Ancient Sanskrit stories of the life of Prince Siddhārtha described how he abandoned his life as a prince to eventually become Gautama Buddha. As the stories circulated over the course of centuries and were rendered in many different languages, the figure of a wise man who guided the prince’s spiritual development became a prominent element. The basic framework of the stories was constant—a prince, with the guidance of a wise man, chooses a life of enlightenment and piety over worldly wealth and power—but the various…