mentioned, the chief being the Nigaṇṭhas, the sect still surviving as the Jains. The sphere of his activity was almost entirely in the Magadha and Kosala country, corresponding to the modern Behar, the United Provinces, and Nepal.