Buddhacarita

by Ashvaghosha

Also known as: Buddhacarita-kavya, Acts of the Buddha, Life of the Buddha, Fo suoxing zan

Buddhacarita cover
Culture:Indian, Buddhist
Written:1-200 CE
Length:2,800 lines, (~7 hours)
Buddhacarita cover
Aśvaghoṣa’s Sanskrit epic recounts the Buddha’s life from prophetic birth and princely youth through renunciation, austerities, awakening, and the resolve to teach. The surviving Sanskrit covers up to enlightenment, with translations preserving the full arc to first sermon and beyond.

Description

The *Buddhacarita* (“Acts of the Buddha”) is a classical Sanskrit mahākāvya that narrates Siddhārtha Gautama’s path: auspicious birth, sheltered palace life, confrontation with aging, sickness, and death, renunciation, training under renowned teachers, extreme asceticism, and the decisive meditation culminating in awakening beneath the Bodhi tree. Aśvaghoṣa blends courtly poetics with didactic intent, shaping the Buddha as an exemplary royal ascetic whose compassion redirects heroic valor toward liberation. While only the first fourteen cantos survive in Sanskrit, early Chinese and Tibetan translations transmit the complete twenty-eight, extending the story through the first turning of the Dharma wheel and the establishment of the Buddha as teacher.

Historiography

Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, likely a court poet-monk of the early Kuṣāṇa milieu, the poem helped crystallize a Sanskrit Buddhist literary style. The Sanskrit text breaks off after canto 14; the remaining cantos are known through Chinese (佛所行讚) and Tibetan translations, which guided modern reconstructions and editions. E.H. Johnston’s critical work collated Sanskrit manuscripts with these translations, shaping contemporary scholarship and standard English renderings.

Date Notes

Classical Sanskrit mahākāvya attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, often placed under the early Kuṣāṇa period; Sanskrit survives for cantos 1–14, with the full 28 preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translations.

Major Characters

  • Siddhartha Gautama
  • Suddhodana
  • Maya
  • Yasodhara
  • Rahula
  • Devadatta
  • Mara
  • Ananda

Myths

  • Birth and Early Signs of the Buddha
  • The Great Renunciation
  • Ascetic Trials and Temptation by Mara
  • Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree
  • First Sermon at Sarnath

Facts

  • Classical Sanskrit mahākāvya narrating the Buddha’s life.
  • Authorship traditionally attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, a poet-monk of the early Kuṣāṇa era.
  • The Sanskrit original survives complete only for cantos 1–14.
  • The complete 28-canto text is preserved in early Chinese and Tibetan translations.
  • Title means “Acts/Deeds of the Buddha.”
  • Blends courtly kāvya aesthetics with didactic Buddhist themes.
  • Key set pieces include the Four Sights, Great Departure, and defeat of Māra.
  • Influential source for later Indian and cross-Asian Buddha biographies.
  • Often transmitted with variant readings reconciled via Chinese/Tibetan witnesses.
  • Predominantly composed in śloka metre with ornate kavya embellishments.