-Archaeological evidence provides strong empirical proof of the Buddha as a historical figure. -Many of the monasteries and cities mentioned in the Buddha’s discourses have been located. -Buddha relics have been recovered from sited mentioned in the texts. -The independently-dated Buddhist emperor Asoka has carved and inscribed sandstone columns erected throughout his vast empire- a number of which survive to this day- the refer extensively to the Buddha. -There is much circumstantial evidence in the primary texts. -The cohesion and lack of inner contradiction in the Buddha’s discourses together with the likely detailed prescriptions for the ordering of the monastic […]