Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Aśvaghoṣa and his School – 46
chamber which causes the prince to fly from the palace. These
themes give Aśvaghoṣa the opportunity for the display of his erotic
art. It may be noted that the description (v, 48/62) in its primitive
shape is recounted by the young Yasa in the Pāḷi Vinayapiṭaka. We
have already had occasion to remark that a similar scene in the
Rāmāyana (v, 9/11) has been copied from this Buddhist poet
Aśvaghoṣa. The court poet, however, must also be familiar with the
doctrine of the nītiśāstras or statecraft. And the world-wide
principles are unfolded to the prince by the priest attached to the
royal household in order to divert his mind from his meditations (iv,
62/82). Finally, belonging to the same species of court poetry is the
delineation of the battle scene. Here our poet rises to the occasion in
that in the thirteenth canto he conjures up a vivid scene of the
struggle of the Buddha with Māra and his hordes.
Love and Religion
Aśvaghoṣa was the author of another poem to be classed in the
category of court poetry viz., Saundaranandakāvya. The lucky
discoverer and editor of this poem is Pandit Haraprasada Shastri (A.
Bastion, Journale Asiatique 1902, vol. xix, p. 79 ff and F. W. Thomas
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1911 p. 1125). It also turns round
the history of the Buddha’s life, but limns especially those scenes and
episodes which have been either lightly touched upon or not treated
at all in the Buddhacarita. Thus in the first canto is exhaustively
described the history of the finding of the city of Kapilavastu. The
actual content of this poem, however, is constituted by the history of
the loves of Sundarī and Nanda, the half-brother of the Buddha who
is initiated into the Order against his will by the latter: [35]