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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> - 165<br />

34. Then Māra commanded his excited army <strong>of</strong> demons to terrify<br />

him; and f<strong>or</strong>thwith that host resolved to break down his<br />

determination with their various powers.<br />

35. Some with many tongues hanging out and shaking, with sharppointed<br />

savage teeth and eyes like the disk <strong>of</strong> the sun, with wideyawning<br />

mouths and upright ears like spikes, – they stood round<br />

trying to frighten him.<br />

36. Bef<strong>or</strong>e these monsters standing there, so dreadful in f<strong>or</strong>m and<br />

disposition, the great sage remained unalarmed and untroubled,<br />

sp<strong>or</strong>ting with them as if they had been only rude children.<br />

37. Then one <strong>of</strong> them, with his eyes rolling wildly, lifted up a club<br />

against him; but his arm with the club was instantly paralysed, as was<br />

Indra’s <strong>of</strong> old with its thunderbolt.<br />

38. Some, having lifted up stones and trees, found themselves unable<br />

to throw them against the sage; down they fell, with their trees and<br />

their stones, like the roots <strong>of</strong> the Vindhya shattered <strong>by</strong> the<br />

thunderbolt.<br />

39. Others, leaping up into the sky, flung rocks, trees, and axes; these<br />

remained in the sky and did not fall down, like the many-coloured<br />

rays <strong>of</strong> the evening clouds.<br />

40. Another hurled upon him a mass <strong>of</strong> blazing straw as big as a<br />

mountain-peak, which, as soon as it was thrown, while it hung poised

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