"Buddha" before the Pali Canon?

[Antoine Leca]

nanda chandran wrote:
>
> Forget Jesus or the Buddha who lived thousands of years back and nothing
> conclusive can be proved - give us an example in the last, say, 500
> years - where a movement has gained as much prominence like Buddhism
> without a founder - a leader who started the movement.

Certainly my examples cannot be compared in importance with Buddhism
(what can in the last 500 years?) However, I believe that while strong
unique leadership is a way to "build" powerful movements, this is not
the only one.

Think about French Revolution at the end of XVIIIth c. C.E.
Certainly there are leaders that can be identified. But saying this
is the job of only _one_ (which one?) is very hard to establish.

More tangential, I am also thinking in the atom revolution during
the first half of the century that is going to end. I believe this
"movement" has changed the way a big number of people are living
these days. Certainly, people like Niels Bohr or A. Einstein or
F.D. Roosevelt, and others I just do not dare enumerating have been
instrumental. However, saying this is the result of the work of one
of them is not a common idea.

A bit earlier in time, and this goes beyond your 500 years limit,
the Christian crusades at the end of the Middle Ages, also cannot
be attribuated to only one leader (even if the pope, Urban III IIRC,
certainly did have a important role; but it had not been sufficient).


Anyway, all of this have little to do with Indology, even at large.
So I do not anticipate to answer any follow-up.


Antoine