{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sbe49/sbe4902.htm","path":"bud/sbe49/sbe4902.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe49/sbe4902.htm","text":"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.\nIt 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, N\u00e2g\u00e2rguna, and Kumar\u00e2labdha, 'as the four suns which illumine the world[1];' 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 Alamk\u00e2ra-s\u00e2stra and the Buddha-karita-k\u00e2vya,--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 Amit\u00e2bha, Avalokitesvara, and Mah\u00e2sth\u00e2ma, 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[2].' A solitary stanza (VIII, 13) is\n[1. Julien's Translation, vol. ii, p. 214.\n2. See M. Fujishama, Journal Asiatique, 1888, p. 425.]\nquoted from the Buddha-karita in R\u00e2yamukuta's commentary on the Amarakosha I, I. I, 2, and also by Uggvaladatta in his commentary on the Un\u00e2di-s\u00fbtras I, 156; and five stanzas are quoted as from Asvaghosha in Vallabhadeva's Subh\u00e2shit\u00e2vali, which bear a great resemblance to his style, though they are not found in the extant portion of this poem[1].\nThe Buddha-karita was translated into Chinese[2] 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 Nirv\u00e2na 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.\nOnly 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,\n[1. Professor Peterson has remarked that two stanzas out of the five occur in Bhartrihari's N\u00eeti-sataka.\n2. We have for the present classed the Buddha-karita with the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na S\u00fbtras in default of more exact information.]\n--'having searched for them everywhere and not found them, four cantos have been made by me, Amrit\u00e2nanda,--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. R\u00e2gendral\u00e2l Mitra in his 'Nepalese Buddhist Literature' mentions Amrit\u00e2nanda as the author of two Sanskrit treatises and one in New\u00e2r\u00ee; he was probably the father of the old pandit of the Residency at K\u00e2tm\u00e2ndu, Gun\u00e2nanda, whose son Indr\u00e2nanda 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 Amrit\u00e2nanda 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.\nIn 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 Bhogy\u00e2 has chosen him as her husband, with the episode in the third book of the Buddha-karita (slokas 13-24); or the description of K\u00e2ma's assault on Siva in the Kum\u00e2rasambhava with that of M\u00e2ra'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 R\u00e2m\u00e2yana; where the monkey Hanumat enters R\u00e2vana'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\nwe forget that in the R\u00e2m\u00e2yana 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.\nThe Sanskrit MSS. of Nepal are always negligently transcribed and abound with corrupt passages, which it is often very difficult to detect and restore. My printed text leaves many obscure lines which will have to be cleared up hereafter by more skilful emendations. I have given in the notes to the translation some further emendations of my own, and I have also added several happy conjectures which continental scholars have kindly suggested to me by letter; and I gladly take this opportunity of adding in a foot-note some which I received too late to insert in their proper places[1].\nI have endeavoured to make my translation intelligible to the English reader, but many of the verses in the original are very obscure. Asvaghosha employs all the resources of Hindu rhetoric (as we might well expect if I-tsing is right in ascribing to him an 'alamk\u00e2ra-s\u00e2stra'), and it is often difficult to follow his subtil turns of thought and remote allusions; but many passages no doubt owe their present obscurity to undetected mistakes in the text of our MSS, In the absence of any Commentary (except so far as the diffuse Chinese translation and occasional reference to the Tibetan have supplied the want) I have been necessarily left to my own resources, and I cannot fail to have sometimes missed my author's meaning.\nPr\u00e2msulabhye phale moh\u00e2d udb\u00e2hur iva v\u00e2manah;\n[1. Dr. von Boehtlingk suggests 'saug\u00e2 vikak\u00e2ra' in VIII, 3, and 'vilambakesyo' in VIII, 21,--two certain emendations. Professor Kielhorn would read 'nabhasy eva' in XIII, 47 for 'nayaty eva,' and 'tatraiva n\u00e2s\u00eenam rishim' in XIII, 50. Professor B\u00fchler would read 'priyatanayas tanayasya' in I, 87, and 'na taty\u00e2ga ka' in IV, 80.]\nbut I have tried to do my best, and no one will welcome more cordially any light which others may throw on the passages which I have misunderstood.\nThe edition of the original text was dedicated to my old friend Professor F. Max M\u00fcller, and it is a sincere gratification to me that this translation will appear in the same volume with similar translations from his pen.\nE. B. C.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0CAMBRIDGE:\n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Feb. 1, 1894.","title":"The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha - Introduction","type":"page"}