Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Aśvaghoṣa and his School – 45
The foe of intelligence and the disappearance of memory.
He too sucked at his mother’s breast,
As a child learnt to walk in course of time.
Slowly he grew big and strong – a youth,
By degrees has old age crept on him.”
After the prince had on his three walks out of his palace learnt of old
age, disease and death, no more could he find any joy in life. It is in
vain that the family priest by order of the king calls upon the women
and maidens of the palace to bend their energies on their seductive
art to soothe the prince and turn him from his distressing thoughts.
The prince remains untouched by the soft distractions. He only
thinks of the unthinking ways of these women and cries out (iv 60
f.):
“How senseless the man appears to me whose neighbour ill and old
and dead he
Sees and yet holds fast to the good things of this life and is not
thrilled with anxiety.
It is as if a tree divested of all flower and fruit must fall or be pulled
down –
Unaffected remaining the neighbouring trees.”
Statecraft, Erotic Art and Warfare
The presentment of the love scenes belongs to the indispensable
element in the poetic are as an appanage to the court. And the poet
satisfies this demand in depicting the sports of the lovely maidens
who endeavour to draw the prince towards themselves (iv, 24/53) just
as well as in the vivid portrayal of the [34] night scene in the ladies’