Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS)

Thursday, September 5, 2024
Aśvaghoṣa as a Buddhist Poet. “Calming, not Exciting” (vyupaśāntaye na rataye)

Somadeva Vasudeva, Kyoto University

In this talk I will consider in what sense the three surviving works of the 2nd cent. Buddhist monk (bhadanta) and great poet (mahākavi) Aśvaghoṣa of Sāketa can be identified as Buddhist poetry (kāvya). The question of “What makes a poem Buddhist?” finds analogues in a long line of disputes recorded in Alaṅkāraśāstra treatises seeking to define poetry as a distinct form of literature. Was Aśvaghoṣa a Buddhist...