We know of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni, through references to episodes from his life in fragments found in the Pāli Canon. Over time, legendary aspects were added, giving rise to allegorical biographies in writings dating from the early years of the Common Era, such as the Mahāvastu, Lalitavistara, Nidānakathā or the famous Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoşa (a work of which 13 cantos in Sanskrit are conserved and which has survived in its entirety in Chinese and Tibetan translations). The Jataka tales, stories about the Buddha’s previous incarnations that teach how past actions condition future lives, became very popular and inspired much of Buddhist iconography.

Some of the scenes from the life of the Buddha most commonly depicted in Buddhist art are: Siddhartha’s miraculous birth; his four encounters with the old age, sickness, death and equanimity of the ascetic; his flight from the palace and the start of his life as a renunciant; when he accepts food and is abandoned by his companions; his meditation and awakening under the peepul tree; his struggle with death (Māra); the first sermon he delivered in Varanasi, which set in motion the wheel of the Dharma; and his death, or parinibbana (in Pali, ‘complete nirvana’).