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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> - 125<br />

13. With unrestless eyes, seeing only a yoke’s length bef<strong>or</strong>e him, with<br />

his voice hushed, and his walk slow and measured, he, the noblest <strong>of</strong><br />

mendicants, went begging alms, keeping his limbs and his wandering<br />

thoughts under control.<br />

14. Having received such alms as were <strong>of</strong>fered, he retired to a lonely<br />

cascade <strong>of</strong> the mountain; and having eaten it there in the fitting<br />

manner, he ascended the mountain Pāṇḍava.<br />

15. In that wood, thickly filled with lodhra trees, having its thickets<br />

resonant with the notes <strong>of</strong> the peacocks, he the sun <strong>of</strong> mankind shone,<br />

wearing his red dress, like the m<strong>or</strong>ning sun above the eastern<br />

mountain.<br />

16. That royal attendant, having thus watched him there, related it all<br />

to the king Śreṇya; and the king, when he heard it, in his deep<br />

veneration, started himself to go thither with a modest retinue.<br />

17. He who was like the Pāṇḍavas in heroism, and like a mountain in<br />

stature, ascended Pāṇḍava, that noblest <strong>of</strong> mountains, – a crownwearer,<br />

<strong>of</strong> lion-like gait, a lion among men, as a maned lion ascends a<br />

mountain.<br />

18. There he beheld the Bodhisattva, resplendent as he sat on his<br />

hams, with subdued senses, as if the mountain were moving, and he<br />

himself were a peak there<strong>of</strong>, – like the moon rising from the top <strong>of</strong> a<br />

cloud.

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