Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama, in Sanskrit, or Siddhattha Gotama, in Pali, was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism. He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age. The precise nature of such a supreme Buddha - whether "merely" human or a transcendental, immortal, god-transcending being - is differently construed in Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.[citation needed] Theravada tends to view him as a super-human personage of supreme teaching skill and wisdom (uncontactable after his physical death), whereas Mahayana Buddhism goes further and tends to see him as a projection of an eternal, ultimate principle of Buddhahood (see Dharmakaya), present in all phenomena, immortal and transcendent. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE; more recently, however, at a specialist symposium on this question, the majority of those scholars who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death, with others supporting earlier or later dates.

Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni (Skt.; Pali: Sakyamuni; English: “sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were said to have been summarized after his death and memorized by the sangha. Passed down by oral tradition, the Tipitaka, the collection of teachings attributed to Gautama by the Theravada, was committed to writing some centuries later. "Scholars are increasingly reluctant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life and teachings."

The prime sources of information regarding Siddhārtha Gautama's life are the Buddhist texts. The Buddha and his monks spent four months each year discussing and rehearsing his teachings, and after his death his monks set about preserving them. A council was held shortly after his death, and another was held a century later. At these councils the monks attempted to establish and authenticate the extant accounts of the life and teachings of the Buddha following systematic rules. They divided the teachings into distinct but overlapping bodies of material, and assigned specific monks to preserve each one. The teaching was thus preserved orally for three centuries after the Buddha's death when they were finally recorded on palm-leaf scrolls that were arranged in three baskets (Pali: ti-pitaka). By this point, the monks had added or altered some material themselves, in particular magnifying the figure of the Buddha.

The ancient Indians were not concerned with chronologies, being far more focused on philosophy. The Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, and we have a much clearer picture of what the Buddha thought than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which substantial accounts exist.The following is a summary of what is found in these texts.