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Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha by Ven. Aśvaghoṣa

An English translation of this famous life of the Buddha, one of the great pieces of Sanskrit literature, with additions to help complete the text.

An English translation of this famous life of the Buddha, one of the great pieces of Sanskrit literature, with additions to help complete the text.

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<strong>Buddha</strong>-<strong>carita</strong>, <strong>or</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Buddha</strong> - 98<br />

despondency, raised no cry, shed no tear, and breathed not, standing<br />

senseless as if painted.<br />

26. Others as having lost all self-control, fainting in their s<strong>or</strong>row f<strong>or</strong><br />

their l<strong>or</strong>d, their faces pouring tears from their eyes, watered their<br />

bosoms from which all sandal-wood was banished, like a mountain the<br />

rocks with its streams.<br />

27. Then that royal palace was illumined with their faces pelted <strong>by</strong> the<br />

tears from their eyes, as a lake in the time <strong>of</strong> the first rains with its<br />

dripping lotuses pelted <strong>by</strong> the rain from the clouds.<br />

28. The noble women beat their breasts with their lotus-like hands,<br />

falling incessantly, whose fingers were round and plump, which had<br />

their arteries hidden and b<strong>or</strong>e no <strong>or</strong>naments, – as creepers tossed <strong>by</strong><br />

the wind strike themselves with their shoots.<br />

29. And again how those women shine f<strong>or</strong>th, as their bosoms rose up<br />

together after the blow from the hand, and trembled with the shock,<br />

like the streams, when their pairs <strong>of</strong> ruddy geese shake, as the lotuses<br />

on which they sit wave about with the wind from the wood.<br />

30. As they pressed their breasts with their hands, so too they pressed<br />

their hands with their breasts, – dull to all feelings <strong>of</strong> pity, they made<br />

their hands and bosoms inflict mutual pains on each other.<br />

31. Then thus spoke Yaśodharā, shedding tears with deep s<strong>or</strong>row, her<br />

bosom heaving with her sighs, her eyes discoloured with aneer, and

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