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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> - 102<br />

51. With her eyes filled with the tears <strong>of</strong> despondency, wretched like<br />

an osprey who has lost her young, – Gautamī abandoning all selfcontrol<br />

wailed aloud, – she fainted, and with a weeping face<br />

exclaimed:<br />

52. ‘Beautiful, s<strong>of</strong>t, black, and all in great waves, growing each from<br />

its own special root, – those hairs <strong>of</strong> his are tossed on the ground,<br />

w<strong>or</strong>thy to be encircled <strong>by</strong> a royal diadem.<br />

53. ‘With his long arms and lion-gait, his bull-like eye, and his beauty<br />

bright like gold, his broad chest, and his voice deep as a drum <strong>or</strong> a<br />

cloud, should such a hero as this dwell in a hermitage?<br />

54. ‘This earth is indeed unw<strong>or</strong>thy as regards that peerless doer <strong>of</strong><br />

noble actions, f<strong>or</strong> such a virtuous hero has gone away from her, – it is<br />

the merits and virtues <strong>of</strong> the subjects which produce their king.<br />

55. ‘Those two feet <strong>of</strong> his, tender, with their beautiful web spread<br />

between the toes, with their ankles concealed, and s<strong>of</strong>t like a blue<br />

lotus, – how can they, bearing a wheel marked in the middle, walk on<br />

the hard ground <strong>of</strong> the skirts <strong>of</strong> the f<strong>or</strong>est?<br />

56. ‘That body, which deserves to sit <strong>or</strong> lie on the ro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> a palace, –<br />

honoured with costly garments, aloes, and sandal-wood, – how will<br />

that manly body live in the woods, exposed to the attacks <strong>of</strong> the cold,<br />

the heat, and the rain?

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