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Buddhist Mahayana Texts
Translated by E. B. Cowell, F. Max Müller and J. Takakusu
Oxford, the Clarendon Press
[1894]
Vol. XLIX of The Sacred Books of the East
pdf version by desolution
desolution@nibirumail.com
INTRODUCTION
THE Sanskrit text of the Buddha-
k
arita 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 A
s
hvaghosha; 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, Narga
r
juna, and
Kumarâlabdha, '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 A
s
hvaghosha
was an ancient author who composed the Ala
m
kâra-
s
âstra and the Buddha-
k
arita-kâvya--the latter work being of course the present poem. Beside these two
works he also composed the hymns in honor of Buddha and the three holy
beings Amitâbha, Avalokite
s
vara, 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 [2].'
[1. Julien's Translation, vol. ii, p. 214.
2. See M. Fujishama, Journal Asiatique, 1888, p. 425.]
A solitary stanza (VIII, 13) is quoted from the Buddha-
k
arita in Râyamuku
t
a's
commentary on the Amarakosha I, I. I, 2, and also by U
gg
valadatta in his
commentary on the U
n
âdi-sûtras I, 156; and five stanzas are quoted as from
A
s
hvaghosha in Vallabhadeva's Subhâshitâvali, which bear a great resemblance
to his style, though they are not found in the extant portion of this poem [1].
The Buddha-
k
arita 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 Nirva
n
a 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 labor. 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 A
s
hvaghosha
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, Am
ri
tânanda--the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth.'
[1. Professor Peterson has remarked that two stanzas out of the five occur in Bhart
ri
hari's Nîti-
s
ataka.
2. We have for the present classed the Buddha-
k
arita with the Mahayana Sutras in default of
more exact information.]
He adds the date 950 of the Nepalese era, corresponding to 1830 A. D.; and we
have no difficulty in identifying the author. Râ
g
endralâl Mitra in his 'Nepalese
Buddhist Literature' mentions Am
ri
tânanda as the author of two Sanskrit
treatises and one in Newârî; he was probably the father of the old Pa
nd
it of the
Residency at Ka
t
ma
nd
u, Gu
n
ânanda, whose son Indrânanda holds the office at
present. Dr. D. Wright informs me that the family seems to have been the
recognized 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 Am
ri
tânanda 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
A
s
hvaghosha’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 Raghuva
m
sa of the ladies of the city
crowding to see prince A
g
a as he passes by from the Svaya
m
vara where the
princess Bho
g
yâ has chosen him as her husband, with the episode in the third
book of the Buddha-
k
arita (
s
lokas 13-24); or the description of Kâma's assault on
S
iva in the Kumârasa
m
bhava with that of Mara’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 Râmâya
n
a; where
the monkey Hanumat enters Râva
n
a'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 Râmâya
n
a 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.
The 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].
I have endeavored to make my translation intelligible to the English reader, but
many of the verses in the original are very obscure. A
s
hvaghosha employs all the
resources of Hindu rhetoric (as we might well expect if I-tsing is right in
ascribing to him an 'ala
m
kâra-
s
âstra'), and it is often difficult to follow his subtle
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 but 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.
Prâ
ms
ulabhye phale mohâd udbâhur iva vâmana
h
;
[1. Dr. von Boehtlingk suggests 'sau
g
â vi
k
a
k
âra' in VIII, 3, and 'vila
m
bake
s
yo' in VIII, 21--two
certain emendations. Professor Kielhorn would read 'nabhasy eva' in XIII, 47 for 'nayaty eva,' and
'tatraiva nâsînam
ri
shim' in XIII, 50. Professor Bühler would read 'priyatanayas tanayasya' in I,
87, and 'na tatyâ
g
a
k
a' in IV, 80.]
The edition of the original text was dedicated to my old friend Professor F. Max
Muller, and it is a sincere gratification to me that this translation will appear in
the same volume with similar translations from his pen.
E. B. C.
CAMBRIDGE:
Feb. 1, 1894.
The Buddha-
k
arita
Of
A
s
hvaghosha
BOOK I
1. That Arhat is here saluted, who has no counterpart--who, as bestowing the
supreme happiness, surpasses (Brahman) the Creator--who, as driving away
darkness, vanquishes the sun--and, as dispelling all burning heat, surpasses the
beautiful moon.
2. There was a city, the dwelling-place [1] of the great saint Kapila, having its
sides surrounded by the beauty of a lofty broad table-land as by a line of clouds,
and itself, with its high-soaring palaces [2], immersed in the sky.
3. By its pure and lofty system of government it, as it were, stole the splendor
of the clouds of Mount Kailâsa, and while it bore the clouds, which came to it
through a mistake, it fulfilled the imagination, which had led them thither [3].
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