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Article: Buddha in his time and ours.
- Article from:
- The World and I
- Article date:
- October 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Charles Hallisey is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities in Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University.
Who was the Buddha? Much is assumed in what might seem to be a small choice about the tense of the verb in the question, in saying "who was the Buddha?" instead of "who is a Buddha?" or "who will be a Buddha?" To put the question as "who was the Buddha?" as most modern scholarship does, is to focus our attention on Gautama, the historical figure who lived approximately twenty-five hundred years ago and who founded and inspired the Buddhist religion.
Buddhists across Asia have had a loving interest in Gautama, but they have ...