THE BUDDHA-KARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.

We must not forget that in the Râmâyana, the description is merely an ornamental episode; in the Buddhist poem, it is an essential element of the story, as it provides the final impulse that stirs the Bodhisattva to escape from the world. These descriptions later became commonplaces in Sanskrit poetry, much like the "catalogue of the ships" in Greek or Roman epics, but they likely originated in connection with specific incidents in the Buddhist sacred legend.

The Sanskrit manuscripts from Nepal are invariably transcribed carelessly and abound with corrupt passages that are often very difficult to detect and correct. My printed text contains many obscure lines that will require future clarification through more skillful emendations. I have included some of my own emendations in the notes to the translation, and I have added several helpful conjectures kindly suggested to me by continental scholars via correspondence. I gladly take this opportunity to add in a footnote a few that arrived too late for their proper places Dr. von Boehtlingk suggests saugâ vikâkâra in VIII, 3, and vilambakesyo in VIII, 21—both certain emendations. Professor Kielhorn would read nabhasy eva in XIII, 47 instead of nayaty eva, and tatraiva nâsînam rishim in XIII, 50. Professor Bühler would read priyatanayas tanayasya in I, 87, and na tatyâga ka in IV, 80..

I have endeavored to make my translation intelligible to the English reader, though many verses in the original are highly obscure. Asvaghosha employs the full resources of Hindu rhetoric (which we might expect, if I-tsing is correct in attributing an alamkâra-sâstra [treatise on rhetoric] to him), and it is often difficult to follow his subtle turns of thought and remote allusions. Doubtless, many passages owe their present obscurity to undetected mistakes in the text of our manuscripts. In the absence of any commentary—except for the diffuse Chinese translation and occasional references to the Tibetan—I have been left to my own resources, and I have surely missed the author's meaning at times: