ABSTRACT
Buddha was certainly one of the most influential persons ever to have walked the Earth. His teaching blossomed into a tradition that has profoundly shaped the course of human history, and continues to shape it. Various ancient sources give us information about the life of Buddha. The oldest and most important of these is the Pali Canon. Committed to writing in the first century bce, the Pali Canon is a carefully assembled collection of the then-existing scriptural works and traditions regarding Buddha. Before becoming "the Buddha", he was known by his regular family name. Siddhartha was his proper name and Gautama the family name. And even without becoming "the awakened one" Siddhartha Gautama was far from being nobody. Thus did Siddhartha embark upon the second great part of his life. For the next six years he would live the life of a renunciate forest-dweller, a sadhu.
