{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/taf/taf07.htm","path":"bud/taf/taf07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/taf/taf07.htm","text":"There is not so much discordance in the traditions about the wanderings of A\u00e7vaghosha as about his date, though indeed we do not have as yet any means of ascertaining his birth-place, other than the statements\nof discordant authorities. According to T\u00e2ran\u00e2tha, 1 he was a son of a rich Brahman called Samghaguhya who married the tenth and youngest daughter of a merchant in Khorta. As a youth, when thoroughly familiar with every department of knowledge, he went to Odivi\u00e7a, Gaura, T\u00eerahuti, K\u00e2mar\u00fbpa, and some other places, defeating everywhere his Buddhist opponents by his ingenious logic.\nAll these places are situated in Eastern India, and among the Chinese traditions the Record of the Triratna (Li tai san pao chi) as well as the Accounts of Buddha and the Patriarchs (Fo tsu tung chi) agree with T\u00e2ran\u00e2tha in placing A\u00e7vaghosha's native land in the East; but the Life of Vasubandhu makes A\u00e7vaghosha a native of Bh\u00e2shita in \u00c7r\u00e2vast\u00ee, while in N\u00e2g\u00e2rjuna's work, the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na\u00e7\u00e2stravy\u00e2khy\u00e2 (Shih mo ho yen lun), he is mentioned as having been born in Western India, Loka being the father and Gho\u1e47\u00e2 the mother. The Record of Buddha and the Patriarchs Under Successive Dynasties (Fo tsu li tai t\u2018ung tsai) agrees with neither of the above statements, for it says (fasciculus 5): \"The twelfth patriarch, A\u00e7vaghosha Mah\u00e2sattva was a native of V\u00e2r\u00e2\u1e47as\u00ee.\" A further contradicting tradition is pointed out by Prof. S. Murakami in one of his articles on the history of Buddhism, 2 quoting the Shittanz\u00f4 (fas. 1), which makes A\u00e7vaghosha a man of South India.\nA majority of the traditions place his native country in East India; but there is no means of confirming these. One thing, however, seems to be certain, namely, that A\u00e7vaghosha was not born in the northern part of India, which place is supposed by most Western Buddhist scholars to be the cradle of the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na school.\nWherever the native country of A\u00e7vaghosha may have been, both the Chinese and Tibetan records agree that he made a journey to Central India, or Magadha. it seems that every intellectual man in India, the people of which, living in affluence, were not occupied with the cares of making a living, sought to gain renown by dialectics and subtle reasonings, and A\u00e7vaghosha, as a Brahman whose \"intellectual acquirements were wonderfully deep,\" and whose \"penetrating insight was matchless,\" 1 could not resist the temptation. Not satisfied with his intellectual campaign against commonplace Buddhists in his neighborhood, who were crushed down as \"rotten wood before a raging hurricane,\" 2 he went, according to a Chinese tradition, to P\u00e2\u1e6daliputra, and according to the Tibetan, to N\u00e2landa. The Life of A\u00e7vaghosha evidently refers to this fact when it states that Par\u00e7va, the eleventh patriarch and eventual teacher of A\u00e7vaghosha, on being informed of the paramount influence of the Brahman\nt\u00eerthaka (i.e., A\u00e7vaghosha) in Central India and of the fact that his conquest over Buddhists had silenced the bell (ghanta) in some monastery (vih\u00e2ra), journeyed from Northern India to convert the bitterest opponent into a faithful follower of Buddha. He adds that A\u00e7vaghosha left his home and lived henceforth in Central India. But according to the Transmission of the Dharmapitaka (Fu fa tsang ch\u2018uan, fas. 5) we find A\u00e7vaghosha even after his conversion still in P\u00e2\u1e6daliputra, from which he was taken by King Kanishka to the latter's own capital, Gandh\u00e2ra, in the Northwest of India.\nThus all that we can say about the birth-place and wanderings of A\u00e7vaghosha is: (1) he was a Brahman by birth either of South, or of West, or of East, but not of North India; (2) he acquired in Central India his highest reputation as a Brahman disputant, and, after his conversion, as the greatest Buddha follower of the time, intellectually as well as morally; (3) his later life was spent according to the Chinese authority in the North where he wrote probably the Mah\u00e2lamk\u00e2ra-s\u00fbtra\u00e7\u00e2stra (Book of Great Glory) which describes matters mostly relating to Western India.\n18:1 Geschichte des Buddhismus, p. 90.\n18:2 The Bukky\u00f4 Shirin, Vol. I., No. 6. 1894. Tokyo, Japan.\n19:1 The Transmission of the Dharmapitaka (Fu fa tsang ch\u2018uan, fas. 5).\n19:2 The same as above.","title":"The Awakening of Faith: Introduction: Nativity and Peregrinations","type":"page"}