Accounts of the life of the Buddha are just fiction Historically we know very little about the Buddha. Even to this very day, debates still occur as to the dates of his life and death,

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Robert Hicks      09/09/05

Homework 3      (AO2)

Accounts of the life of the Buddha are just fiction

Historically we know very little about the Buddha.  Even to this very day, debates still occur as to the dates of his life and death, although most scholars tend to agree that the Buddha lived for around eighty years.

There is archaeological evidence such as, monuments, inscriptions and there are the Sanskrits; this leads me to believe that there is a very distinct possibility of his existence. Most of the accounts of his life are very similar and only alter in certain aspects of the tale and not in the main structure of the story.  There are many many accounts from many parts of the world; I would have thought that there would have been a lot more discrepancies between the differing versions, considering how far apart they may have originated from.

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Like all accounts of history, we depend on information being passed down, mainly through written evidence and tales of myth and legend.  The problem with this is that legends are altered through time, key aspects and facts are changed slightly or sometimes significantly altered (Chinese whisper syndrome).

The myths probably do more damage to the credibility, some of the reports of Siddhattha being born at six months old or his mother becoming pregnant by a six tusked elephant are very hard to stomach.  Although there is symbolic belief; with regards to the elephant being strong, wise, having the ...

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