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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> - 223<br />

6. The gl<strong>or</strong>ious one, named the great <strong>Buddha</strong>, proceeded with the<br />

mendicants in an auspicious company, and having manifested his<br />

triumphal march f<strong>or</strong> the salvation <strong>of</strong> the w<strong>or</strong>ld, entered the city <strong>of</strong><br />

Kāśī. A po<strong>or</strong> Brāhman, named Svastika, a native <strong>of</strong> Vārāṇasī,<br />

obtained riches from heaven through the favour <strong>of</strong> the gl<strong>or</strong>ious one,<br />

and having received adoption as a slave in the Jina faith, became a<br />

mendicant and an Arhat at the hands <strong>of</strong> the great teacher.<br />

7. Blessing the king <strong>of</strong> Kāśī Divodāsa and the citizens with gold, c<strong>or</strong>n,<br />

and other riches, – taking up his abode in different places in f<strong>or</strong>ests,<br />

caves, mountains, he at last came in his rambles to the river Jāhnavī.<br />

The boatman who conveyed the Jina across the Ganges w<strong>or</strong>shipped<br />

him and <strong>of</strong>fered him milk with due services <strong>of</strong> reverence, and became<br />

a mendicant through his favour and <strong>by</strong> the Jina’s command found a<br />

dwelling in the <strong>Buddha</strong>’s hermitage in the grove.<br />

8. The gl<strong>or</strong>ious one, after he had crossed the Ganges, went to the<br />

hermitage <strong>of</strong> Kāśyapa at Gaya, called Uruvilva; there, having shown<br />

his supernatural power, he received as Bhikṣus the Kāśyapas,<br />

Uruvilva, and others, with m<strong>or</strong>e than a thousand <strong>of</strong> their disciples,<br />

having endued them f<strong>or</strong>thwith with all kinds <strong>of</strong> spiritual knowledge<br />

and with the power to abandon all w<strong>or</strong>ldly action; then accompanied<br />

<strong>by</strong> three hundred disciples Upasena at the command <strong>of</strong> his maternal<br />

uncle became an ascetic.<br />

9. The gl<strong>or</strong>ious one made seven hundred ascetics enter Nirvāṇa who<br />

dwelt in the wood Dharma; and the l<strong>or</strong>d <strong>of</strong> the Law also caused the

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