/lit/ - Literature

>>7504538
The locus classicus for this is What the Buddha thought by Richard Gombrich, its makes the most convincing argument for the authorship of the early textual material being from one single author, the Buddha.

http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/What%20the%20Buddha%20Thought_Gombrich_2009.pdf

Then there is the beast that is Nakamura's 'Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the Most Reliable Texts' (2 volumes). It is massive, but worth a look.

Johannes Bronkhorst has a book called Two meditation traditions in Ancient India, it argues that the major meditation tradition before the rise of Buddhism was Jaina asceticism, that the Buddha practiced and rejected this.

http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_two_traditions_of_meditation_in_ancient_india.pdf

Alexander Wynne has written a text called The origins of Buddhist meditation, he argues, contra Bronkhorst, that the Buddha's main influence was Brahmanic meditation styles taught by the two teacher discussed in the canon (Alara Kalama, Udakka Ramaputta).

http://static.tumblr.com/7fk2aj8/aHEnjyfje/the_origin_of_buddhist_meditation.pdf

Bhikkhu Analayo has been doing comparative studies using the Chinese Agama material and the Sanskrit/Pali Nikaya texts. he has a large collection of papers here:
https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html