A Study of Historiographical Characteristics of Buddhism from Western Perspective

Abstract

The Buddhism has been studied and interpreted particularly from socio-religious perspectives in the discipline of history. There is no denying the fact that the Buddhism spearheaded an obvious change in the socio-religious arena in India in the 6^th century BC. It is all but natural that the socio-religious characteristics of Buddhism has remained more important than its philosophical characteristic in historical studies. But it is worth mentioning that the study of philosophical aspects of Buddhism also is very much useful and important in historical studies particularly from the standpoint of historiography. Buddhism as a philosophy puts forward a variety of ideas which are modern and progressive and are very akin to that of ideas and theories advanced in the modern western world by the philosophers like Henry Bergson, Jean-Paul Sartre and Ferdinand de Saussure. Thus by analyzing Buddhism we come across important theories of Humanism, anti-substantialism, causation and theory of meaning which are credited to have contributed to the historical genius in the west. So there is an important need to understand Buddhism from philosophical perspective in historical studies to bring forth its historiographical characteristics. The present paper may be construed as an attempt in this direction.