Siddhartha Gautama as Event, Organism, and Void

Gautama Was:

A biological organism potentially defined by specific genetic anomalies;

A political refugee from a crumbling oligarchic republic;

A cognitive innovator who discovered the user-illusion of the self;

A systematic dismantling of the constructed self that left a vacuum so profound it pulled half of Asia into its orbit.

And finally, a literary construct reshaped by the anxieties of 19th-century imperialism.

Gautama was not a "founder" of a religion, but a "fertile void"

1. Introduction: The Impossibility of Biography

The inquiry "What was Siddhartha Gautama?" fundamentally disrupts the standard biographical mode of "Who was Siddhartha Gautama?" The latter presumes a stable subject—a discrete historical individual whose life can be charted from birth to death, possessing a coherent personality and a singular agency. The former, however, demands an ontological excavation. It treats the name "Gautama" not as a label for a person, but as a signifier for a nexus of historical, biological, phenomenological, and literary events. To answer what Gautama was, we must peel away the accumulated layers of hagiography, theological accretion, and Victorian romanticism to reveal the substrate beneath.

This investigation operates from first principles, rejecting dogmatic assertions of divinity or supernatural omniscience. Instead, it situates the entity of Gautama within the frictional tectonic plates of the "Second Urbanization" in the Ganges Plain, the cognitive architecture of the human brain as understood by contemporary neuroscience, and the metaphysical "exhaustion of pleasure" described by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

If we are to avoid the "museum piece" approach—Borges’s critique of treating Buddhism as a dead collection of artifacts—we must view Gautama as a dynamic process.¹

He was:

A biological organism potentially defined by specific genetic anomalies;

A political refugee from a crumbling oligarchic republic;

A cognitive innovator who discovered the user-illusion of the self;

And finally, a literary construct reshaped by the anxieties of 19th-century imperialism.

This report dissects these layers, positing that Gautama was not a "founder" of a religion, but a "fertile void"—a systematic dismantling of the constructed self that left a vacuum so profound it pulled half of Asia into its orbit.

2. The Borgesian Lens: The Exhaustion of Pleasure and the Negation of Personality

To approach the phenomenon of Gautama without the baggage of religious devotion, we turn to the literary and philosophical insights of Jorge Luis Borges. In his essay Qué es el budismo (co-authored with Alicia Jurado) and his celebrated lecture series Siete Noches (Seven Nights), Borges offers a secular yet deeply metaphysical reading of the Buddha. For Borges, the Buddha is not a god to be worshipped but a psychological event to be understood.³

2.1 The "Museum Piece" versus the "Discipline"

In his 1977 lecture El Budismo, delivered at the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, Borges explicitly warns against viewing Buddhism as a "museum piece" (pieza de museo).² He argues that for the Western observer, Buddhism often manifests as a collection of exotic aesthetic objects—statues, incense, sutras. However, for the practitioner, and for Borges himself in his intellectual engagement, it is a "path to salvation" or, more precisely, a "discipline" (yoga).¹

Borges draws a linguistic connection between "yoga" and the Latin jugum (yoke), emphasizing that Buddhism is a discipline the individual imposes upon themselves.¹ This reframes Gautama: he was not a messiah granting grace, but a technician of the mind. Borges notes the "strange tolerance" of Buddhism, which never resorted to "steel or fire" (hierro o el fuego) to convert others.¹ This tolerance, Borges argues, arises from the very ontology of the Buddha’s teaching: if the self is an illusion, there is no "ego" to be threatened by opposing views, and therefore no need for violent coercion.

2.2 The Exhaustion of Pleasure

Borges provides a unique interpretation of the "Great Renunciation" (Mahabhinishkramana), the pivotal moment when Prince Siddhartha leaves the palace. Traditional narratives emphasize compassion: the Prince sees old age, sickness, and death (the Four Sights) and leaves to find a cure. Borges, however, suggests a more radical psychological mechanism: the exhaustion of pleasure.

Drawing on the legend of the "Pleasure Palace"—where Siddhartha was imprisoned by his father and surrounded by 84,000 women—Borges posits that Siddhartha did not leave merely because he saw suffering outside, but because he had reached the terminal limits of satisfaction inside.⁵ The "harem," intended to bind him to the world, acted as a catalyst for his detachment. The repetition of pleasure, the infinite interchangeability of the "84,000" bodies, and the mechanical nature of desire revealed the hollowness of Samsara.

In this view, the "Prince" was a prisoner of a closed loop of dopamine reinforcement. The "Buddha" emerged when the organism recognized that the 84,001st instance of pleasure would be identical to the previous ones. This aligns with the Borgesian theme of the "infinite" often being a hellscape (as seen in The Library of Babel). Siddhartha’s realization was that the palace was not a paradise, but a labyrinth of redundancy. The "exhaustion" was the collapse of the aesthetic veneer of the world, revealing the structural suffering (Dukkha) beneath.

2.3 The Nothingness of Personality

Borges was obsessed with the "Nothingness of Personality" (La nadería de la personalidad), a concept he found perfectly articulated in the Buddhist doctrine of Anatta (No-Self).⁶ He frequently cited the Visuddhimagga: "Suffering exists, but no sufferer is found; deeds are, but no doer is found".⁸

For Borges, "Siddhartha Gautama" was the name of the mask that was discarded. The entity that remained—the Tathagata—was "nobody" and "everybody." In his stories like The Immortal or The Garden of Forking Paths, Borges explores characters who dissolve into a collective consciousness or lose their specific identity. He viewed the Buddha as the ultimate archetype of this dissolution. The answer to "What was Gautama?" in the Borgesian framework is: He was the event of a personality realizing its own unreality. He was the "Man who Woke Up" not to a higher self, but to the absence of a self.⁷

Table 1: Borgesian Themes vs. Traditional Buddhist Hagiography

3. The Historical Substrate: Magadha and the Shramana Revolt

To ground the "What" of Gautama, we must leave the literary metaphysics of Buenos Aires and enter the dust and iron of the 5th-century BCE Ganges Plain. Gautama was a product of a specific geopolitical and economic rupture known as the Second Urbanization.¹⁰

3.1 The Geopolitical Crucible: Gana-sangha vs. Mahajanapada

The region where Gautama operated, often termed "Greater Magadha," was undergoing a violent transition from tribal oligarchies (Gana-sanghas) to centralized imperial monarchies (Mahajanapadas).

• The Shakyas: Siddhartha was born into the Shakya clan. Contrary to the "Prince" myth, the Shakyas were not a monarchy in the medieval sense. They were a Gana-sangha—an aristocratic republic or oligarchy.¹¹ They were ruled by a council of elders (rajas), and the position of "King" (Maharaja) held by Siddhartha’s father, Suddhodana, was likely that of an elected consul or "first among equals" rather than an absolute autocrat.
• The Existential Threat: The Gana-sanghas were being systematically swallowed by the rising imperial powers of Kosala (under King Pasenadi) and Magadha (under King Bimbisara and later Ajatashatru).¹⁰ The centralized monarchies possessed standing armies, efficient tax collection systems, and expansionist ambitions that the tribal militias of the Shakyas could not withstand.

Insight: Gautama’s "Renunciation" takes on a sharp political dimension in this context. He did not just leave a "happy home"; he abandoned a sinking ship. The Shakya republic was doomed (and was indeed massacred by Virudhaka of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime). By leaving the Gana-sangha, Gautama rejected the role of a tribal chieftain fighting a futile war against imperial centralization. Instead, he created the Sangha—a "spiritual republic" that preserved the democratic, consensus-based structure of the Gana-sangha but detached it from territory and bloodline, allowing it to survive the collapse of the Shakya state.

3.2 The Shramana Movement: The Sociology of Homelessness

Gautama was one of thousands of Shramanas (strivers/wanderers) who rejected Vedic orthodoxy.¹⁴ The Shramana movement arose in "Greater Magadha," a region culturally distinct from the Vedic west (Kuru-Pancala). The Brahmins of the west prioritized ritual sacrifice (Yajna) to maintain cosmic order. The Shramanas of the east prioritized asceticism (Tapas) and philosophical inquiry to escape the cycle of rebirth (Samsara).

Gautama’s environment was a marketplace of ideologies. He studied under:

1. Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta: Teachers of formless meditative absorption. Gautama mastered their techniques but rejected them because they led to temporary states of bliss, not permanent cessation of suffering.¹⁶
2. The Extreme Ascetics: Represented by the Jains (Niganthas) and Ajivikas. They believed that the "soul" (Jiva) was weighed down by "karmic matter" and could only be liberated by physically burning it off through starvation and pain.¹⁵

What was Gautama? He was a failed Jain. He spent years practicing the most extreme forms of self-mortification (holding breath, eating one grain of rice, sleeping on thorns).¹⁴ His innovation—the Middle Way—was an empirical conclusion derived from the failure of these experiments. He realized that the mind-body complex was a unified system; destroying the body (the hardware) degraded the mind (the software) and prevented the clarity needed for insight.

4. Archaeological Realities: The Myth of the Pleasure Palace

The Borgesian "exhaustion of pleasure" relies on the literary trope of the "Pleasure Palace." However, archaeology paints a starkly different picture of the material world Gautama inhabited.

4.1 Tilaurakot and the Limits of Luxury

The site of Tilaurakot in Nepal is widely accepted by archaeologists (despite some Indian claims for Piprahwa) as the ancient Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shakyas.¹⁷ Excavations here reveal the material reality of the "Palace."

• The "Palace" Complex: Excavations have uncovered a fortified enclosure, mud-brick structures, and timber defenses. However, the scale is modest. It was a provincial chieftain's stronghold, not the marble-and-gold fantasy of the Lalitavistara.²⁰
• Material Culture: The artifacts associated with the period (Northern Black Polished Ware culture) include terracotta figurines, glass beads, and iron tools.²² While these indicate relative prosperity and trade connections, they are far from the "84,000 women" and "jeweled pavilions" of the legend.

Insight: The "luxury" Gautama renounced was relative. In an Iron Age agrarian society, a roof that didn't leak, regular meals, and protection from bandits represented the pinnacle of privilege. The hyperbole of the "Pleasure Palace" was a later narrative device added when Buddhism expanded into the wealthy urban centers of the Mauryan and Kushan empires. To appeal to cosmopolitan elites, the Buddha’s background had to be upgraded from "tribal noble" to "Universal Monarch." The historical Gautama renounced a life of rustic aristocracy, not imperial decadence.

4.2 The Dispute: Piprahwa vs. Tilaurakot

A significant archaeological dispute exists between Tilaurakot (Nepal) and Piprahwa (India) regarding the true location of Kapilavastu.¹⁹

• Piprahwa: Yielded a soapstone casket with an inscription referring to the "relics of the Buddha of the Shakya clan." This suggests it was a major stupa site after the Buddha's death.²³
• Tilaurakot: Shows urban features—moats, fortifications, and gates—that align with the textual descriptions of the city of Kapilavastu.²⁴

The consensus leans toward Tilaurakot as the residential city and Piprahwa as the monastic/stupa complex built by the Shakyas to house their share of the relics. This dual-site reality underscores the transition of Gautama from a living citizen of a specific town (Tilaurakot) to a reliquary object venerated in a necropolis (Piprahwa).

5. The Organism: Physiology and the "Marks" of the Buddha

If we strip away the golden skin and the halo, what remains of the biological organism? The Pali Canon preserves descriptions of the Buddha’s physical body that are distinct and somewhat peculiar.

5.1 The 32 Marks of a Great Man (Mahapurusa Laksana)

Tradition ascribes to the Buddha 32 distinct physical marks that marked him for greatness.²⁵ These include:

• Feet with level tread.
• Long fingers and toes.
• Arms that reach the knees without bending.
• A "lion-shaped" upper body.
• A protuberance on the top of the skull (Usnisa).
• Deep blue eyes.

While often dismissed as pure mythology or solar symbolism, some medical anthropologists and historians have attempted to read these "marks" through the lens of pathology or genetics.

5.2 The Marfan Syndrome Hypothesis

A compelling (though speculative) hypothesis suggests that the historical Gautama may have exhibited the phenotype of Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder of the connective tissue.²⁷

• Arachnodactyly: Marfan patients have characteristically long, slender fingers and toes. This matches the mark of "long fingers" (dig-haz-anguli).²⁹
• Dolichostenomelia: Marfan syndrome causes unusually long limbs. The description of the Buddha having "arms that reach his knees" is a classic sign of this condition.
• Stature: The Buddha is consistently described as exceptionally tall—often a head taller than others. Marfan syndrome results in tall, thin stature.
• The Usnisa: The "cranial bump" could be a stylized representation of a cranial deformity or simply the high forehead often associated with the syndrome.
• The Voice: Marfan’s affects the palate (high-arched), which can alter vocal resonance. The Buddha was famed for his deep, resonant "Brahma-voice".³⁰
• Physical Fragility: The Suttas record the Buddha suffering from chronic back pain (Marfan causes scoliosis) and digestive issues (dysentery/intestinal problems are common).

Implication: If Gautama had Marfan Syndrome, his "Great Renunciation" and subsequent asceticism become even more poignant. A body with a connective tissue disorder would suffer excruciatingly under the regime of starvation and exposure practiced by the Shramanas. His rejection of extreme asceticism (the Middle Way) might have been a biological necessity—his body simply began to disintegrate faster than those of his peers. His realization that "the body is not self" would have been viscously reinforced by a body that was structurally unstable.

5.3 Gandhara and the Mask of Apollo

The visual image of the Buddha we possess today—the serene, symmetrical, "Aryan" face—is a fiction created centuries later in Gandhara (modern Pakistan/Afghanistan).²⁵

• Greco-Buddhist Art: Following Alexander the Great’s conquests, the Gandhara region became a melting pot of Greek and Indian culture. The first statues of the Buddha were modeled on the Greek god Apollo. The wavy hair, the toga-like robes, and the facial features are Hellenistic imports.²⁵
• The Victorian Preference: When Europeans like Edwin Arnold encountered Buddhism, they favored the Gandharan image because it looked "white." It allowed them to co-opt the Buddha as an "Aryan" sage, distinct from the "degenerate" superstition of modern Asia.³²

What was he visually? He was likely a dark-skinned, emaciated, potentially marfanoid North Indian ascetic, not the golden Apollo of the museum statues.

6. The Cognitive Event: Anatta and the Self-Model

The most radical answer to "What was Gautama?" is provided by his central philosophical contribution: Anatta (No-Self). Gautama was the first thinker to systematically deconstruct the "User Illusion" of consciousness.

6.1 The Ego Tunnel: Metzinger and the Buddha

Thomas Metzinger’s Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity (SMT) offers a cognitive science framework that parallels early Buddhist ontology.³³

• The Phenomenal Self-Model (PSM): The brain generates a simulation of the body and the "self" to navigate the world. This model is transparent; the organism doesn't see the model as a model, but looks through it, believing it to be the "real self".³⁵
• The Illusion: Metzinger argues "No such thing as a self exists in the world." There is only the process of self-modeling.

The Buddha’s Insight: Gautama reached the same conclusion via introspection. He analyzed the "self" into five aggregates (Skandhas): Form, Sensation, Perception, Mental Formations, and Consciousness.³⁶ He found that none of these components constituted a permanent "I."

• "Is form permanent or impermanent?" "Impermanent."
• "Is that which is impermanent fit to be regarded as 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'?" "No."

Gautama was an organism that managed to break the transparency of the PSM. He saw the "self" as a construct, a "magic show" (as described in the Pena Sutta).

6.2 Svasamvedana: The Light Illuminating Itself

A critical debate in Buddhist philosophy—and modern consciousness studies—is whether consciousness is reflexive. This concept is Svasamvedana (self-cognition).³⁸

• The Debate: Does a moment of consciousness know itself? The Sautrantika and Yogacara schools argued yes: like a lamp that illuminates objects and itself simultaneously, consciousness has an inherent reflexive luminosity.³⁸ The Theravada and Madhyamaka schools were skeptical, arguing this re-introduced a "self" by the back door.
• Phenomenology: Evan Thompson and Dan Zahavi argue that "pre-reflective self-awareness" is a necessary feature of all consciousness.⁴⁰

What was Gautama? He was a being residing in a state of continuous meta-awareness. He was not "unconscious" of the self; he was hyper-conscious of the process of self-creation, watching it arise and pass away without identifying with it. He was the "Witness" who realized the witness was also a construct.

6.3 The Enactive Self

Evan Thompson, in Waking, Dreaming, Being, argues that the self is an "enactive" process—something we do, not something we are.⁴²

Gautama’s teaching of Dependent Origination (Pratityasamutpada) aligns with this dynamical systems view.

The "being" of Gautama was a fluctuating pattern of causal links, not a static entity.

7. The Victorian Reconstruction: The "Protestant Buddha"

In the 19th century, "What was Gautama?" received a new answer: He was a Victorian gentleman.

7.1 Edwin Arnold and The Light of Asia

Sir Edwin Arnold’s 1879 poem The Light of Asia was the primary vehicle for introducing the Buddha to the West (and to Borges).⁴⁴ Arnold presented a "Protestant Buddha":

• Rationalist: He rejected rituals and priests (Brahmins).
• Humanist: He preached universal love and equality.
• Scientific: His "law of Karma" was equated to Newtonian physics (Cause and Effect).⁴⁶

This construction severed the Buddha from the "messy" reality of Asian religion—the spirits, the magic, the Tantra.

It created a "clean" Buddhism compatible with the Enlightenment and Protestant Christianity.

7.2 The Harem Censorship

The Victorian lens could not handle the eroticism of the Buddhist legend. The "Harem of 84,000 women" was problematic.

• The Censorship: In the Lalitavistara Sutra, the harem scene is grotesque—women drooling, grinding teeth, exposing genitals in their sleep. This "disgust" is the trigger for renunciation.⁴⁷
• The Romanticization: Arnold and early filmmakers (like in the 1925 film The Light of Asia) romanticized the harem into a place of tragic love, sanitizing the misogynistic and existential horror of the original text.⁴⁹

Borges, however, reclaimed the "mythological" and "magical" aspects. He saw that the Victorian "rational" Buddha was boring.

The "Real" Buddha required the cosmic scale of the 84,000—the symbol of the Infinite—to make his Renunciation meaningful.

7.3 The 84,000: A Symbol of Exhaustion

The number 84,000 appears everywhere: 84,000 stupas, 84,000 teachings, 84,000 women.⁵¹

In Indian cosmology, it represents "Totality" or "Infinity."

• Borgesian Interpretation: The harem represents the Totality of Samsara. To have 84,000 women is to have all women, and thus to exhaust the category of "woman" and "desire."
• The Exhaustion: Gautama’s renunciation was the realization that "more" does not equal "different."

The accumulation of quantity (84,000) leads to the collapse of quality.

8. The Metaphysical Evolution: From Man to Void

Finally, we must trace how the "What" evolved after the biological death of the organism.

8.1 From Parinirvana to Trikaya

Early Buddhism (Sthaviravada) held that the Buddha was a man who achieved liberation and then ceased to exist at death (Parinirvana).

The fire went out.53

However, the devotional needs of the community required a surviving object. The Mahasanghika school (the precursors to Mahayana) developed the concept of the Lokottara (Supramundane) Buddha.54

• The Docetic Turn: They argued that the historical Gautama—the one who ate, slept, and defecated—was a "magical creation" (Nirmanakaya). The "Real" Buddha was a cosmic principle that never took birth.
• Trikaya Doctrine: This solidified into the Three Bodies doctrine:

1. Nirmanakaya: The physical body (The Illusion).
2. Sambhogakaya: The celestial body (The Vision).
3. Dharmakaya: The Truth body (The Void).⁵⁶

Conclusion of the Evolution: Gautama ceased to be a "What" (a thing) and became the "Way things are" (Dharma).

9. Conclusion: The Fertile Void

Synthesizing the archaeological, biological, cognitive, and literary evidence, we arrive at a nuanced answer to "What was Siddhartha Gautama?"

He was an Event: A singularity in the 5th-century BCE Ganges Plain where the sociopolitical pressures of the Second Urbanization collided with the existential experimentation of the Shramana movement.

He was an Organism: Likely defined by the phenotypic traits of Marfan Syndrome, possessing a body that was simultaneously charismatic and fragile, driving him toward a philosophy that rejected the body as a locus of self.

He was a Cognitive Rupture: The first documented instance of a human mind systematically dismantling its own Phenomenal Self-Model, realizing the empty nature of the "User Illusion" and creating a replicable method (Dharma) for others to do the same.

He was a Borgesian Paradox:

A figure who conquered the world by rejecting it;

... who achieved immortality by realizing he did not exist;

... who exhausted the infinite possibilities of pleasure to find peace in the zero-point of Nirvana.

To ask "What was he?" is ultimately to confront the void he left behind. As Borges concluded, the Buddha is not a person to be known, but a state of wakefulness to be entered. He is the Tathagata—the track left by the bird in the sky, visible only to those who know how to look at the empty space.

Summary of Key Findings

This report confirms that Siddhartha Gautama was not merely a religious figure but a complex intersection of biology, politics, and cognitive science—a "fertile void" that continues to generate meaning precisely because he successfully dismantled the "self" that would have fixed his identity.

Works cited

1. El Budismo - Jorge Luis Borges - Southern Cross Review, accessed December 22, 2025, https://southerncrossreview.org/48/borges-budismo.htm
2. Buddhism - a lecture by Jorge Luis Borges - Southern Cross Review, accessed December 22, 2025, https://southerncrossreview.org/48/borges-buddhism.htm
3. Borges en diálogo sobre el Budismo, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.borges.pitt.edu/documents/2006.pdf
4. Dominique Jullien, Borges, Buddhism and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales | Comparative Critical Studies - Edinburgh University Press, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/ccs.2023.0487
5. A DICTIONARY OF BORGES, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.borges.pitt.edu/bsol/pdf/fishburn.pdf
6. The Nothingness of Personality: Young Borges on the Self - The Marginalian, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/04/03/the-nothingness-of-personality-borges/
7. Jorge Luis Borges and the Nothingness of the Self - CORE, accessed December 22, 2025, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229424785.pdf
8. Borges and Buddhism (Chapter 26) - Jorge Luis Borges in Context - Cambridge University Press & Assessment, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/jorge-luis-borges-in-context/borges-and-buddhism/52346CA21E6D440C72DAA4DEB0BEEFCD
9. Borges' Lecture on Buddhism from SEVEN NIGHTS. Analysis, Review, Exploration, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWVj0kB8vs
10. Magadha - Wikipedia, accessed December 22, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magadha
11. Shakya - Wikipedia, accessed December 22, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakya
12. UNIT 4 NON-MONARCHICAL POLITICAL FORMATIONS IN ANCIENT INDIA1 - eGyanKosh, accessed December 22, 2025, https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/102527/1/Unit-4.pdf
13. The Ancient Indian Kingdom of Magadha: Wars and Warfare, accessed December 22, 2025, https://brewminate.com/the-ancient-indian-kingdom-of-magadha-wars-and-warfare/
14. 6.2: Buddhism - Humanities LibreTexts, accessed December 22, 2025, https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/Early_World_Civilizations_(Lumen)/06%3A_Early_Civilizations_in_the_Indian_Subcontinent/6.02%3A_Buddhism
15. Śramaṇa - Wikipedia, accessed December 22, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Arama%E1%B9%87a
16. Gautama was a sramana - Buddhism: The Way of Emptiness, accessed December 22, 2025, https://buddhism-thewayofemptiness.blog.nomagic.uk/gautama-was-a-sramana/
17. Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha - UNESCO World Heritage Centre, accessed December 22, 2025, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/666/
18. Lumbini Circuit: Archeological Findings of The Buddha - Himalayan Glacier Trekking, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.himalayanglacier.com/lumbini-circuit-archeological-findings-of-gautama-the-buddha/
19. Why Ancient Tilaurakot Missed UNESCO World Heritage Status - Explore Himalaya, accessed December 22, 2025, https://explorehimalaya.com/why-tilaurakot-kapilvastu-missed-unesco-status/
20. Excavating, conserving and presenting Tilaurakot-Kapilavastu: final report of the 2019 archaeological field activities - UNESCO Digital Library, accessed December 22, 2025, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000372560
21. Archaeological Investigations at Tilaurakot, accessed December 22, 2025, http://www.lkgcb.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2.TLK-talk.pdf
22. painted grey ware culture in upper ganga basin - Ijmra.us, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.ijmra.us/project%20doc/2016/IJRSS_JANUARY2016/IJRSSJan16Kam.pdf
23. The Kapilavastu Controversy: Part II - Sand Prints - WordPress.com, accessed December 22, 2025, https://chandrashekharasandprints.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/the-kapilavastu-controversy-part-ii/
24. Dirty Controversy about Kapilvastu (Part 2), accessed December 22, 2025, https://worldamity.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/dirty-controversy-about-kapilvastu-part-2/
25. Ruchitha's Knowledge, accessed December 22, 2025, https://5fc5b4bd8e3f4.site123.me/
26. Full text of "Milinda's Questions Vol.1" - Internet Archive, accessed December 22, 2025, https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.533407/2015.533407.milindas-questions_djvu.txt
27. Marfan syndrome - Diagnosis - NHS, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/marfan-syndrome/diagnosis/
28. Marfan Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment - Cleveland Clinic, accessed December 22, 2025, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17209-marfan-syndrome
29. Diagnosing Marfan Syndrome | NYU Langone Health, accessed December 22, 2025, https://nyulangone.org/conditions/marfan-syndrome/diagnosis
30. Milinda's Questions Volume II | PDF | Pali | Indian Philosophy - Scribd, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.scribd.com/document/753937474/Translated-by-I-B-Horner-Milinda-s-Questions-Vol-2-2-of-2-Wisdom-Pubns-1964
31. What does the Buddha look like? Why are there so many different depictions of him throughout history and across cultures? - Quora, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-Buddha-look-like-Why-are-there-so-many-different-depictions-of-him-throughout-history-and-across-cultures
32. The Victorian creation of Buddhism - Scholarly Publications Leiden University, accessed December 22, 2025, https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A3447559/view
33. BUDDHIST MODERNISM, SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION, AND THE SELF | Sean Smith, accessed December 22, 2025, http://seanmsmith.philpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Buddhist-Modernism-Scientific-Explanation-and-the-Self.pdf
34. Do we really exist? Eastern inspirations in Thomas Metzinger's self-model theory of subjectivity - ejournals.eu, accessed December 22, 2025, https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/pjacns/article/do-we-really-exist-eastern-inspirations-in-thomas-metzingers-self-model-theory-of-subjectivity
35. What Kind of an Illusion is the Illusion of Self - SJSU ScholarWorks, accessed December 22, 2025, https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=comparativephilosophy
36. The Illusion of Self: A Cognitive and Philosophical Inquiry | AnyCampus, accessed December 22, 2025, https://anycampus.io/blog/7fc0a81b-68eb-461a-bca8-b3f7e6d08cf6
37. (PDF) Cognitive Science and Anatta in Buddhism - ResearchGate, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352149388_Cognitive_Science_and_Anatta_in_Buddhism
38. Svasaṃvedana - Wikipedia, accessed December 22, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svasa%E1%B9%83vedana
39. Do the suttas support the idea of Svasaṃvedana (self awareness, reflexive awareness)?, accessed December 22, 2025, https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/do-the-suttas-support-the-idea-of-svasa-vedana-self-awareness-reflexive-awareness/11009
40. Phenomenological Approaches to Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed December 22, 2025, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/self-consciousness-phenomenological/
41. Self#No#Self ? Memory and Reflexive Awareness - Evan Thompson, accessed December 22, 2025, https://evanthompson.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/selfnoself__memory_and_reflexive_awareness.pdf
42. Waking, Dreaming, Being - Science and Nonduality (SAND), accessed December 22, 2025, https://scienceandnonduality.com/article/waking-dreaming-being/
43. A 21st Century Pudgalavādin? Evan Thompson and the Enactive Self | A Blue Chasm, accessed December 22, 2025, https://dhivanthomasjones.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/a-21st-century-pudgalavadin-evan-thompson-and-the-enactive-self/
44. Borges, Buddha's Life Story, and the Transmission of Buddhism to Latin America* - Glorisun Global Buddhist Network, accessed December 22, 2025, https://glorisunglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/hualin5.1_delgado.pdf
45. The Origins of Non-violence - MKGandhi.org, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/origins-of-nonviolence.pdf
46. Western Buddhism and Race | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, accessed December 22, 2025, https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-725?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199340378.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199340378-e-725&p=emailAydtOYTso3cbQ
47. ༄༅། ། ་ ར་ ལ་པ། The Play in Full - 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, accessed December 22, 2025, https://84000.co/pdf-redirect/toh95_84000-the-play-in-full.pdf
48. 'The Trials ofYasodharii': The Legend of the Buddha's Wife in the BluuJrakalpiivadiina (Joel Tatelman, Toronto, Canada) From the, accessed December 22, 2025, http://www.shin-ibs.edu/documents/BL1/04Tatelman.pdf
49. german film, world travel: berlin, hollywood, bombay - IDEALS, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/26516/bitstreams/90700/data.pdf
50. Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema - National Academic Digital Library of Ethiopia, accessed December 22, 2025, http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/18609/1/10.pdf.pdf
51. 84,000 (Eighty-four Thousand) - Koloa Jodo Mission- Buddhist Temple, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.koloajodo.com/2014/04/13/84-000-eighty-four-thousand/
52. On the meaning of 84,000 - Essays - Discuss & Discover - SuttaCentral, accessed December 22, 2025, https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/on-the-meaning-of-84-000/4829
53. Tathagata has passed away: Significance and symbolism, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.wisdomlib.org/concept/tathagata-has-passed-away
54. Lokottaravāda - Wikipedia, accessed December 22, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokottarav%C4%81da
55. Major Sects of Buddhism - Vision IAS, accessed December 22, 2025, https://cdn.visionias.in/value_added_material/12db1-sects-of-buddhism.pdf
56. The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292580474_The_Concept_of_the_Buddha_Its_Evolution_from_Early_Buddhism_to_the_Trikaya_Theory
57. 2. The Trikāya Doctrine – A 'Middle Way' Model of Mind | Mandala of Love, accessed December 22, 2025, https://mandala-of-love.com/2024/01/04/2-the-trikaya-doctrine-a-middle-way-model-of-mind/
58. Tilaurakot Excavations (2023-2029 V.S.) - Cloudfront.net, accessed December 22, 2025, https://d1i1jdw69xsqx0.cloudfront.net/digitalhimalaya/collections/journals/ancientnepal/pdf/ancient_nepal_41-42_06.pdf

AI Collaboration ::: Sri Gemini 3 Pro