Ashvaghosha

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Ashvaghosha ( Devanagari : अश्वघोष, Aśvaghoṣa ; * around 80; † around 150) was an Indian poet , scholar and playwright . He was probably born in Saketa (now Ayodhya ) in northern India . He is considered the first Buddhist playwright after the first known Sanskrit author of plays Bhasa and is considered to be one of the greatest Indian poets and the predecessor of Kalidasa (late 4th / early 5th century).

life and work

Ashvaghosha first studied Brahmanic teachings: the Vedas , Upanishads and the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata . He later became a Buddhist and advisor for religious affairs to the Kushan King Kanishka .

Ashvaghosha wrote an epic work on the life of the Buddha , the epic Buddhacarita (life of the Buddha), and the Mahalankara ( book of glory ). He is also the author of Saundaranandakavya , a Kāvya poem that deals with the conversion of Nanda, Buddha's younger half-brother, so that he can attain salvation. The first half of the work describes Nanda's life and the second half describes Buddhist doctrines and ascetic practices. Sometimes he is also credited with the authorship of the influential Buddhist text Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana ("Origin of the Mahayana Faith ").

In the tradition of Zen Buddhism , he is considered the twelfth patriarch .

Quote

" Hiouen Thsang , who left India in AD 645, mentions him with Deva , Nagarguna , and Kumaralabdha , 'as the four suns which illumine the world (1. Julien 's Translation, vol. Ii, p. 214.);" but our fullest account is given by I-tsing , who visited India in 673. "

Works

  • Buddhacarita , epic.
  • Saundarananda-Kavya , epic.
  • Sutralamkara
  • Shariputra prakarana , drama.
  • Mahalankara .
  • Mahayanasraddhotpada (Origin of the Mahayana Faith). (attributed)

literature

  • Manohar Laxman Varadpande: History of Indian Theater. Classical Theater . Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 2005, pp. 75–90
  • Li Rongxi (2002). The Life of Asvaghosa Bodhisattva; in: The Lives of Great Monks and Nuns ( Memento from August 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Berkeley CA: Numata Center for Translation and Research, pp. 9-16
  • Moriz Winternitz : History of Indian Literature . Vol. 2 (The Buddhist literature and the sacred texts of the Jainas) Stuttgart 1920

Translations

  • EB Cowell (1894). The Buddha Carita or the Life of the Buddha , reprinted with text, New Delhi, 1977. PDF (14.8 MB)
  • Samuel Beal, The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King . Oxford, 1883. English translation of the Chinese version PDF (17.7 MB)
  • Willemen, Charles, transl. (2009). Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts, Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. ISBN 978-1886439-42-9 PDF ( Memento from August 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  • Richard, Timothy (1907). The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine — the New Buddhism, Shanghai: Christian Literature Society Internet Archive (PDF 3 MB)
  • Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. (1967), Awakening of Faith-Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, New York, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-08336-X
  • Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro (1900). Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana , Chicago, Ill .: Open Court Publishing Company
  • EH Johnston. Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha. Lahore 1936. [enlarged reprints of text, introduction and translation: Delhi 1984, 1992 and 1995]
  • Lüders, Heinrich (1940). "The Sariputraprakarana, a drama of the Asvaghosa." In Philologica Indica. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Buddha-karita Online ( Sacred Books of the East )
  2. ↑ Yoshichika Honda. 'Indian Buddhism and the kāvya literature: Asvaghosa's Saundaranandakavya.' Hiroshima Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyuuka ronshuu, 2004. (online)
  3. ↑ SBE 49, VI

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ashvaghosha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES अश्वघोष (Devanagari); Aśvaghoṣa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian poet-philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH at 80
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Saketa
DATE OF DEATH at 150