The Sanskrit Epics, page 922
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BOOK 13. ANUSASANA PARVA
SECTION I
SECTION II
SECTION III
SECTION IV
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SECTION VII
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BOOK 14. ASWAMEDHA PARVA
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BOOK 15. ASRAMAVASIKA PARVA
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BOOK 16. MAUSALA PARVA
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BOOK 17. MAHAPRASTHANIKA PARVA
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BOOK 18. SVARGAROHANIKA PARVA
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MAHABHARATA: DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS
Other Sanskrit Epics
Lumbini, Nepal — a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Province No. 5 in Nepal. According to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) at Lumbini in 563 BC.
Buddhacharita by Asvaghosa
Translated by E. B. Cowell
One of the finest works of Buddhist literature, Buddhacarita, an epic poem detailing the life of the Buddha, was composed by the Sanskrit poet Aśvaghoṣa, who lived in northern India in the first to second century AD. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist and is regarded as the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. Aśvaghoṣa was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivalled the contemporary Ramayana. Whereas much of Buddhist literature prior to the time of Aśvaghoṣa had been composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Aśvaghoṣa wrote in Classical Sanskrit.
The poet fashioned a loving account of the Buddha’s life and teachings, which is both artistically arranged and restrained in its description of miracles. Buddhacarita also reflects a vast knowledge of Indian mythology and of pre-Buddhist philosophies, revealing a court poet’s interest in love, war and statecraft. Only the first half of the text remains intact in Sanskrit, yet all 28 chapters are preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translations, dating from the fifth century.
A statue of the Buddha from Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India, fourth century AD
Buddha’s First Sermon, India, eleventh century
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
BOOK XIII.
BOOK XIV.
BOOK XV.
BOOK XVI.
BOOK XVII.
Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India, where Gautama Buddha attained nirvana under the Bodhi Tree
Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, India, site of the first teaching of the Buddha in which he taught the Four Noble Truths to his first five disciples
Mulagandhakuti, remains of Buddha’s hut in Jetavana Monastery, Shravasti, India, where the Buddha delivered the majority of his discourses
INTRODUCTION.
THE SANSKRIT TEXT of the Buddha-karita was published at the beginning of last year in the ‘Anecdota Oxoniensia,’ and the following English translation is now included in the series of ‘Sacred Books of the East.’ It is an early Sanskrit poem written in India on the legendary history of Buddha, and therefore contains much that is of interest for the history of Buddhism, beside its special importance as illustrating the early history of classical Sanskrit literature.
It is ascribed to Asvaghosha; and, although there were several writers who bore that name, it seems most probable that our author was the contemporary and spiritual adviser of Kanishka in the first century of our era. Hiouen Thsang, who left India in A. D. 645, mentions him with Deva, Nâgârguna, and Kumarâlabdha, ‘as the four suns which illumine the world;’ but our fullest account is given by I-tsing, who visited India in 673. He states that Asvaghosha was an ancient author who composed the Alamkâra-sâstra and the Buddha-karita-kâvya, — the latter work being of course the present poem. Beside these two works he also composed the hymns in honour of Buddha and the three holy beings Amitâbha, Avalokitesvara, and Mahâsthâma, which were chanted at the evening service of the monasteries. ‘In the five countries of India and in the countries of the Southern ocean they recite these poems, because they express a store of ideas and meaning in a few words.’ A solitary stanza (VIII, 13) is quoted from the Buddha-karita in Râyamukuta’s commentary on the Amarakosha I, I. I, 2, and also by Uggvaladatta in his commentary on the Unâdi-sûtras I, 156; and five stanzas are quoted as from Asvaghosha in Vallabhadeva’s Subhâshitâvali, which bear a great resemblance to his style, though they are not found in the extant portion of this poem.
The Buddha-karita was translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksha in the fifth century, and a translation of this was published by the Rev. S. Beal in the present series; it was also translated into Tibetan in the seventh or eighth century. The Tibetan as well as the Chinese version consists of twenty-eight chapters, and carries down the life of Buddha to his entrance into Nirvâna and the subsequent division of the sacred relics. The Tibetan version appears to be much closer to the original Sanskrit than the Chinese; in fact from its verbal accuracy we can often reproduce the exact words of the original, since certain Sanskrit words are always represented by the same Tibetan equivalents, as for instance the prepositions prefixed to verbal roots. I may here express an earnest hope that we may still ere long have an edition and translation of the Tibetan version, if some scholar can be found to complete Dr. Wenzel’s unfinished labour. He had devoted much time and thought to the work; I consulted him in several of my difficulties, and it is from him that I derived all my information about the Tibetan renderings. This Tibetan version promises to be of great help in restoring the many corrupt readings which still remain in our faulty Nepalese MSS. Only thirteen books of the Sanskrit poem claim to be Asvaghosha’s composition; the last four books are an attempt by a modern Nepalese author to supply the loss of the original. He tells us this honestly in the colophon,— ‘having searched for them everywhere and not found them, four cantos have been made by me, Amritânanda, — the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth.’ He adds the date 950 of the Nepalese era, corresponding to 1830 A. D.; and we have no difficulty in identifying the author. Râgendralâl Mitra in his ‘Nepalese Buddhist Literature’ mentions Amritânanda as the author of two Sanskrit treatises and one in Newârî; he was probably the father of the old pandit of the Residency at Kâtmându, Gunânanda, whose son Indrânanda holds the office at present. Dr. D. Wright informs me that the family seem to have been the recognised historians of the country, and keepers of the MS. treasures of sundry temples. The four books are included in this translation as an interesting literary curiosity. The first portion of the fourteenth book agrees partly with the Tibetan and Chinese, and Amritânanda may have had access to some imperfect copy of this portion of the original; but after that his account is quite independent, and has no relation to the two versions.
In my preface to the edition of the Sanskrit text I have tried to show that Asvaghosha’s poem appears to have exercised an important influence on the succeeding poets of the classical period in India. When we compare the description in the seventh book of the Raghuvamsa of the ladies of the city crowding to see prince Aga as he passes by from the Svayamvara where the princess Bhogyâ has chosen him as her husband, with the episode in the third book of the Buddha-karita (slokas 13-24); or the description of Kâma’s assault on Siva in the Kumârasambhava with that of Mâra’s temptation of Buddha in the thirteenth book, we can hardly fail to trace some connection. There is a similar resemblance between the description in the fifth book of the Râmâyana; where the monkey Hanumat enters Râvana’s palace by night, and sees his wives asleep in the seraglio and their various unconscious attitudes, and the description in the fifth book of the present poem where Buddha on the night of his leaving his home for ever sees the same unconscious sight in his own palace. Nor may we forget that in the Râmâyana the description is merely introduced as an ornamental episode; in the Buddhist poem it is an essential element in the story, as it supplies the final impulse which stirs the Bodhisattva to make his escape from the world, These different descriptions became afterwards commonplaces in Sanskrit poetry, like the catalogue of the ships in Greek or Roman epics; but they may very well have originated in connection with definite incidents in the Buddhist sacred legend.
