Analysis of Buddhacarita Myth: Exploring Buddhist Mythology and Texts

This paper analyzes the Buddhist text Buddhacarita, focusing on the relationship between the life of Gautama Buddha and the mythology that has developed around him in regions like Nepal, China, Tibet, and India. It applies Bruce Lincoln's theory of myth, exploring how linguistic, social, and political factors contribute to the transformation of stories into mythology. The essay addresses Lincoln's definition of myth, explains how Buddhacarita fits this definition, and identifies the lessons the myth communicates. It highlights the significance of the epic poem, written in Sanskrit, in detailing the expansion of Buddhism across these regions. The paper examines the factors that contribute to the formation of myth, referencing the struggles over authority that give rise to narratives which eventually become accepted as truth.

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1DRAFT
The aim of this paper is to discuss the option 1 which will be analyzing the Buddhist text
Buddhacarita written by Asvaghosa. It will be discussing the relationship between the actual
stories of the life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism with the mythology spread
throughout the regions of Nepal, China, Tibet and India. It will be detailing the factors identified
in the mythologies and the actual stories. It is the process of time that turns the stories into
mythology. The author Bruce Lincoln in his “Toward a Redefinition of History and Myth”, has
pointed out that the struggles over linguistic, social, political and epistemological authority gave
birth to stories which have gradually transformed into mythology making people believe the
truth associated with it. All of these followed the path privileged narrative which was not present
in the time of Greek mythology but came into practice in the 18th and 19th century in the western
countries. He connected he renewed enthusiasm for mythology to nexus of nationalism,
romanticism and the triumphalism.
In this paper, the discussion over Buddhacarita will be done where the epic poem has discussed
the life of Gautama Buddha. This book has been written in Sanskrit and was composed in the
second century CE. This particular poem is written in the form of epic with 28 cantos and the
first 14 is the extant in the Sanskrit yet incomplete poem which represent the religious text from
the region of Tibet and China. This particular Buddhist text mainly details the expansion of
Buddhism in these aforementioned regions.