Ashvaghosha Buddhacarita Pdf

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Aśvaghoṣa or Ashvaghosha (/'əɕʋə'gʰoːʂə/; c. 80 – c. 150 CE) was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet and orator from India. He was born in Saketa in northern India.^[1] He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivalled the contemporary Ramayana.^[2] Whereas much of Buddhist literature prior to the time of Aśvaghoṣa had been composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Aśvaghoṣa wrote in Classical Sanskrit.^[3]

Life as an ascetic[edit]

According to the traditional biography of Aśvaghoṣa,^[4][5] which was translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva, and preserved in that language, he was originally a wandering ascetic who was able to defeat all-comers in debate.

He set a challenge to the Buddhist monks that if none could meet with him in debate then they should stop beating the wood-block which signalled to the people to bring offerings to them. There was no one there to meet the challenge so they stopped beating the wood-block.

However, in the north there was an elder bhikṣu named Pārśva at the time, who saw that if he could convert this ascetic, it would be a great asset to the propagation of the Dharma, so he travelled from northern India and had the wood-block sounded.

The ascetic came to ask why it had been sounded. Though thinking the old monk would be unable to debate with him, he accepted the challenge. After seven days, the debate was held in front of the King, his Ministers, and many ascetics and brahmans. The loser agreed to become the disciple of the other.

They agreed that the elder Pārśva should speak first, and he said: 'The world should be made peaceable, with a long-lived king, plentiful harvests, and joy throughout the land, with none of the myriad calamities', to which the ascetic had no response and so was bound to become Pārśva's disciple, and he was given full ordination as a bhikṣu.

Although he had to consent to this, he still was not convinced of the elder's virtues until he showed him he had mastered the Bases of Spiritual Power (r̥ddhipādāḥ), at which point he gained faith. Pārśva then taught him the 5 Faculties, the 5 Powers, the 7 Factors and the 8-fold Noble Path, and he eventually mastered the teaching. J cole forest hills zip.

Later, the central kingdom was besieged by the Kuṣāna King's army, who demanded 300,000 gold pieces in tribute. The King could not pay so much, as he had only 100,000. The Kuṣāna King therefore asked for the Buddha's begging bowl, the converted monk, and the 100,000 gold pieces for his tribute.

Although the King of the central kingdom was unhappy, the monk persuaded him it would be for the good of the propagation of the Dharma which would spread across the four continents if he went with the Kuṣāna King. He was therefore taken away.

The Kuṣāna's King's Ministers, however, were unhappy, not thinking that the bhikṣu was priced correctly at 100,000 gold pieces. The King, who knew the worth of bhiksu, ordered that seven horses be starved for six days. The King then made an assembly and had the bhikṣu preach the Dharma.

Even the horses, whose favourite food was placed in front of them, were entranced by the Teaching of the monk, and listened intently. Everybody was thereby convinced of his worth. He was then granted the name Aśvaghoṣa, Horse-Cry.

He travelled throughout northern India proclaiming the Dharma and guiding all through his wisdom and understanding, and he was held in great regard by the four-fold assembly, who knew him as The Sun of Merit and Virtue.

Written works[edit]

He was previously believed to have been the author of the influential Buddhist text Awakening of Mahayana Faith, but modern scholars agree that the text was composed in China.^[6][7] And it is now believed he was not from the Mahayanist period,^[8] and seems to have been ordained into a subsect of the Mahasanghikas.^[9] Some recent research into his kavya poems have revealed that he may have used the Yogacarabhumi as a textual reference, particularly for the Saundarananda, which opens up the possibility he was affiliated with either the Yogacara or the Sautrantika school.^[10]

He wrote an epic life of the Buddha called Buddhacharita^[11][12] (Acts of the Buddha) in Sanskrit. The monk I-tsing (Yijing) mentioned that in his time Buddhacarita was '..extensively read in all the five parts of India and in the countries of the South Sea (Sumātra, Jāva and the neighbouring islands). He clothed manifold notions and ideas in a few words which so delighted the heart of his reader that he never wearied of perusing the poem. Moreover it was regarded as a virtue to read it in as much as it contained the noble doctrine in a neat compact form.'^[13]

It described in 28 chapters the whole Life of the Buddha from his birth until his entry into Parinirvāna. During the Muslim invasions of the 10th – 12th centuries, half of the original Sanskrit text was lost.^[13] Today, the second half only exists in Chinese and Tibetan translations.

He also wrote Saundarananda, a kāvya poem with the theme of conversion of Nanda, Buddha's half-brother, so that he might reach salvation. The first half of the work describes Nanda's life, and the second half of the work describes Buddhist doctrines and ascetic practices.^[14][15]

He is also thought to be the author of the Sutralankara.^[16][17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Olivelle, Patrick; Olivelle, Suman, eds. (2005). Manu's Code of Law. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN9780195171464.
2. ^Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Harvard University Press, 2000, page 220.
3. ^Coulson, Michael (1992). Sanskrit. Lincolnwood: NTC Pub. Group. p. xviii. ISBN978-0-8442-3825-8.
4. ^Li Rongxi (2002). The Life of Asvaghosa Bodhisattva; in: The Lives of Great Monks and Nuns, Berkeley CA: Numata Center for Translation and Research, pp. 9–16
5. ^Stuart H. Young (trans.), Biography of the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa, Maming pusa zhuan 馬鳴菩薩傳, T.50.2046.183a, translated by Tripiṭaka Master Kumārajīva.
6. ^Nattier, Jan. 'The Heart Sūtra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?'. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Vol. 15 (2), 180–81, 1992. PDF
7. ^Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha by Robert E. Buswell. University of Hawaii Press: 1990. ISBN0-8248-1253-0. pgs 1–29
8. ^Dan Lusthaus, 'Critical Buddhism and Returning to the Sources.' Pages 30–55 of Jamie Hubbard, Paul Loren Swanson, editors, Pruning the bodhi tree: the storm over critical Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press, 1997, page 33.
9. ^Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge, 2007, page 26.
10. ^Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. 'On the School Affiliation of Aśvaghoṣa: 'Sautrāntika' or 'Yogācāra'?' Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Vol. 26 (2), 225-249, 2003. PDF
11. ^E. B. Cowell (trans): Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts, 'The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha', Sacred Books of the East, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1894. Available online
12. ^Willemen, Charles, transl. (2009), Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts, Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. ISBN978-1886439-42-9
13. ^ ^abJ.K. Nariman: Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism, Bombay 1919. Aśvaghoṣa and his SchoolArchived 10 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
14. ^Yoshichika Honda. 'Indian Buddhism and the kāvya literature: Asvaghosa's Saundaranandakavya.' Hiroshima Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyuuka ronshuu, vol. 64, pp. 17–26, 2004. [1] (Japanese)
15. ^Johnston, E. H. (1928). Saundarananda(PDF). Lahore: University of Panjab.
16. ^Strong, John S. (1983). The Legend of King Asoka. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN9780691605074.
17. ^Nariman, J.K. Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 177. ISBN9788120807952.

Bibliography[edit]

• Buswell, Robert E., ed. (2004). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 35. ISBN0-02-865718-7.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

External links[edit]

• Works by Aśvaghosha at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Aśvaghoṣa at Internet Archive

Buddhacharita ('Acts of the Buddha'; Buddhacaritam, Devanagari बुद्धचरितम्) is an epic poem in the Sanskritmahakavya style on the life of Gautama Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa, composed in the early second century CE.^[1] Of the poem's 28 cantos, the first 14 are extant in Sanskrit complete (cantos 15 to 28 are in incomplete form).

In 420 AD, Dharmakṣema^[2] made a Chinese translation, and in the 7th or 8th century, a Tibetan version was made which 'appears to be much closer to the original Sanskrit than the Chinese'.^[3][4]

English translations[edit]

• E.B. Cowell, trans. The Buddha Carita or the Life of the Buddha, Oxford, Clarendon 1894, reprint: New Delhi, 1977. PDF (14,8 MB)
• Samuel Beal, trans. The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King. Oxford, 1883. English translation of the Chinese versionPDF (17,7 MB)
• E. H. Johnston, trans. The Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha. Lahore, 1936. 2 vols. (Cantos 1-14 in Sanskrit and English). Reprint: Delhi, Motilal Barnasidass 1978
• E. H. Johnston, trans. (1937), 'The Buddha's Mission and last Journey: Buddhacarita, xv to xxviii', Acta Orientalia, 15: 26-62, 85-111, 231-292.
• Patrick Olivelle, trans. Life of the Buddha. Clay Sanskrit Library, 2008. 1 vols. (Cantos 1-14 in Sanskrit and English with summary of the Chinese cantos not available in the Sanskrit)
• Willemen, Charles, trans. (2009), Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts, Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. ISBN978-1886439-42-9

Other Language Translations[edit]

• Bhaskar Hanumath Kompella, Telugu Translation in the form of Tika (Word by Word meanings) and Tatparya (Substance). Buddha Charitam, Ajo-Vibho-Kandalam Publications, Hyderabad, 2018.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Willemen, Charles, transl. (2009), Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts, Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, p. XIII.
2. ^University of Oslo, Thesaurus Literaturae Buddhicae: Buddhacarita Taisho Tripitaka T.192
3. ^Sa dbaṇ bzaṇ po and Blo gros rgyal po, 'Saṅs rgyas kyi spyod pa źes bya ba´i sñan dṅags chen po' (Tibetan translation of Buddhacarita), in Tg - bsTan ’gyur (Tibetan Buddhist canon of secondary literature), Derge edition, skyes rabs ge, 1b1-103b2.
4. ^E.B. Cowell, trans. The Buddha Carita or the Life of the Buddha, Oxford, Clarendon 1894, reprint: New Delhi, 1977, p. X (introduction).

External links[edit]