Page:Epic sequence - Tapodhir Bhattacharya.pdf/109

The Court Epics: The Floruit Asvaghosa in eighteen cantos all of which, unlike the Buddhacarita, have been preserved in Sanskrit. However its concluding verses seem to suggest that the Saundarananda was composed first and then the Buddhacarita was executed. This epic was discovered and edited by Haraprasad Sastri in 1910. A critical edition was later prepared by E.H. Johnston in 1928. Several European scholars have sought to shed new light on various aspects of the Saundarananda as a work connected with the noble life of the Buddha, However, Asvaghoṣa has been careful to deal with particularly on those aspects and episodes of Buddha's life which were not covered in the Buddhacarita. This epic has been woven around the humourous story of Nanda, the love-lorn half-brother of Buddha, found in the Vinayapitaka and the Nidāna- katha The Buddhist texts furnished the poet with the basic facts that Nanda was ordained as a monk against his will by Buddha. Besides, the poet seems to have been aware of other legends as well. For example, there was the legend about Nanda's ascent to heaven and his yearning for the celestial nymphs." The wide prevalence of such legends about Nanda is further corroborated by the exponents of the Greco-Buddhist school of art since some relevant episodes have been depicted by them in reliefs. 93 Asvaghosa wrote in the Buddhacarita about Buddha's supramundane life culminating into the exalted state of enlightenment as a result of his own sustained pursuit of perfection. His next venture in the Saundarananda seems to have been undertaken to narrate the proselytizing skill of Buddha by dint of which he could induce an extremely worldly person like Nanda to become a monk. This might seem to be extrinsic episode of Buddha's life but actually the portrayal of his excellent success as a preacher was equally important for a poet like Asvaghosa who was himself a rare synthesis of a poet and a preacher. None of these two tendencies has impaired his spontaneity or even surpassed each other. Though the Buddhacarita is generally regarded as richer in content and more appealing as a finished poem, E.H. Johnston thought that 'the handling of the Saundarananda is altogether more mature and assured than that of the Buddhacarita." Asvaghosa chose such legends from Buddhists text which, by themselves, were not at all sufficient to support an elaborate structure of court epic. Therefore the poet made use of various extrinsic