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Ašvaghoşa's Kavyas : An Alankärika Appraisal
101
(10) anuprāsa .....
iti muditam anāmayam nirāpat Kuru-Raghu-Pūru-puropamam puram tat / abhavad abhaya-daišike maharsau viharatı tatra śivāya vīta-rāge //
[Saundara-Nanda, 3/42] ...... (cary)yam utta(ma-v) äryyam muni-caryyam aviniväryya-vīryyam āryam ... ... ..
[Śāriputra-prakarana, folio designated
CI, obverse side, 11. 3-4) Similar illustrations may be multiplied at pleasure.
Thus Ašvaghosa's Buddha-cbarita and Saundara-Nanda have every claim to be termed mahā-kāvyās in the light of the a posteriori technicalities known to us from the post-Asvaghoșan texts on Sanskrit poetics.
His Sāriputra-prakaraņa also corresponds properly with the rules of dramaturgy relating to a prakarana. This drama is important to the historian of classical drama and dramaturgy as the earliest known decisive document of a prakaraua.
Ašvaghosa's genius as a scholarly kavi is applauded highly by the Buddhists, both Hina-yānic and Mahā-yānic, of India and Greater India. The warm encomia by Hsüan-Tsang, Hwui-Li and I-tsing attest to the wide popularity of Ašvaghosa. The Buddha-carita is said to have been widely read in the Malay Archipelago ( = Sumatra, Java and the neighbouring islands ). Nearly the first half of this mahā-kāvya has been discovered in Nepal. Two fragments of a manuscript of this work has been unearthed in Central Asia. This work has been translated into Chinese and Tibetan. Again, the text of the Saundara-Nanda 'has been found in Nepal. Only one fragment of a manuscript of this mahā-kāvya has also been discovered in Central Asia. Similarly the fragments of two manuscripts of the Sariputra-prakaraṇa have been unearthed in Central Asia. Lastly, the gist of the Rāstrapāla-nātaka has been translated into Chinese and a single sentence from the prologue to this drama has been preserved in some texts on Indian logic.
Ašvaghoșa's nirvāņa-kāvyas as compared with those of the similar missionary kavis like Mātņceļa, Kumāra-lāta and Arya-Śūra are more appealing as works of art, Judged by the literary standard Asvaghoşa must be hailed as the best among his brethren.
But Ašvaghoșa cannot be said to represent the perfect standard of the ornate technique in the classical Sanskrit literature. with his pristine
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