Aśvaghosa

Indian poet and religious historian

• Born: 80
• Died: 150

Aśvaghosa wrote the first comprehensive account of Buddha’s life and two related Buddhist works, depicting the foundations of Buddhism and how the religion was perceived by contemporary Indians.

Early Life

Aśvaghosa (AHSH-vuhg-oh-suh) is considered to be a great Buddhist scholar, the father of Sanskrit drama, and one of the best of all known Indian poets. He did not write about himself, and he had no biographers. As a result, very little is known about the details of Aśvaghosa’s life. However, Aśvaghosa’s reported life span—some seventy years—is based on several clear lines of written evidence. Among the most compelling is that his works were edited by a Central Asian writer whose writing style, which overlays the original Sanskrit text, fits within this time frame.

Aśvaghosa was most likely born in Ajodhya into a family of the Brahman caste. Therefore, Aśvaghosa’s education is believed to have been that of a Brahman scholar, trained in religion and in all of the contemporary arts and sciences. According to most sources, Aśvaghosa became one of the most distinguished of Buddhist scholars during the reign of the Kushān king, Kanishka (d. c. 152 c.e.). Kanishka was the Indo-Scythian conqueror of North India whose reign began c. 127 c.e. At that time Aśvaghosa would have been in his late twenties. Kanishka, a very devout Buddhist, valued him highly and subsequently Aśvaghosa became both the king’s trusted counselor and the twelfth Buddhist patriarch.

Aśvaghosa was originally a militant Brahman and was converted to Buddhism after losing a debate on the relative merits of Buddhism and Vedantic religion with Kanishka’s religious adviser Parsva. After this conversion, Aśvaghosa reportedly did his best to overthrow Brahmanism.

Life’s Work

Aśvaghosa is credited with writing two important Buddhist works: the Buddhacarita (first or second century c.e.; Buddhacharitam, 1911), a life of Buddha, and the Saundarānanda (first or second century c.e.; Saundarananda of Asvaghosa, 1928), which relates the conversion to Buddhism of Buddha’s half brother Nanda. The colophons of these works state that Aśvaghosa is their author, and the works are stylistically interconnected in ways that prove their authorship by one individual. References to and citations of Aśvaghosa’s works by other writers who lived during Kanishka’s reign are testimony to their great importance.

Aśvaghosa is said to have entered Kanishka’s service after the king conquered the city of Benāres, where Aśvaghosa lived at that time. Kanishka is supposed to have shown the great worth of Aśvaghosa’s ideas by starving several horses for a week, then taking them to hear Aśvaghosa preach and giving them food. The horses supposedly shed tears on hearing Aśvaghosa preach and refused to eat. Aśvaghosa’s name, which means “voice of the horse,” is said to have come from this incident.

Aśvaghosa’s writings and sermons contain allusions to ideas that some deem to derive from the early Christianity of his time. Two of these are the idea of universal salvation, and of the power of bodhi (“awakening” or “enlightenment”), which led to the development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the first century c.e. Mahāyāna Buddhism (which includes, among others, modern Zen Buddhism) teaches that many paths can lead to nirvana and that all human beings have the Buddha nature (enlightenment potential). Some special people, known as bodhisattvas, attain nirvana and help others to do so. More traditional schools such as Theravāda and Hīnayāna Buddhism embrace Buddha’s original monkish lifestyle of meditation and hold that humans are reborn over and over, collecting karma and reaching nirvana only by following Buddhist teaching.

Aśvaghosa is believed to have traveled very widely throughout India to collect stories about the life of Buddha and the other important founders of Buddhism, as well as in his capacity as the twelfth Buddhist patriarch. He gained a reputation as a preacher-musician and was said to have taken a troupe of skilled musicians with him on his travels. He is supposed to have converted a great many people to Buddhism through the combined persuasiveness of his poetry, preaching, and pleasant musical efforts. He also used his great writing skill to weave the stories into the Buddhacarita, using the vehicle of Sanskrit poetry and popularizing the poetic style known as kavya. Aśvaghosa’s works were so important to Buddhists that the Buddhacarita eventually was translated into Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, and English.

The Buddhacarita depicts the life of Buddha in twenty-eight cantos. Twenty-five percent of canto 1, all of cantos 2 to 13, and the first quarter of canto 14 are extant in the original Sanskrit form. The rest are found in complete Chinese and Tibetan translations. The Buddhacarita begins with Buddha’s conception, describes his life, and closes with an account of the war over his relics, the first Buddhist council, and the reign of Aśoka (c. 302-c. 238 b.c.e.), who was a great supporter of Buddhism. The Saundarānanda, with eighteen extant cantos, deals with conversion of Buddha’s half brother Nanda and sets out at length Aśvaghosa’s view of the path to enlightenment attributed to Buddha. Aśvaghosa’s reputation was so great that many later, less significant writers attempted to capture some of his glory for their works by using his name as a pen name. As a result, several other works that were once attributed to Aśvaghosa have been determined to be forgeries on modern analysis.

Significance

Buddhism, founded in the sixth century b.c.e. by the Indian prince Siddhārtha Gautama, uses his life and teaching (dharma) to model religious life. Before Aśvaghosa wrote the Buddhacarita, no comprehensive account of Buddha’s life existed. According to history, and Aśvaghosa, Siddhārtha realized that pleasure only temporarily masks suffering. He left his family to fast and meditate under a bodhi tree, attained nirvana (enlightenment), and became able to explain the causes of suffering and the way to find release from it. As Buddha, Siddhārtha taught the intertwined Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the Middle Way. The truths are: Life is suffering; suffering is due to desire; desire can be ended; and the way to do so is by following the Eightfold Path and Middle Way. Nirvana is achieved by following tenets that include right views, intentions, speech, actions, livelihood, endeavor, mindfulness, and meditation. Buddha advocated celibacy, moderate living, and equanimity based on meditation and morality.

Aśvaghosa’s works were most significant because they explained Buddhism to average readers. Some of Aśvaghosa’s statements about Buddha’s life and teaching appear in the commentary of his contemporaries, while others, not extant elsewhere, provide additions to understanding the history of Indian thought. Furthermore, Aśvaghosa’s artistic, historical, religious, and scientific references, the result of his extensive Brahman education, provide insights into contemporary science, theater, and art unavailable from other sources. Aśvaghosa’s work also incorporated some aspects of Christian belief into Buddhism, further distinguishing it from Brahmanism.

While Aśvaghosa was revered as a superb writer, he was not an original teacher or philosopher. At the end of the Buddhacarita, he stated that he wrote it not as a learned work, but for the happiness of the world. In this light, many authorities see it as a manual that described the viewpoint of pious, first century c.e. Indian Buddhists who respected Buddhist scripture and were devoted to Buddha.

Bibliography

Aśvaghosa. The “Buddhacarita” or Acts of the Buddha: Complete Sanskrit Text with English Translation. Translated by E. H. Johnston. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1998. This detailed current work provides a great deal of information on Aśvaghosa. It includes description and analysis of the great Sanskrit poet’s history and works, the extant Sanskrit cantos, and translation based on the earlier Chinese and Tibetan versions of the work.

Law, Bimala Churin. Asvaghosa. Calcutta, India: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1945. This very interesting monograph gives a good deal of information on Aśvaghosa as a writer, as a man, as a poet, and as a teacher. References throughout the book explain and help to clarify misconceptions on the great Buddhist.

Rosenfeld, John M. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. 1967. Reprint. Columbia, Mo.: South Asia Books, 1993. Chapter 2 in particular covers Aśvaghosa’s association with Kanishka.

Thomas, Edward J. The Life of Buddha: As Legend and History. New York: Dover, 2000. Summarizes the state of knowledge about Buddha’s life and assesses the sources for his biography. Helps to contextualize Aśvaghosa’s work and compares it with the works of others.

Wilson, Epiphanius. Sacred Books of the East. New York: Wiley, 1945. This book includes the late nineteenth century English translation of Aśvaghosa’s “Life of Buddha” (by Samuel Beal) from the Chinese version by Dharmaraksha (420 c.e.).