The Buddha Through Yasodhara’s Eyes

The Buddha-biography does not have a fixed narrative, with one exclusive authoritative rendition, but pulsates with energy, as each community tells the story again in their own way. These many tellings need not always be told from the Buddha’s perspective. Yasodhara, in particular, has received attention from many Buddhist writers. Telling her story may be counted as one of the classical methods for bringing the Buddha’s story to life. In the following article, I reflect on some of my own experiences with writing the Buddha’s story, as I examined his narrative from Yasodhara’s fictionalised point of view. I argue that, while we rely on a number of excellent academic methodologies to do our work, the one method scholars rarely attempt is that of trying to write the story ourselves. My own experiences, however, have shown me how much there is to learn when we become the storyteller.