Asvaghosa

Classical poem on the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha.

On Gautama Buddha in verse; Sanskrit text with Hindi translation.

"The Buddhist monk Ashva-ghosha composed his elegant biographical and religious poem in the first or second century CE, probably in the city of Ayodhya. Importantly, this is the earliest extent text of the Sanskrit genre of "literature as a fine art" (kavya)." "Fourteen cantos take the reader from the birth of Siddhartha, the future Buddha, to his Awakening when he discovered the truths of Buddhism. The remainder of the composition, lost in the original Sanskrit, is here summarized from its Chinese and Tibetan translations. The most poignant scenes on the young prince's path to Awakening are the three occasions when he is confronted by the realities of human sickness, old age, and death, while at home he is continuously seduced by the transient charms of the women deployed by his father to keep him from the spiritual path." "A creative artist of the highest order, Ashva-ghosha's aim is not pure entertainment but deep instruction. His mission is to present the Buddha's teaching as itself the culmination of the Brahmanical tradition."--BOOK JACKET.

xiii, 208 pages ; 23 cm

Classical verse work expounding the relationship of the spiritual preceptor (guru) and disciple in esoteric Buddhism.

Classical Buddhist treatise on social problem of Indian castes system; critically annotated and edited the root text with translation into Tibetan, English and Hindi.

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Sacred Books of the East includes selections from the Vedic Hymns, Zend-Avesta, Dhammapada, Upanishads, the Koran, and the Life of Buddha, with critical and biographical sketches by Epiphanius Wilson