Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Sūtrālaṅkāra – 160
power and the suppleness of style. To describe Aśvaghoṣa in worthy
terms we have only to borrow the beautiful words which he lends to
a bhikṣu in the presence of the emperor Aśoka:
“When I speak of the good acts of the Buddha the crowd listen to me
with joy. Their faces beam with happiness. Exalting the virtues of
the Buddha I have destroyed the heretics. In the front of all men I
have expounded the true path, the joy universal. As in the full
autumnal moon, all delight in me. To exalt the virtues of the Buddha
all the centuries are not sufficient. But I will not stop doing it till my
tongue turns dry. For the art of speaking well is my father and I
regard eloquence as my mother.”
His method and themes
It was a dangerous undertaking. The literature of instruction borders
on the nauseating, and Aśvaghoṣa wanted to instruct at all costs. He
did not attempt either to surprise the conscience or to disguise the
lesson. This is his process. At first he proposes a moral theme. He
illustrates it by a story. If necessary he adds another moral and
finally the conclusion. The truths which he inculcates run in a
narrow circle. They relate to the power of previous acts or karma,
the importance of charity, the respect for observances, the vanity of
the world, the errors of heresies, the perfection of the Buddha and
the sanctity of the Law. But Aśvaghoṣa was not afraid of rehearsing
the same themes. Sure of his art and sustained by an ardent faith be
renewed himself without effort. Take only the stanzas on death
which are strewn about in profusion over the book. It is doubtful
whether a Tertullian or a Bossuet [190] could have spoken with
greater grandeur or with a more noble realism. If it is the moral
which above all counts for Aśvaghoṣa, he is too much of an artist to