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About the Author

Works by Aśvaghoṣa

Nanda il bello (1985) 4 copies
Buddhacarita (2008) 3 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Aśvaghoṣa
Other names
Asvaghosa
Birthdate
80 (approx.)
Date of death
150 (approx.)
Gender
male
Nationality
India
Birthplace
Saketa, India
Occupations
Buddhist philosopher
poet

Members

Reviews

I'd never heard of the Clay Sanskrit Library till a few weeks back. I don't even remember how I did stumble upon it, but once I did, I'm amazed at what it offers to the English-speaking world.

Modeled on the Loeb Classical Library, this collection takes classics of the Sanskrit tradition and makes them available to a general and scholarly audience. The books themselves are attractively made -- at least for a book geek such as myself.

The text, in this case Ashavghosha's "Life of the Buddha" is an amazing text from the first or second century C.E. Not at all being a Buddhist scholar, my only point of reference is Tezuka Osamu's graphic novelization of the Buddha's life. As such, I realize I'm not bringing any scholarly street cred here. Even comparing the two texts seems odd, so I'll try to avoid direct comparisons.

The translation works really well and in fact is much better than what I remember the Loeb translations to be. Looking at the actual contents of the book, I still find the Buddha to be far too remote a figure. His abandonment of his wife and child hit me the same way as John Bunyon's abandonment of his family in Pilgrim's Progess. Ashvaghosha's text also reminded me of the Christian Desert Fathers, with their detailed depictions of earthly delights followed by a searing denunciation of said delights. The rejection of familial responsibility made me very sympathetic to the Hindu counterarguments. I think I'm just more of a Gita person than a Buddha person.
… (more)
 
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dmcolon | Aug 26, 2008 |

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Associated Authors

Ryuichi Abe Introduction
Aldous Huxley Foreword
Timothy Richard Translator
Richard Schmidt Translator

Statistics

Works
36
Members
362
Popularity
#66,319
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
3
ISBNs
29
Languages
6

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