Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita-The First Close and Critical Reading of The Brahmanical Sanskrit Epic (Alf Hiltebeitel)

AŚVAGHOṢA'S "BUDDHACARITA": THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE AND CRITICAL READING
OF THE BRAHMANICAL SANSKRIT EPICS

Author(s): ALF HILTEBEITEL
Source: Journal of Indian Philosophy , June 2006, Vol. 34, No. 3 (June 2006), pp. 229-
286
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23497363
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Journal of Indian Philosophy (2006) 34: 229-286 © Springer 2006
DOI 10.1007/s 10781 -005-5020-x
ALF HILTEBEITEL
ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA: THE FIRST KNOWN

CLOSE AND CRITICAL READING OF THE
BRAHMANICAL SANSKRIT EPICS
The topic of "Buddhism and the Mahâbhârata" is one I have

up at a few points,1 and most recently in an article by tha
(forthcoming-a) whose basic points are (1) that there ha
convergence from different quarters pointing towards the epic
an Asokan or post-Asokan text, with Madeleine Biardeau hy
sizing contemporaneity between Asoka and the Mahâbhârat
James Fitzgerald, Nick Sutton, and I seeing the epic as a post
production; and (2) that the epic either portrays Yudhis
(according to Fitzgerald and Sutton) or the killing of the Ma
king Jarâsandha (Biardeau and I) against an Asokan or "
Magadhan"2 background. Meanwhile, there has also been
less convincing) discussion of Arjuna in an Asokan mold
(Selvanayagam, 1992).
My recent article took up the question from the standpoint of
iniva-Mahabharata considerations alone. For this article, while
working along some points I have been exploring in other recent
essays,3 I approach the question of Buddhism and the Mahâbhârata
intertextually. Greg Bailey has been exploring the Pali canon as a
source for understanding lexical allusions to Buddhism in the
Mahâbhârata, notably the ways both use the terminology of pravrtti
1 See Hiltebeitel (1989) (written in 1979 and delivered in January 1980 at the
"Seminar on Ancient Mathurâ," sponsored by the American Institute of Indian
Studies at New Delhi and Mathura); 2001, 163-173, 177-179.
2 1 adopt this term from the oral presentations of Bronkhorst (2005a, b).
3 These points, developed in Hiltebeitel (forthcoming a-e), include intertextual
grounds for considering early Mahâbhârata reading communities, and evidence that
the Mbh "archetype" elucidated by the Pune Critical Edition would have been read
and also transmitted well before the fourth century C.E. Guptas. Early manuscript
fragments (see Franco, 2004; Hiltebeitel, 2005, n. 15) and inscriptions (see Vassilkov,
2002), however fascinating, allude only to parts, and by their very nature offer only
incomplete pictures. These articles attempt, as this one does, to carry forward my
hypothesis in Hiltebeitel (2001) that the Mbh would have been composed in a short
period by a committee.

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230 ALF HILTEBEITEL
and nivrtti.4 Although I will return briefly to this topic, h

concerned mainly with other Sanskrit texts: to begin with,
Biardeau's sleuthing has been invaluable, the early dharm
Manu (Biardeau 2002, I, 65-96), and of course the Râmâyan
I, 700-701 and if., 726; 1999, xxxiii-xxxv). Since writing "B
and the Mahâbhârata" in 2003, the most important new wo
upon this intertextual situation comes from Patrick Olivell
2005) publications on the dharmasütras and Manu in which
calls attention to the likelihood that, soon after the Asoka
these texts probably provided Brahmanical responses to th
imperial broadcast of what had already been the Buddh
priation of the term dharma. Olivelle's propositions deman
study, but I believe that most of them are likely to be illum
EARLY DISCOURSE ON DHARMA AND KINGS
Olivelle's recent publications - one revealingly titled "The

History of Dharma The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
thus offer a new hypothesis on the innovative charact
Buddhist usage of dharma within the Middle and Late Yed
(ca. 800-400 B.C.E.) that includes the rise of Buddhism. Th
vation lies in seizing on a pre-Buddhist usage having to d
relationship between kings and their Vedic divine model,
Varuna, to coopt this royal term as chief among a numbe
symbols by which, as leader of an ascetic movement, t
could lay claim "to a new type of royal authority." F
standpoint, Asoka as Buddhist emperor deploys his famou
tions to implement this transformation in the realm o
Realpolitik. Then the dharmasütras, flower in reaction to t
usage to develop dharma as the all-embracing norm of po
Brahmanical culture,5 followed by the dharmasastras
4 Or pavatti and nivatti; see Bailey (2003), now followed up by presen

the topic at the London "Mbh and Gender Conference," July 2005, a
Dubrovnik International Conference on the Epics and Purânas (
September 2005.
5 Olivelle, 1999, xxviii-xxxiv places Àpastambha in the early 3rd cen
Gautama mid-3rd century B.C.E., Baudhâyana mid-2nd century
Vasistha possibly down to the 1st century C.E., while in Olivelle (2005,
n. 32, he finds these dates "still ... reasonable" but is "inclined now to
somewhat later." In the first of these discussions he provides good g
revising downward from earlier dates (by roughly a century) he had p
Olivelle (1993, 71, 94, 101-103).

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ASVAGHOSA'S BU DD H AC A RITA: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 231
Manu - both types of texts giving accented attention to the dharma of

kings. For whatever Manu's dates relative to the Mahâbhârata
(Biardeau, and I agree with her, leans toward the epic being likely
earlier [2002, 1, 85], Olivelle toward Manu's priority [2005, 24,
37^0]), Manu understands dharma in ways that both overlap with
and significantly differ from the Mahâbhârata's understanding of
dharma had Olivelle read (Biardeau's 2002 book would suggest
holding back on Olivelle's quick trigger on "interpolations," which he
marks off as "excursus" within the translation itself, some of which
could be seriously challenged6). It would then be within the context of
these developments that both Sanskrit epics amplify this new Brah
manical outlook with narratives that are precisely about a reformed
post-Vedic articulation of dharma still strongly centered - as dharma
was not only in the Vedas but in the Buddhist usages - on the figure
of the king. Insofar as both Buddhist and Brahmanical texts seem to
use the term dharma knowingly as regards each others' usages, we
may say that they participated in the heyday of what I would like to
call a civil discourse on dharma. Here I wish to re-appreciate Biar
deau's take on Brahmanical Buddhist interactions, in which she
proposes two forms of bhakti, Brahmanical and Buddhist, developing
along side each other, in the latter case among Buddhists who are
"for the most part of Indian origins and inserted in the society of
castes," fully "at home" ("chez eux") there, with "no one desir[ing]
their departure, despite this sort of Brahmanical manifesto ... that the
imperium of Asoka provokes" - in Biardeau's view - in the form of
the two epic texts (Biardeau, 2002, 2: 776; see Hiltebeitel, forth
comings). As we shall see, the description fits the Buddhist writer
Asvaghosa, the main subject of this article, to a T, though with one
caveat: that texts on both sides may be more civil on the level of
discourse than they are in the deployment of shared symbols, where
the implications can be a bit more sly and daring.
The production of the Brahmanical epics within the development
of Indian textual genres is thus crucial. Extending beyond a concern
found in the earliest dharmasütras and the grammarian Patañjali (ca.
150 B.C.E.) to define the boundaries of a central north Indian
heartland - called Aryavarta and widened to Brahmavarta7 - where
dharma was practiced and Sanskrit was spoken in pure and
6 See especially Biardeau (2002, vol. 1, 94-95) on M anus two-level cosmogony
(1.5-41) and his (Mbh) teaching that the king is the yuga (9.301-2).
7 See Bronkhorst (2005a, b); cf. Lamotte (1988, 8-9) on the early Buddhists'
somewhat overlapping counterpart.

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232 ALF HILTEBEITEL
authoritative fashion, both Sanskrit epics take up the p

articulating norms of dharma, as both law and teaching, t
"epic" narrative on a civilization-wide scale. What was Epic
was produced to appear archaic, to give "hoary" Vedic anti
norms that were being freshly minted. The new genre all
poets to construct what Bakhtin (1981) calls a chronotope,
"time space," that gave them amplitude to trace two dynas
the lunar (Mahâbhârata) and solar f Ram ay ana) dynasties, b
dawn of creation and to stage their main stories on a h
unheard-of and still perhaps unnamed geographical totalit
from Afghanistan (Gandhara) and Assam (Prâgjyotisa) to th
the Pandyas, and in the Râmâyana, to [Sri] Lanka. Yet the
each epic center their narratives differently on this overarchi
in the Mahâbhârata with a King Dharma who is no less th
of the god Dharma, setting up major griefs in his life as
what it might mean to embody such a paternity; and in the
with a king said to have the qualities of dharma to perfection,
that might mean in his facing life's imperfections.
While the two texts concur that dharma is an all-embra
lizational value, they thus allow very different things to be
it. One might thus contrast the Mahâbhârata's insistence th
is subtle (süksmo dharma) with the Râmâyana's emphasis o
rectitude (maryâdâ). Whereas in the Mahâbhârata dharma
up for question, in the Râmâyana it is viewed from a stand
who embodies it to perfection. Whereas the Mahâbhârata
king who questions dharma and is questioned in turn by D
his father in various disguises, the Râmâyana gives us a k
apparent perfection in dharma includes a decisive feel for
circumstances where questioning it might seem morally ap
Çsuch as the killing of Vâlin; the two ordeals of Sita; the
Sambüka). In this vein, when the Pândavas and DraupadT h
Râmopâkhyâna, the main version of the Rama story to
Mahâbhârata, as a "mirror story" of their own situation du
forest exile, the mirror presents a much more "forgiving" Ràm
it comes to Slta's first ordeal after her captivity by Râvana
nothing of the still more harrowing second. The Râmâyan
truth (satya) at its moral pinnacle and defines Rama's quit
promising life around that one value. In contrast, when the
Mahâbhârata speaks of the "highest dharmait does so more
situationally, offering a non-absolutizing ethics of many "highest
dharmas" while emphasizing "non-cruelty" (ânrsamsya), non-violence

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 233
(ahimsa), and truth as among the virtues especially pertinent to

(Hiltebeitel, 2001, 202-214).
With these differences in mind, one might say that in tone,
the Mahabhârata is closer to the pluralistic, flexible, and "
dharma of the early dharmasütras, which first define âgama (t
or "what comes down") and the cultural wisdom of learned
among the sources of dharma (whenever it is "subtle," so to
whereas the Râmâyana is closer to the legislative and "codi
clean-up operation type of dharma that one finds in Ma
Olivelle, 2005, 39^0). Clearly, one could continue to trace w
civil discourse on dharma now cuts across texts within the
Brahmanical tradition, notably in the Mïmàmsà and the gram
ans (Aklujkar, 2004). But let us get back to the prominence of dha
in conversations between the two developing religious traditio
ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA
It is against this background that it is worth looking at Asvaghosa's

Buddhacarita not only for what it says directly about "Buddhism and
the Mahabhârataabout which Asvaghosa definitely knows some
thing, but about what his treatment of the Mahabhârata might be
able to tell us about how dharma, and particularly, royal dharma,
remained the hot topic as this intertextual and interreligious game
returned to the Buddhist side of the court. In recognizing that
Asvaghosa focuses his Buddhist kâvya epic on dharma, and positing
that one of the main things that would have interested him in the
Brahmanical epics would have been their treatment of dharma, we
might also be able to improve upon earlier treatments of the question
of what kind of Mahâbhârata - and what kind of Râmâyana -
Asvaghosa would most likely have been responding to. This means
that we first need to consider Asvaghosa's likely dates.
Etienne Lamotte upholds Chinese traditions that Asvaghosa was
"contemporary with Kaniska" whom Lamotte dates at "ca. 128-51"
C.E. ([1958] 1988, 591 and 655). However, as Lamotte puts it, this
association of Asvaghosa with Kaniska comes from fourth and fifth
century "Chinese documentation on Indian origins of poor quality
and without historical interest" ([1958] 1988, 698), so it is not clear
why he upholds these sources on the connection of Asvaghosa with
Kaniska in opposition to others' skepticism about it. Johnston
8 As Olivelle (1999), xxxix puts it for Apastambha.

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234 ALF HILTEBEITEL
(2004), who after nearly 70 years still offers, I believe,

cussion of Asvaghosa,9 prefers a pre-Kaniska date for h
that Chinese tradition made Asvaghosa into an exorcist
xv and xxxv). Taking Kaniska's likely date to be ca. 7
Johnston places Asvaghosa "between 50 B.C. and 100
preference for the first half of the first century A.D
offering the most sustained recent discussion of the Buddh
I am aware of, the 2005 fifth edition of Buddhist Relig
torical Introduction by Richard Robinson, Willard J
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (a.k.a. Geoffrey DeGraff), like
Kaniska's date as "late first or early second century C.E
treats Asvaghosa as preceding him in "approximately t
tury C.E." (5). This edition, which both refines and c
extends (8-11) what the fourth edition of 1997 has t
Asvaghosa and the Buddhacarita, contextualizes Asva
contributor to a first-century turn to writing aff
Theravâda and Sanskrit Buddhist texts, a turn that furt
a contemporary development in Indian fine literature"
"some of the greatest poets and prose stylists of t
Asvaghosa, Mâtrceta, and Arya Süra - [were] Buddhist
Richard Salomon points to "inscriptional specimens of
available as early as the beginning of the first centu
"consistent with the evidence of literary sources themse
the works of Asvaghosa which point toward a flourish
the first century A.D." (1998, 233).11 Most intriguing to
Giuliano Boccali's observation that a totally new kâvy
can be noticed when both Asvaghosa (see Buddhacarita
Hâla in the Sattasal (the oldest anthology of Prakrit
around the same time - which for Boccali is the first ce
9 Johnston's monumental 10-year study of the Buddhacarita prov

edited text through most of the first 14 cantos (Part 1); translation
with lengthy Introduction plus extensive notes on the text and t
(Part 2); and translation of the last 14 cantos mainly from the Ti
attempted rough reconstruction of the Sanskrit from both fifth-cent
later Tibetan translations (Part 3). Reference to "Parts" will be made
10 Johnston throughout speaks of Asvaghosa as a first-century A.D.
xiii-xvii; xxxviii, xl. He had changed his view since translating the Sau
Johnston (1928, vi): "generally agreed to have flourished early in the s
A.D."
11 See similarly Dimock, Gerow, Nairn, Ramanujan, Roadarmel, and van Buit
(1974, 119), connecting Asvaghosa with first century C.E. prasasti inscription
developments in kâvya (the author of this segment is Edwin Gerow).
12 Selby (2003, xxvi) dates Hâla's reign at Pratisthana/Paithan to 20-24 C.E

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- introduce women pretending to stumble to attract th

attention: something, Boccali noted, that we would not im
any prior literature, including the Sanskrit epics, which are
lacking in such stereotypes of love."13
In brief, although there are those who lean toward a second-c
dating,14 there is a good weight of varied scholarly consid
favoring the first century. Moreover, Johnston shows that the
and especially the fifth-century C.E. Chinese translator must h
a Buddhacarita that does not differ much from the oldest s
Sanskrit manuscript, which he dates to 1300 +/- 50 (vii)
Lamotte ([1958] 1988, 656) and Beal (1968) give the date
Chinese translation by Dharmaksema or Dharmaraksa as
420, establishing that a quite stable Buddhacarita, like the
have, had come to China at least by the early fifth centur
guarantees that virtually all the verses of the oldest Sanskr
script (and the three others used by Co well [1893] that, acco
Johnston, derive from it) would "be either part of the original
interpolations" (2004, Part 1, viii). This does not deter Johns
devoting a page to "almost certain" and "doubtful" interpo
(Part 1, xvii-xviii), but these are neither numerous nor exten
THE CENTRALITY OF DHARMA IN ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA
It is a surprising point to have to make that Asvaghosa

centrally concerned with dharma, but others seem to have m
According to Robinson, Johnson, and Thanissaro, "Asv
main concern in portraying the Buddha's teaching career is
the various Brahmanical positions extant in his day. T
emphasizes the philosophical side of the Buddha's teachi
almost - albeit not entirely - to the exclusion of the religio
(2005, 23). It is important to their presentation that "
Buddhacarita is among the earliest extant texts to explicitly sta
there is no self" (2005, 91).15 According to Lamotte, Asv
"Buddhacarita and Saundarananda are on a level with the classical
13 Boccali, "Introduction" to concluding roundtable discussion on "Origins of

Mahàkàvya: Problems and Perspectives," Origins of Mahàkàvya: International
Seminar, Université degli Studi de Milano, Milan, June 4—5, 2004.
14 Olivelle (1993, 121), having first accepted Johnston's 1st century C.E. date,
more recently says Asvaghosa is "generally assigned to the lst-2nd centuries C.E."
(2005, 24); Strong offers "second century A.D.?" (1983, 31).
15 See B 14.84; 15.80-86 (teaching to Srenya-Bimbisâra), 26.18.

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236 ALF HILTEBEITEL
mahâkâvya. The scholastic parts remain faithful to the tra

vocabulary and phraseology; the narrative and descript
abound in brilliant images, figures of style, complicated me
learned grammatical forms. The author seems to have w
dazzle his less knowledgeable colleagues by fully deplo
brahmanical virtuosity. His search for effect and his conc
taken almost to the point of unintelligibility, give the impress
decadent art" (Lamotte [1958] 1988, 591-592). Johnston
edges Asvaghosa's interest in refuting Brahmanical traditi
cially with regard to the proto-Samkbya that Asvaghosa put
mouth of Arâda Kàlàma (2004, lvi-lxii), and he discusses
Asvaghosa's standing as a kàvya poet (lxxix ff.). But Jo
Asvaghosa is more multifaceted. One point to keep in mind:
underscores how "the breath of bhaktf (xxvi) animates certain
passages emphasizing sraddhâ or "faith,"16 but with a restraint
toward the miraculous:17 "more by devotion to the Buddha and a
respect for scripture than a love for the marvelous" (xxxix-xl).18 Here
too Johnston alludes to Asvaghosa knowledge of texts, a point I will
turn to in the next section. But Johnston never once mentions a
concern with dharma, coming close only once with a statement th
Asvaghosa's "standpoint remains entirely moral, free from an
attempt at metaphysical speculation" (2004, xli; my italics). Scholar
work on dharma by Johnston's time seems to have been rathe
16 Most of these are in the Saundarananda, but he also cites Canto 27 in the
Buddhacarita (Johnston, 2004, xxv-xxvii). See also xxxiv, xxxvii, xcvi, and
Asvaghosa's interest in pari-pratyaya, "reliance on others" (xxxiv-xxxv), which
Johnston relates to Mahâdeva's five points about the arhat, and to the Mahâsanghikas
(2004, xxvii- xxxi), a sect that revered Mahá-Kasyapa (xxvii, xxviii), to whom
Asvaghosa gives major billing. See further n. 18 below.
17 See Johnston 2004, xxxix and Buddhacarita 1.11, where, rather than mention
the Buddha's descent from the Tusita heaven one reads cyutah khâdiva, "as if he
came from the sky." Cf. Saundarananda 2.48-50, where such birth miracles are
mentioned.
18 See e.g. B 6.68, describing the groom Chandaka's return: "Sometimes he

brooded and sometimes he lamented, sometimes he stumbled and sometimes he fell.
So journeying in grief under the force of his devotion (bhaktivasena), he performed
many actions along the road in complete abandon." The passage combines kavya
style, used earlier with the smitten women, with viraha bhakti, with a result that
Chandaka acts much like a GopT. The opening of the same canto at 6.5-8 combines
with this end to make it a bhakti set piece. That Asvaghosa recognizes such con
ventions is an indication that they are established by the time of his composition. See
similarly 9.8 and 9.80-82 (a set piece on rajabhakti as inadvertent buddhabhakti by
the two Brahmans). On the "double sense" of bhakti in 4.32, see Johnston 49 n. 32, in
agreement with Gawronski (1914-15, 26).

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scattered, and he might have had a somewhat nebulous ahistorical

view of the term that many still have today.
Since Asvaghosa's interest in the topic of dharma will remain
central to this essay, I will limit discussion for now to two points that
will demonstrate, hopefully sufficiently, that the unfolding of dharma
from a Buddhist perspective is probably Asvaghosa's most central
concern. For the first of these, let me just say quickly that Asvaghosa
clearly makes it his task to attempt a virtuoso rehearsal and con
textualization of all the varied Buddhist and Brahmanical uses and
meanings of dharma likely to have been known to him. Thus on the
Buddhist side he treats all six basic Buddhist meanings of dharma a
outlined by Rupert Gethin,19 with precise moments for dharmas
(plural) as "elements of existence"20 and for dharma as "inherent
quality,"21 and for such staples as the saddharma,22 dharmacakra
pravartana (B 15.54—44), and even dharmakdya (24.10). And on the
Brahmanical side, while giving direct reference to varna (caste) only in
passing (4.18) and spinning out debates about asramadharma without
19 These are 1. the Buddha's "teaching," 2. "good conduct" or "good behavior,"

3. "the 'truth' realized by the practice of the Buddhist path," 4. "any particular
'nature' or 'quality' that something possesses," 5. "the underlying 'natural law or
order' of things," and 6. dharmas plural (Gethin, 2004, 515-516 and passim).
20 See especially B 12.106, in which the Buddha is reflecting just before the five
companions leave him and he goes to sit under the bodhi tree: "By the practice o
trance those dharmas are obtained through which is won the highest, peaceful stage,
so hard to reach, which is ageless and deathless (dhyànapravartanàd dharmàh
prápyante yair àpyale/ durlabham sântam ajaram param tad amrtam padam)." As
Johnston indicates "The reference is to the bodhipaksika dharmas" (2004, 184,
n. 106). This is I believe the first usage in the text of the technical sense of dharmas in
the plural. Johnston also reconstructs this plural usage from the Tibetan and Chinese
translations also at 17.18 and 24.27.
21 See 12.70, where the prince says thanks to Arâda Kàlâma but ponders, ex
presses reservations, and moves on: "For I am of the opinion that the field-knower,
although liberated from the primary (prakrti) and secondary (vikára) constituents,
still possesses the quality (dharman) of giving birth and also [the quality (dharman)]
of being seed: vikàraprakrtibhyo lii ksetrajñam muktam apy ahaml manye prasavad
harmânam bljadharmânam eva ca.
22 See 13.1 (Mara as saddharmaripus, "enemy of the true dharma"); 13.31 (the
divine sages in their pure abodes are "devoted to the good law"; continuing: they are
dharmâtmâ, "given to dharma" (Johnston), whereas Màra's hosts are himsâtmâ,
"cruel" (Johnston), or "given to violence" [13.32]). The term also occurs when Asita
comes "thirsting for the holy Law" ( 1.49) and predicts that the Buddha will deliver it
(1.74), and in the ironic words of Chandaka at 6.31, cited below.

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238 ALF HILTEBEITEL
ever precisely calling it that,23 he provides special mom

dharma in the trivarga (10.28-38, 11.58), kuladharma (10
three debts a man owes to his ancestors, the seers, and
(9.65), and âgama (see 4.83, 7.14, and especially 9.76 and
criticism of the uncertainties and wavering of traditional
authorities). I will return to some of these matters later.
Second, I would like to illustrate as a prime example of th
of this concern, and for its foundational importance of al
lows, how Asvaghosa presents the story of the four signs. For
outing (B 3.26-38), the Suddhàdhivàsa gods create the "illus
old man" (26). The prince24 asks his charioteer about it: "Is
transformation in him, or his original state, or mere c
(yadrccha)T,2S Thanks to the gods' confusing the chario
spilling the beans about old age, the prince, having learned t
"started a little (calitah ca kimciar)" and offered this first
"Will this evil come upon me also? (kim esa doso bhavitâ m
(32) - a rather shallow response compared to what he says w
confronted with signs two and three. For now, he asks to
back to the city; he cannot take pleasure "when the fear o
rules in my mind (jarâbhaye cetasi vartmâne)" (37d). For t
outing (3.39-53), the same gods fashion a diseased man. Th
first thoughts on this are more reflective: "Thereupon the
looked at the man compassionately (sânukampyo) and spok
evil (dosa) peculiar to him, or is the danger of disease (rog
common to all men?" ' (43). Made aware of the realities, he
the "vast ignorance (visfírnam ajñanam)" of men "who spo
the very shadow of disease" (46). When he has returned to t
his father, sensing the prince had "already abandoned"
scolds "the officer in charge of clearing the roads," but with n
punishment, and prepares another outing hoping to cha
prince's mood. For the third outing (3.54-65), the same
23 As Olivelle (1993) shows, Brahmanical asruma ("life-pattern" or "l

formulations were still in flux (see below). Curiously, the Ugrapariprcch
Mahâyàna text probably from around the first century C.E. (Nattier, 2
193), the date likeliest for Asvaghosa, shows similar early variation in f
on the "stages" (bhümis) of the bodhisattva career (151-152), along wi
recommendation that not only monks but lay householders take up t
path to Buddhahood.
24 As I will usually call him, except where Asvaghosa uses other term
notably Bodhisattva, which, likewise, since it occurs for the living prince f
time at 9.30, I will not use to describe him before that point in the text
25 I follow Johnston's translation unless otherwise indicated.

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ASVAGHOSA'S BU DD H AC A RIT A: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 239
fashion a lifeless man, arranging it so that only the prince and

charioteer see it (54)! Now the prince's question is still more
sophisticated: "Is this law of being (dharmah) peculiar to this man, or
is such the end of all creatures? (kim kevalo 'syaiva janasya dharmah
sarvaprajànàm ayam Idrso 'ntah)?" (58cd). To which the charioteer
replies, "This is the last act for all creatures (sarvaprajànàm idam
antakarma). Destruction is inevitable for all in the world, be he of low
or middle or high degree" (59). In short, from first asking about only
himself with regard to old age to asking about whether disease is
unique to one or common to all, he is now, when it comes to the dead
man, still framing the question in the same way as for the diseased
man, but not only asking whether death applies to one or to all but
asking after the underlying "law" (dharma) that results in death. But
whereas the prince asks about a "law," the charioteer answers him
only in terms of "acts," very nicely translated as "the last act." So the
discovery of such a law will remain the prince's problem. He is not
handed such a law by a charioteer - I am, of course, alluding to the
Bhagavad Gîta - or anyone else. Instead of dharma being revealed, it
is approached through developing insight.26 As elsewhere, there is a
convergence point between dharma and mrtyu, and perhaps of the
two with ignorance (here ajñáná). Now the prince suddenly becomes
"faint on hearing of death" (srutvaiva mrtyum; 60), grabs the chariot
rail, and then reflects "in a melodious voice" (61) that "this is the end
appointed for all creatures (iyam ca nisthd niyatà prajànàm)," and
how, to appear happy, men must harden their hearts for them to be in
good cheer as they fare along the road (adhvan; 61). He asks to return
to the city as it is no time for pleasure resorts (62), but the driver goes
at the king's behest to a grove prepared in advance, a park filled with
birds and beautiful women, which the prince experiences as if he were
a Muni carried there by force to a place presenting "obstacles" (65).
This sylvan pause gives Asvaghosa the opportunity to devote the next
canto of lacy kàvya to the wiles of women (one of whom, as noted,
even pretends to stumble), and the prince's newfound indifference to
them, before he is visited by the fourth sign (5.1-15).
The prince now heads out, again with his father's permission, to
see the forests, taking a retinue of companions (sakhibhis\ B 5.2) who
26 At 7.46, just after the great departure, he tells the first anchorites he meets that
he is still "a novice at dharma (me dharmanavagrahasya)." Cf. Gawronski (1914-15,
33), taking this as "(of me) who have newly taken to the dharma i.e. who am a
neophyte regarding it," and citing 11.7 (cited below) as a further unfolding of this
theme.

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240 ALF HILTEBEITEL
are the sons of ministers. He rides Kanthaka, but the chario

with him. Going to distant jungle-land (presumably "sa
sees the soil being ploughed, and, seeing insects cut up, he m
them as for his own kindred (5). Seeking clearness of mi
his friends (suhrdas, 7) and goes to sit beneath a Jambü t
"reflecting on the origin and destruction of creatio
prabhavavyayau vicinvany and taking "the path of men
(9), he enters "the first trance of calmness" (10) and
centration of mind (manah samâdhim)" (11). And, hav
perceived it, he meditates on the "course of the world
This meditation soon carries forward from what was b
focus around the term dharma as he encountered the th
wretched thing it is indeed (krpanam bata) that a man, w
helpless and subject to the law of old age, disease, and d
(vyâdhijarâvinâsadharmà), should in his ignorance and t
of his conceit, pay no heed to another (param ajño) who i
of old age, disease, or death (my italics). For if I, who am m
should pay no heed to another whose nature is equally su
not be right or fitting in me, who have knowledge of this,
law (paramam dharmam imam vijanato me)" ( 12—13).28 H
that this "law" involves a re-cognition of "the other" wi
are in this together, which carries forward from the p
through the first three signs. And after verses 14-15 d
insight further and its neutralizing of the passions in the p
now the moment for the arrival of the fourth sign (5.16
rather than provoking these reflections, comes in respon
Not fabricated by the gods like the other three signs
appears as a bhiksu or mendicant (5.16), and says, "In fe
and death [I] have left the home life for the sake of sal
vrajato 'smi moksahetoh)" (17). He is a homeless wand
"accepting any alms I may receive (yathopopannabhai
and, moreover, a "heavenly being who in that form had
Buddhas, and has encountered the prince to rouse hi
(smrti)" (20), which he gets. For, "When that being went lik
heaven, the best of men was thrilled and amazed. An
27 In the Nidanakatha, this episode occurs when he is a mere child wi

Warren, 1998, 53-55).
28 5.12. krpanam bata yaj janah svayam sarin/ avaso vyâdhijarâvinâs
jarayârditam âturam mrtam val param ajño vijugupsate madàndhah//
13. iha ced aham Idrsah svayam san/ vijugupseya param tathâ svabhavam
na bhavet sadrsam hi tat ksamam va/ paramam dhannam imam vijàna

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awareness of dharma (upalabhya tatas ca dharmasamjñám) and set his

mind on the way to leave his home" (21).29 When he returns to the
palace, it is "with yearning aroused for the imperishable dharma
(aksayadharmajâtaràgah)" (25-26). One might wonder whether
Asvaghosa draws a contrast with the term sanâtanadharma, "eternal
dharma," which he would likely have had opportunity to know from
both Sanskrit epics. An eternal dharma invokes the eternal Veda and
a dharma that, while beyond appearances, is always subtly present,
whereas an imperishable dharma could avoid these implications and
evoke something that neither perishes nor originates but can always
be rediscovered.30 In any case, this birdlike divine creature sets the
prince to the task of unfolding this new awareness of dharma he has
already begun discovering on his own by setting his mind on
departure from home - which is clearly not the locus of this dharma,
although it will not fail to bear upon it.
ASVAGHOSA THE BRAHMAN, BUDDHIST CONVERT, AND SCHOLAR
On one matter, all agree, even though it is again only Chinese sources
that actually state it: that Asvaghosa was a Brahman convert to
Buddhism. Johnston gives numerous reasons to accept the Chinese
tradition on this one point (2004, xviii), and actually hazards to speak
of "the zeal of the convert" (xcvi). But Johnston's first claim for
Asvaghosa under the rubric of converted Brahman is that "he had an
acquaintance, so wide that no parallel can be found to it among other
Buddhist writers, with all departments of Brahmanical learning"
(lviii) - a topic to which Johnston devotes a whole section under the
heading of "The Scholar" (xlvii-lxxix). He thus credits Asvaghosa
29 5.21 gaganam khagavad gate ca tasmin/ nrvara samjahrse visismiye ca//

upalabhya tatas ca dharmasamjñám/ abhiniryâna vidhau matim cakâra.
See Johnston (2004, 65) n. 21 on dharmasamjha with upa-labh, in the "technical sense
of the action of the mind in forming ideas or conceptions, based on the perceptions
presented to it by the senses."
30 Horsch ([1967] 2004, 439) mentions, without citation, early Buddhist usage of
sanâtana ("eternal") and akalika ("timeless") for dhamma as "corresponding] to the
sanatano dharmah of the Hindu philosophers," but that the dhamma is "fixed"
whether Tathâgatas rise up or do not (citing Samyutta Nikâya 2, p. 24, W. Geiger
trans.). Cf. Nattier (2003, 142): a bodhisattva must "be born in his final life into a
world devoid of Buddhism, where he will rediscover its truths for himself."

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242 ALF HILTEBEITEL
with Rg Vedic knowledge,31 familiarity with Brahmanical ri

(xlv, lxxviii, lxxiii-lxxxiv), the Upanisads (xlv-vi), early
medical, astronomical/astrological, and silpa (lii-liii) tex
Sâmkhya, Yoga, and possibly Vaisesika texts (lvi-lxii), contem
developments in k àvy a (lxii-lxiii), and of course the two epics
form (our next topics). But in a fascinating oversight or om
makes no attempt to relate Asvaghosa's knowledge of Brah
dharma to any dharma literature. Perhaps he assumed that
were sufficient to cover what Asvaghosa knew of Brahmanical
dharma, but that, I believe, would be a very risky assumption. The
prince's friend Udâyin does cite epic precedents as to the duty to
fulfill women's desire at B 4.66-67 (though not the most obvious such
case: Arjuna's accommodation of Ulüpl, which hinges on her inter
pretation of this "highest dharma" [Mbh 1.206.23-33]) - counsel
which Asvaghosa describes as "specious words, supported by scrip
tural tradition (agama)" (B 4.83) that the prince deafeningly rejects
(84-99). But there is probably more than epic precedent when, soon
after King Suddhodana's rule is compared to that of "Manu, son of
the sun" (2.16), Asvaghosa describes the young prince growing up in
a kingdom where his father not only practiced all the virtues of self
restraint, offered large fire ceremonies (36), and drank soma as
enjoined by the Vedas (37), but judged petitions impartially "and
observed purity of justice ( vya vahar asuddham) as being holy (sivam)"
(39); did not execute the guilty but imposed mild punishments (42),
and taxed fairly (44) - all this while the king "pondered on the
Sastra" (vimamarsa sâstram, 52).
In any case, Johnston makes several astute assessments on
Asvaghosa's erudition that are worth quoting. First, he says that
"Asvaghosa writes for a circle in which Brahmanical learning and
ideas are supreme; his references to Brahmans personally and to their
institutions are always worded with the greatest respect, and his many
mythological parallels are all drawn from Brahmanical sources"
(2004, xv-xvi).32 Johnston thus recognizes that Asvaghosa partici
pates in what I am calling a civil discourse. Second, Johnston says
31 See Johnston (2005, xlv) and 124-25, note to B 14.9: "The legend of Vasistha's
descent from UrvasT is alluded to in the RigVeda," which the verse refers to,
although it "had already been lost sight of by the time of the epics."
32 See especially B 7.45, where the prince shows respect toward the tapasvins -
"the upright-souled sages, the supporters of religion (dharmabhrtâm) - of the pe
nance grove." Johnston (2004, xvi), n. 1 notes two exceptions in the Saundarananda,
whose genuineness he doubts. In any case, the point applies to the Buddhacarita.

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that Asvaghosa's accuracy and even pedantry bind us "to assume

that his learned references are strictly in accordance with the
authorities he used," even though "these authorities are for the most
part no longer extant" (xliv). Third, and most important, he observes
that Asvaghosa "seems at times to delight in expressing Buddhist
views in a way that would remind Hindu readers of their own
authorities" (lv). If so, for the long run, at least, this was probably
wishful thinking, as his verse was little cited after Kàlidàsa (lxxix-lxxxii)
and only half-survived in four Sanskrit manuscripts until modern
interests somewhat resurrected him. Johnston also remarks that by
"introducing so much Hindu learning [Asvaghosa] offended against
the puritan moment in Buddhism" (xxxvii), which likewise did little
to later acclaim him - at least in subsequent Indian Buddhist texts,
although the Chinese Pilgrim I-Tsing found the Buddhacarita
popular in India in the 7th century (Johnston, 2004, xxxv-xxxvi)
when he travelled in northeastern India around 672. Indeed, that
may have been the level at which this "Buddhist epic" would have
had its longest run in India. Recalling Johnston's emphasis on faith
and bhakti, it is not uninteresting that a Brahman converted to
Buddhism and attentive to Buddhist bhakti could also be familiar
with what is similar in the Brahmanical epics.
ASVAGHOSA AND EPIC PRECEDENTS
For both Brahmanical epics, we thus have the possibility

reading": both in time, for I do not think it very likely tha
versions of either epic can be more than three centuries ea
Asvaghosa, and more likely only preceded him by about a c
at the most two; and in relation to the question Johnston
insisting that Asvaghosa is scrupulous in citing his authori
these points in mind, it is worth making a few observatio
how Asvaghosa treats both epics together before looking at
he treats each distinctly.
First, it seems there are recurrent points where he allud
two epics either together or alternately. Most striking is
such instance when King Suddhodana's court Brahmans in
the baby prince's birth signs and refer to various tex
authors, and then other heroic figures before Asita arriv
the signs definitively. To make the point that "Anyone m
pre-eminence anywhere in the world, for in the case of the ki

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244 ALF HILTEBEITEL
seers the sons accomplished the various deeds their ancest

to do" (B 1.46), these court Brahmans mention the following
instances (I paraphrase from 1.41 to 1.45):
41. Although Bhrgu and Añgiras were the founders of families, it was not they who
created (cakratus) the "science of royal policy" (rajasastra), but their sons Sukra and
Brhaspati.
42. The son of SarasvatT, Vyâsa, promulgated again the lost Veda (jagâda nastam
vedam) and divided it into many sections, which Vasistha (his great grandfather) had
not done.
43. And Vâlmiki was the first to create poetry (valmikir adau ca sasarja padyam),
which Cyavana33 did not do; and Atreya34 proclaimed the science of healing
which Atri did not discover.
44. Visvâmitra won brahmanhood (dvijatvam) which Kusika (his grandfather) did
not, and Sagara set a limit for the ocean which his Iksvaku predecessors did not
achieve.
45. Janaka gained preeminence in instructing the twiceborn in yoga, and Süra
(Krsna's father) and his kin were incapable of the celebrated deeds (khyâtàni
karmanî) of Sauri (i.e., Krsna).
Verses 42-43 establish a clear Mahâbhârata-Ràmâyana alternation

(Vyâsa and Vâlmiki), whereas the rest refer to sages and kings known
in both epics. This alternance and fusion, which occurs repeatedly,
suggests a kind of proto-ifera intention toward the two epics.35
Moreover, it would be hard to explain how Asvaghosa would know
about the two poets, Vyâsa and Vâlmiki, unless he were familiar with
material from the twelfth book of the Mahabharata (if not also the
first) and from the first book of the Ramayana (if not also the
seventh). As Johnston remarks, one may infer from a verse in
Asvaghosa's earlier work, the Saundarananda, "that the story of
Vâlmïki's having taught the poem to Kusa and Lava was familiar to
him (2004, xlix). In fact, the verse credits Vâlmiki with having
performed the twins' childhood rites, and both Vâlmiki and the boys
with being "inspired" (dhlmat).36
33 Another Bhârgava; but see Johnston (2004, 10 n. 43).

34 Perhaps alluding to Caraka; see Johnston (2004, 70, n. 43).
35 Johnston (2004, xciii-xcvi) observes something analogous in Asvaghosa's
allowance of double Brahmanical and Buddhist meanings in samdhi passages with "a
negative disappearing" (3.25; 12.82 [he probably means 12.81]).
36 Saundarananda 1.26cd: valmlkiriva dtiimâms ca dhïmator maithileyayoh; see
Johnston (1929, 3 n. 26): "inspired" for dhimat, refering "to Vàlmïld's poetic
inspiration in composing the Râmayana and to Kusa and Lava's artistic skill in
repeating it." Yet Johnston (2004, xlix) says, "As regards the Uttarakànda, I can find
no reason to suppose that the poet knew any portion of it."

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACAR1TA: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 245
But Asvaghosa also has a point in making epic and other

Brahmanical mythological allusions, though some of them are
certainly obscure.37 It is to bring across a realization that, no matter
how illuminating heroic, sagely, and divine precedents may be as
parallels, they are ultimately irrelevant to the achievement of the
Buddha. In making this thoroughly intelligible Buddhist point,
Asvaghosa is distinguishing his work from both epics, where heroic
and divine precedents are repeatedly cited, and especially, in the
Mahâbhârata, cited by Vyàsa and Krsna,38 although numerous other
narrators employ the same device. Thus, for instance, once the prince
has undertaken his "great departure," he dispenses with royal
precedents for returning home from the forest, including the prece
dent of Ràma, saying to one of his father's emissaries, "And as for
your quoting the instances of Ràma and the others to justify my
return [home], they do not prove your case; for those who have
broken their vows are not competent authorities in deciding matters
of dharma (na te pramânam na hi dharmaniscayesv alam pramânâya
pariksaya vrata)" (B 9.77). Ràma may offer a precedent but not an
"authority" (pramânam)] Moreover, we are left with the tantalizing
question of what vow Ràma might have broken,39 for it is almost
certainly king Ràma, son of Dasaratha, who is being kept in focus
here, even though Asvaghosa can also refer to Ràma DàsarathT and
Ràma Jàmadagnya in one and the same breath.40 Further along, one
hears similarly how "Vasistha, Atri, and others came under the
dominion of time"; so too Yayàti, etc., and hundreds of Indras,
whereas Sambuddhas entered nirvana (24.38-42). Finally, in the last
canto, when seven kings are ready to go to war over the Buddha's
bones and cite as heroic precedents for doing so Sisupàla's stand
37 For unknown and uncertain references and usually Johnston's discussion

thereof, see 41.16-18; 4.72-75; 4.80 (? Karalajanaka); 9.20; 9.69-70; 11.15, 11.18;
11.31 (Mekhala-Dandakas); 13.11 (Sürpaka, the fishes' foe); 28.32 (Eli and Paka).
38 For some discussion, see Hiltebeitel ([1976] 1990, 261-266) (Krsna reveals di
vine precedents for Arjuna's killing of Kama), 289-296 (Vyása and Krsna reveal
divine precedents for Yudhisthira's Asvamedha); 2001, 73 (idem), 49 and 118-120
(Vyása reveals precedents for the polyandrie marriage of DraupadT).
39 I do not think it could be a marriage vow, since if there is such a thing in the
Râmâyana or the Buddhacarita, prince Sarvàrthasiddha (B 2.17) has just broken his
marriage vow as well.
40 See in the same canto B 9.25, where the prince hears about both Ramas and
BhTsma as exemplars of doing deeds to please their fathers. See also 9.69, where he
hears, "So too Rama left the penance grove and protected the earth, when it was
oppressed by the infidel (anâryais)" - on which Johnston is no doubt right that this
probably refers to Bhârgava Rama (2004, 137, n. 69).

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246 ALF HILTEBEITEL
against Krsna, the end of Vrsnis and Andhakas over

Bhârgava Rama's decimation of the Ksatriyas, and Râ
uation with Sïtà (28.28-31), the point couldn't be clearer
precedents from the Brahmanical epics are dangerous. O
kington puts it in the case of the destruction of the
Andhakas, the story "figures as a moral warning" (1998
Yet we will also have occasions to note that Asvaghosa
both as a kâvya poet and a Buddhist convert, could have
for treating epic allusions with a little play. At Buddhaca
instance, Udâyin begins urging the women to show some
seducing the prince: "Of old time, for instance, the great
whom even the gods could hardly contend with, was kick
foot by the harlot (vesavadhva), Kâsisundarï." Johnston
story is unidentified and it is uncertain if KasisundarT
name or not" (2004, 46 n. 16). But most likely it un
bawdily, from the night Vyâsa spends happily siring Vid
Südra servant-woman of the KasI princess Ambikà, who
adorns with her own jewels so that she looks "like an Ap
bhüsanair dasim bhüsayitvá apsaropamam; Mbh 1.100
beautiful heavenly courtesan - and sends to Vyâsa in her
apparently to try to fool him (100.23-101.1). No doub
would also be from Kâsï, and thus either named KasisundarT or
described as "the beautiful Kâsï woman." Sullivan, who discusses
this and a similar verse in Asvaghosa's Saundarananda (7.30), con
siders KasisundarT to have been Ambikà herself, but this is a more
unlikely solution since Ambikà would have had to confront Vyâsa
directly to have (in Sullivan's words) so "decisively rejected" him
(1990, 291), and since the verse is intended as inspiration in the arts of
seduction. In effect, Udâyin would be saying, If nothing else works,
give the prince a kick.
As we now proceed to the epics themselves, I think we can thus
allow ourselves a caveat with regard to Johnston's insistence that
Asvaghosa is scrupulous in citing authorities. I certainly believe that
he wants to be understood by those who know the epic texts, but it is
unlikely that he or they knew them only as written texts, since by his
time they no doubt already served as the basis for oral adumbrations
in both Brahmanical and Buddhist circles in which either and indeed
both together could have some fun with the text. This point is worth
keeping in mind as we now address the more serious matters that
interest Asvagosa in juxtaposing the life of the Buddha to scenes in
both epics, not only separately but together, where they exemplify

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their different but also complementary guidelines on a basic

raised by the Brahmanical dharma of householder kings.
THE BUDDHACARITA AND THE RAM AY AN A
As Johnston points out, Asvaghosa's treatment of the Râmâ

more direct than that of the Mahâbhârata, since, as we have
begun to notice, he makes frequent reference to the life
Râmâyana s main hero. Johnston picks up on the Buddha
closing colophon, where the poet writes of himself as "Asvag
Sâketa" [i.e., Ayodhyâ],41 for a likely explanation.
The case is entirely different with the Râmâyana, for which an inhabitant o
the scene of its most poignant episodes and the capital of its dynasty, could
keep a warm place in his heart, however his religious beliefs had changed. As
never tires of reminding us that the Buddha belonged to the dynasty of his h
strikes this note in the very first verse of the Buddhacarita.42
From this no doubt important point, Johnston turns to "enq

what extent he [Asvaghosa] knew the poem in its present
(2004, xlviii), favoring the view of Andrzej Gawronski, who, h
has
...proved conclusively, as I hold, that Asvaghosa knew certain portions of the

book, the Ayodhyakânda, in very much the condition that we have them i
and that he took pleasure in drawing a comparison between the Buddha qui
home and Rama leaving for the forest. That he knew the continuation of the
proved from a reference in B., xxciii. 31 [concerning the bad precedent, just
Ràvana's doomed infatuation with Sîtâ], but whether in the present form
not clear from the wording. It certainly does seem that there are many fu
sages in the later books likely to have influenced the Buddhist poet.... The
really turns on whether Asvaghosa knew some or all of the passages in th
describing how Hanumân visited Ràvana's palace and saw the women asleep
xlviii)
In fact, Gawronski limited his discussion to Râmâyana Book 2

because he found the parallels more direct there and a larger com
parison too unwieldy (1919, 27-28); he felt enabled "to conclude with
a sufficient amount of certainty that at the time of Asvaghosa there
existed at least Book II of the Râmâyana (but most probably the
remaining genuine books also) in much the same form as is known to
us to-day" (40). Gawronski flagged most of the Book 2 passages that
41 Johnston (2004), Part 3, 124. Cf. Lamotte 656: "a native of Saketa who had
converted to Buddhism."
42 Johnston (2004, xlvii). See also Buddhacarita 10.23; 13.1 (implied); 14.92; 17.6.

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248 ALF HILTEBEITEL
I will discuss. As to the well-known kâvya question of th

between Hanumàn's viewing the sleeping women in Ràv
and the Buddhacarita's sleeping harem scene on the nig
Buddha's great departure, Johnston says he "will refrain
a definite answer" until there is a Râmâyana critical ed
xlvii). On this matter, Brockington takes a favorable vie
V. Raghavan's demonstration (1956) that Asvaghosa b
harem scene from Sundarakânda 5.7-9, "including par
wording" (Brockington, 1998, 485).
Beyond these probably unnecessary cautions, Johns
some interesting observations about intratextual intr
there is a problem with whether Visvâmitra is seduced b
Asvaghosa has it along with a verse in Râmâyana Book 4, or
Menakà, who is the seductress in the story in Râmâyana Book l;43
and that Asvaghosa would seem to have needed the Râmopâkhyâna
to explain why he has Vamadeva and Vasistha visit Rama in the
forest (Johnston, 2004, xlix-1). But these cautions and conundrums
have to do not with the heart of Asvaghosa's interests in the
Râmâyana, but with his selective pattern of making allusions as
ultimately negative precedents, which I have already discussed. The
heart of the matter is, as Johnston puts it, that Asvaghosa "took
pleasure in drawing a comparison between the Buddha quitting
his home and Ràma leaving for the forest" (xlviii). Indeed, the
Buddhacarita has this much in common with the Pali Vessantara
Jâtaka, which, as Gombrich (1985) shows, involves detailed but mor
indirect and deflected correspondences not between Ràma and the
Buddha, but between Ràma and the Buddha in has very last life as
Prince Vessantara.44
For Asvaghosa, however, it is not just a matter of poetic pleasure
(such as might be the case the Râmâyana''s sleeping harem scene),
Johnston seems to imply. What interests Asvaghosa is the opport
nity Rama's departure offers to draw a contrast between Brahmanic
43 For the first, Johnston (2004, xlix) gives Ram 4.35.7, which is 4.34.7 in th
Baroda Critical Edition; the second is CE 1.62.4-13. As Lefeber (1994, 289) notes,
some commentators identify the two Apsarases as one and the same.
44 Gombrich astutely suggests that this deflection to a previous life "reflects th
hostility of Theravâda Buddhism (though the VJ story was not confined to th
Ther avada) to the values embodied in the Ramayana" and agrees with Bechert
(1979, 28) that this would further have to do with the Ramáyands being "unac
ceptable to the Sinhalese because it contradicts their view of the island's history"
especially in RamSyana Book 6. Asvaghosa would not have this Lankan problem
with Vâlrmki.

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ASVAGHOSA'S BU DD H AC A RIT A: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 249
dharma and Buddhist dharma. Taking into account only the first
fourteen cantos of the Buddhacarita (the ones for which we have
Sanksrit texts), the prince, up to his enlightenment, has no less than
13 interlocutors with whom he hones his views on dharma: 1. his
charioteer, through the first three signs (B 3.26-65); 2. Udâyin (4.9
23, 56-99); 3. the Sramana who appears as the fourth sign (5.9-21); 4.
a "nobleman's daughter" (râjakanyâ), elsewhere45 known as Kisà
GotamT, whose words of praise upon seeing his return from the
fourth sign crystallize his silent resolve to pursue "the means to final
nirvana (parinirvânavidhau matim cakâra)" and "the imperishable
dharma" (5.23-26); 5. his father (5.27-46, this being the only point
where he addresses his son directly); 6. the horse Kanthaka46 (5.68
72, a one-way conversation in which the prince voices his readiness
for the great departure after the Akanistha deities have arranged
the sleeping harem scene); 7. his groom Chandaka (6.1-52, when the
prince sends him home after making the great departure);47 8. the
anchorites of a Bhârgava penance grove, there with their wives (7.1
58); 9. the Purohita (9.81-51) and 10. the Minister (9.52-79),48 jointly
sent by the king to the penance grove to speak for him and the
Iksvâku line (9.4); 11. Srenya-Bimbisara, king of Magadha (10.22
11.71); 12. Aràda Kàlàma (12.1-83); and 13. Mâra (13.1-69).
In at least four of these cases, Asvaghosa relates the prince's
departure directly to the Râmâyana (or in the fourth case possibly to
the Râmopâkhyâna). First and foremost, King Suddhodana compares
his grief to that of "Dasaratha friend of Indra," and envies Dasaratha
for going to heaven when Ràma did not return (B 8.79-91): "Thus
the king grieved over the separation from his son and lost his
steadfastness, though it was innate like the solidity of the earth; and
as if in delirium, he uttered many laments, like Dasaratha over
whelmed by grief for Ràma" (8.81). Grief (soka) is of course the
45 And in different circumstances; see the Nidanakatha version in Warren (1998,

59).
46 Asvaghosa speaks of it as King Suddhodana's horse, which he has ridden in
battle (5.75). It is not born, along with the groom, at the same time as the Buddha, as
in the Nidanakatha (see Warren, 1998, 48).
47 Assuming that Chandaka is different from the unnamed charioteer.
48 Referred to, when the prince dismisses them, as tau havyamantrâkrtau, "the
officers who were in charge of the king's sacrifices and his counsel chamber" (B 10.1).

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250 ALF HILTEBEITEL
Râmâyana's underlying sthâyibhâva or "stable aesthetic em

relation to karunâ, "pity" as its predominant aesthetic
(<añgl rasa),49 and it characterizes King Suddhodana's feelin
son throughout the Buddhacarita.50 Second, the groom
says, "I cannot abandon you as Sumantra did Ràghava"
Third, when he and the riderless horse return, the townsfo
tears in the road, as happened of old when the chariot of D
son returned" (8.8). Fourth, as already noted, the chaplain (
and minister are compared, as emissaries, to Vâmadeva and
visiting Rama in the forest (9.9).
But there are also indirect allusions to the Ràmâ story. I
the two emissaries seem to step into their roles with Râm
oes,51 the same can be said of the prince's encounter with t
Rsis who dwell in a penance grove together with their wive
would propose that Asvaghosa builds up this scene to repr
vanaprastha (married forest dweller) mode of life idealized
forest books of both epics,52 but especially in the Râmâyan
Rama meets a distinct set of Vedic sages, one of whom,
explicitly ensconced in the forest with his wife Anasû
Hiltebeitel, forthcoming-b). In any case, the prince's desce
Râmâyana's dynastic lineage is certainly invoked when the
the ashram cows in this "workshop as it were of dharma"
flow upon first seeing the prince as "the lamp of the Iksv
(7.6)! Further, while each of these 13 interlocutors voices o
words in the prince's presence, his abandoned wife Yaso
words in his absence are, I think, also spoken in evocation
49 See my discussion in Hiltebeitel (forthcoming-b).

50 See 1.76 (Suddhodana warned not to grieve over his son's inevitab
enment); 6.19-20 (with likely Râmâyana echoes in the prince's reference
of his [Iksvâku] ancestors) and 6.30-31 (Chandaka's response); and espec
15, 9.29 (as aired by the Purohita, whom the prince answers on this point
Meanwhile others also grieve throughout Canto 8 (soka is mentioned tw
there) when it is realized that the prince has not returned with Chan
Kanthaka.
51 They are not found in the Nidânakathâ.
52 See Biardeau (2002), vol. 2, 70-71, 75-76, 82 on these often married forest
hermits, their hospitality to epic princes, and their probably prior portrayal as well in
the dharmasutras.
53 See Johnston (2004, 98 n. 33), crediting Garwonski (1919, 14-15) on this

reading, but I think a little too quickly dismissing his extension of the image to mean
"forge, smithy," making the penance grove "like a forge of dharma in full activity
(dharmasya karmantam iva pravrttam)."

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If he wishes to carry out dharma and yet casts me off, his lawful partner in the duties
of religion and now husbandless, in what respect is there dharma for him who wishes
to follow austerities separated from his lawful partner?
Surely he has not heard of our ancestors, Mahasudarsa and the other kings of old,
who took their wives with them to the forest, since he thus intends to carry out
dharma without me. (8.61-62).54
Whoever Mahasudarsa may be,55 Yasodharâ would count Ràma

among her husband's Iksvàku ancestors. This thread of direct and
indirect Râmâyana evocations comes to a decisive climax, in a pas
sage cited earlier, when the prince tells his father's Purohita and
Minister emissaries that Ràma is not an authority (pramàncmî) on
dharma (9.77).
For now, it must suffice to note that Asvaghosa finds seven of
the 13 champions of Brahmanical dharma - the father, the groom, the
riderless horse (rather than the empty chariot), the two emissaries, the
wife, and the anchorites (with their cows) - suitable, even if at a
stretch, for evocations of the Ràma story. It would take more space
than it merits to demonstrate that, even beyond these seven, all 13
speak for one or another form Brahmanical dharma - including, as
we shall see, Màra. Suffice it to say that through the run of Râmâyana
precedents that ends with the prince dismissing them, it is, from early
on, the "variegated dharma (dharmam vividham)" (B 2.54) performed
by King Suddhodana as a iây/ra-pondering king - one who, among
other duties, has just secured the continuance of his royal line
through the birth of his son (2.52-53) - that anchors all these
Brahmanical concerns. The ultimate irony of this portrayal of
Brahmanical royal dharma by a Buddhist poet comes across when
Chandaka makes one of his last appeals: "You should not desert, as a
nihilist the good law (saddharmam iva nâstikah), your loving father,
who yearns for his son" (6.31).
54 sa mâm anâthàm sahadharmacarinïm/ apàsya dharmam yadi kartum icchati/8.61.

kuto 'sya dharmah sahadharmacarinlml vina tapo yah paribhoktum icchati/l
62. srnoti nünam sa na pûrvapârthivân/ mahâsudarsaprabhrfm pitcimahân/
vanàni patriisahitàn upeyusas/ tathâ hi dharmam madrte ciklrsati.
Gawronski (1919, 35—36) remarks that the previous lines 8.55-58 of Yasodhara's
lament and her contrast of "the easy life he has enjoyed thus far and the drawbacks
of dwelling in a hermitage" have another Ram parallel, but the words there are
Dasaratha's, the verses occur in a long interpolation (Ram 2, Appendix 1, no. 9, lines
180-187), and the theme is perhaps rather a cliché.
55 Johnston (2004, 117) notes that he "is presumably the Mahâsudassana of the
genealogies of the DTpavamsa and Mahâvamsa."

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252 ALF HILTEBEITEL
This Râmàyana-related nexus runs mainly through the B

rita's first nine cantos. Indeed, the only continuation I can s
cantos comes after the Buddha's enlightenment, when "Th
the Iksvâku race who had been rulers of men, the royal seer
great seers, filled with wonder and joy at his achievement,
their mansions in the heavens reverencing him" (B 14.92).
lovely twist to leave us wondering whether Ràma is among
Within this Râmâyana skein, there seem to be two sets of c
each with numerous subsidiary considerations: grhasthadh
the duties of a householder; and priorities regarding the se
third stages of life as they bear upon kings in the scheme
madharma, the ideal sequence of the four stages of life - a
used in the first half of the Buddhacarita, but one whose cu
certainly implied, as when King Suddhodana tells the prin
violate their "proper order" (5.32).56 This of course means
two concerns intersect, since according to the classical form
the âsrama system (Olivelle, 1993, 27, 30) the householder m
second life-stage.
We see this intersection from the Buddhacarita's first mention of
grhasthadharma, which, fittingly, comes right when King Suddho
dana first faces his son's determination to abandon both home and
his succession to the throne, and thus frames the issue as one of royal
dharma. Says the father to the son:
But, O lover of dharma, it is now my time for dharma, after I have devolved the
sovereignty onto you, the cynosure of all eyes; but if you were to forcibly quit your
father (gurum), O firmly courageous one, your dharma would become adharma.
Therefore give up this your resolve. Devote yourself for the present to householder
dharma (bhava lavan nirato grhasthadharme). For entry to the penance grove is
agreeable to a man, after he has enjoyed the delights of youth. (B 5.32-33).57
Note that "entry to the penance grove" (tapovanapravesa) is also

used for the forest-dwelling anchorites when they return to their
"dharma workshop" at 7.58. This suggests that the term characterizes
the third life-stage of the "forest dweller" or vânaprastha (even
though the text does not mention the term), and that King Sud
dhodana, at least, conceives the tension between him and his son as
56 See Olivelle (1993, 121 and n. 30), so translating vikrame at 5.32c, and com
menting that Johnston's translation "misses the point"; cf. 10.33, discussed below.
57 5.32. mama tu priva dharma dharmakâlas/ tvayi laksmlm avasrjya laksmabhUte/
sthiravikramavikramena dharmas/ tava hitvâ tu gurum bhaved adharmahU
33. tad imam vyavasâyam utsrja/ tvam bhava tavan nirato grhasthadharme/
purusasya vahahsukhâni bhuktvâ/ ramanlyo tapovanapravesah.

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one to be worked out between the "dharmas" of the second and third
life-stages, and not the second and the fourth. This is so even after the
prince hears the "nobleman's daughter" utter the ambiguous word
nirvrtâ - by which she is describing the woman who would be
"blessed" (Johnston, 2004, 66) or "happy" to have such a husband as
he, but which fills him with the "supreme calm (samam param)" that
inspires him to win parinirvâna (5.24-25) - and tells his father that he
has decided to seek moksa (5.28), preferring that to the word nirvana,
which is not used elsewhere in the first fourteen cantos to describe the
prince's quest for it. Almost perversely, King Suddhodana avoids
talking in such terms and, in the passage just cited, immediately
rephrases his son's resolve into a premature decision for the penance
grove and the implied vânaprastha-dharma. Indeed, King Suddho
dana carries his seemingly deliberate misunderstanding to an offer to
go to the forest rather than his son (5.32).58 This matter of untimely
dharma being adharma percolates along through the prince's inter
actions with Chandaka (6.21), the king's two Brahman emissaries
(9.14-17; 9.53), and even Srenya Bimbisâra (10.33), and gives the
prince several opportunities to trump these Brahmanical concerns for
the inherent timeliness of âsramadharma with Buddhist rejoinders
that "there is no such thing as a wrong time for dharma" (6.21; cf.
9.37-38, 11.62-63). On the whole, such concerns parallel the situa
tion in the Râmâyana, which does not concern its hero with any
inclination toward moksa or the fourth life-stage of renunciation
(,samnyâsa).59
Yet the prince begins to break past this Râmâyana scenario in the
penance grove when he tells the anchorites that one of the reasons he
does not stay with them is that their practice of tapas yields
merely "Paradise" (divam, svarga; B 7.18-26, 48-53).60 Unlike King
Suddhodana, the anchorites know what he is talking about and tell him
that if he prefers liberation (which they call both apavarga and moksa)
58 On abdication by kings in favor of their sons, see Olivelle (1993, 116): "The
epics contain numerous accounts of famous kings who followed this custom" (with
citations, n. 15).
59 This would be one reason why the Ràmâyana has little to say about the âsrama
system. Finding only one reference (Râm 2.98.58), which he would like to see as an
interpolation, Olivelle (1993, 103) supposes that the Ràmâyana would be older than
this system, but his dates (pre-5th century B.C.E.) for this epic are, I believe, far too
early.
60 That svarga is a this-worldly condition is emphasized from the beginning when
we learn that King Suddhodana's kingdom was like svarga to his subjects upon his
son's birth (B 2.12-13).

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254 ALF HILTEBEITEL
over Paradise (7.52-53), he should

clearly know of a fourth stage of life
behind us and turn to Asvaghosa's t
which all four life-patterns are a mat
This returns us to the matter of da
the dharmasütras and Manu (see Se
and Kings" above). As Olivelle beau
knows the âsramas both in their
known to the dharmasütras, where
choices (vikalpa) to be made before
system" (148-51) favored (though
which staggers the four through a ma
systems, the Mahâbhârata brings th
himself mentions (69-70), taking th
ment in the dharmasütras some time
B.C.E. and probably soon before Ma
Buddhacarita! s view that there is no w
to be a typically Buddhist expressio
Manu, unlike the dharmasütras and
cally to suppress (131-136, 147, 176)
evaluation of this position, the Mah
King Màndhàtar by Visnu in the guise
free choice of âsramas (âsramânâm v
Buddhists (bhiksavo linginas tatha)
(Mbh 12.65.25). In any case, I do not
of a period of eight centuries of Ma
will become clear in what now follows
didactic sections of the Mahâbhâr
seems recently to have been rethink
23-24, 37-38).
THE BUDDHACARITA AND THE MAHABHARATA
Johnston sees the Mahâbhârata as posing different problems from

Râmâyana, proposing that Asvaghosa might know it in a for
longer available to us (2004, xlvi), perhaps even in an early "
form, which is now irretrievably lost to us" (xlvii),61 and noting
"As for proper names, allusions to the main characters are ver
61 I would just say that this leads us nowhere.

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(xlvi-xlvii). Johnston is certainly right that the Buddhacarita is nearly

silent on the Mahâbhârata's main story. The text does not mention
Arjuna, Yudhisthira, DraupadI, Duryodhana, Karna, and so on. And
given that fact, we can go even a little beyond Johnston and say that
Asvaghosa is not really interested in touching base with any of this
epic's high dramas, as he is with Rama's departure from Ayodhyà. Yet
Asvaghosa does refer to "the entire destruction of the Kurus" at B
11.31, "to Bhlsma for a story known to the Harivamsa but not to the
epic" at 11.18; to Pàndu and Màdrï at 4.79; and to "many legends
...found in the MBh, but not always in quite the same form" (xlvii).
Curiously, he neglects to mention references to Vyàsa and Krsna, most
of which I have noted, and which have one point of interest in that
several of them come, combined with similar Ramâyana references,
near the Buddhacarita s beginning and end,62 where we might consider
them as points for his readers' entry and departure, or frames.
Yet once we look past the allusions and negative precedents, we find
that Asvaghosa engages the Mahâbhârata for much the same reason as
the Ramâyana: his interest in the relation between Buddhist and
Brahmanical dharma in connection with questions that bear on the
prince's great departure. But now the discourse is taken to a higher
register: from the constraints of the prince's tussle with his father over
the royal protocols for grliasthadharma and the ascetic regimes of the
forest-dweller, we move on to the search for "the true dharmaFrom
the time that the anchorites in the penance grove tell the prince to seek
out Aràda Kàlàma through his meetings en route with his father's two
emissaries and King Srenya -Bimbisàra of Magadha, and finally, after
his meeting with Aràda and the period the prince performs penances,
the challenge of Mara, the prince's quest for moksa takes hold. And
with it, we find what I would propose are two kinds of close but indirect
readings of the Mahâbhârata: one concerning some of its "didactic"
teachings mainly about moksa,63 and one referencing an early
Mahâbhârata episode that I have already mentioned, the killing of
Jarâsandha, king of Magadha. Let us look first at the latter.
Despite the anchorites' admonition that the prince should head
north to pursue the highest dharma, and take not a step towards the
south (B 7.41), he proceeds south into the Magadha capital of
Ràjagrha, ruled by King Srenya-Bimbisàra, on his way toward Aràda
62 On Vyasa, see not only 1.42 but 4.16 (discussed above) and 4.76 (implied); on
Krsna see 1.45, 28.28-29.
63 As pointed out above, the term nirvana is barely used in the first half of the
Buddhacarita.

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256 ALF H1LTEBEITEL
Kalama's hermitage in the Vindhyas.64 Certain verses desc

approach are interesting:
6. On seeing him, the gaudily-dressed felt ashamed and the chatterers o

fell silent; as in the presence of Dharma incarnate none think thought
to the way of salvation, so no one indulged in improper thoughts.
9. And Ràjagrha's Goddess of Fortune was perturbed on seeing him, wh

of ruling the earth and was yet in a bhiksu s robe, with the circle of hai
brows, with the long eyes, radiant body and hands that were beautifully
For the very first time, Asvaghosa describes the prince as "d
"disguised," as a bhiksu (bhiksuvesam), just like the Sr
appeared before him in that guise as the fourth sign. Indeed,
a guise for the Sramana is emphasized in the Nidânaka
remarks that it was a sign of things to come sent from the g
there were no bhikkhus, at the time of fourth sign's appearan
1998, 57). Along his way, the prince stills the improper t
those who see him appear "like Dharma incarnate," though
of the city's bon vivants but of Ràjagrha's Goddess of
(laksml), who understands that, despite his bhiksu dress or gui
to rule the earth. When King Srenya, who might thus have r
concern, sees him too from a palace balcony, he orders an
report on the prince's movements. The prince moves cal
begging for food apparently for the first time - that it is the
suggested in the Nidânakathâ, where he has to force d
almsfood that is disgusting (see Nakamura, 2000,124-125)
what comes to him without distinction. Taking his meal
rivulet (Asvaghosa does not, like the Nidânakathâ, have h
vomit), from there he climbs Mount Pandava (5 10.13-14).
this destination, King Srenya, who is now described as
pândavatulyavlryah - which Johnston translates, "in heroism the peer
of Pàndu's son," but which could be simplified to "in heroism equal to a
64 7.57; see 7.58: leaving the penance grove, he "proceeded on his way," pre
sumably, as pointed out to him, toward Arada's hermitage at Vindhyakostha (7.54),
which Johnston locates in the Vindhyas, noting evidence that the Vindhyas may have
been the site of a Sàmkhya school associated with the name Vindhyavàsin (2004, 102,
n. 54), whom Larson and Bhattacharya date to ca. 300-400 C.E. (1987, 15, 143).
Arâda/Arâda never seems that far south in other sources.
65 10.6. tam jihriyuh preksya vicitravesâhj prakïrnavacah pathi maunam lyuh/
dharmasya sâksâd iva samnikarse¡ na kascid anyâyamatir babhüva//
9. drstyâ va sornabhruvam âyatâksam/ jvalacharîram subhajàlahastam/

tam bhiksuvesam ksitipâlanârham/ samcuksubhe râjagrhasya laksnilh.

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Pândava" - then ascends the same Pândava Mountain (17), where he

sees the bodhisattva (18) sitting "in majestic beauty and tranquility like
some being magically projected by Dharma" (tam rüpalaksmya ca
samena cdiva dharmasya nirmanam ivopavistam; 19).
Although I have found no one who has given it a moment's notice,
Buddhist tradition itself thus makes one of the five peaks of Râjagrha,
or at least part of one of them, the Pândava Mountain. This is the case
already in the Suttanipata, from the Khuddaka Nik ay a, which, usually
accepted as part of the Pâli canon, is certainly older than Asvaghosa,
and seems to be a basis for the more developed account mentioning the
same mountain in the Nidanakathd.66 The latter is ascribed to the fifth
century A.D., although Johnston thinks that Asvaghosa "may be
presumed to have used an earlier version [of it], no longer in existence"
(2004, xl), as one of his sources. In the Mahdbhdrata, not surprisingly,
there is no mountain by that name. Rather, when Krsna, Arjuna, and
Bhlma approach Magadha to kill Jarâsandha and reach a certain
Mount Goratha, they set eyes on "Magadha city" (Mbh 2.18.30),
which Krsna describes as having "five beautiful mountains: the wide
Vaihâra, Varâha, Vrsabha, Rsigiri, and Caityaka" that "stand guard
over Girivraja" (19.2-3).67 We note the Mahâbhârata s name for the
city is Girivraja, not Râjagrha.68 The Mahdbhdrata means by this
name not just the Magadha capital but the "mountain corral"
(giri-vraja) where Jarâsandha keeps 86 of the world's hundred kings
imprisoned (see Biardeau 2002, vol. 1, 327).
66 See Nakamura (2000, 122, 124); Thomas ([1927] 2000, 68). Mount Pàndava is
also a stable fixture in The Gilgit Manuscript of the Samghabhedavâstu, being the 17th
and Last Section of the Vinaya of the Mulasarvâstivâdins (Strong, 2001, 14) and the
Lalitavistara (to judge from Poppe (1967, 134)).
67 As noted by Brockington (2002, 79), a five-verse Southern Recension insertion
amplifies the description of the mountains (2.206*, after 2.19.10), but adds nothing
noteworthy for our purposes unless perhaps that Caityaka is girisrestha, "the best of
peaks" (line 2), and that the five are now numbered as Pandara (presumably
Vrsabha, unless, perhaps under Buddhist influence, this interpolation is trying to find
an alternate place for an intentionally disguised or just garbled "Pândava" moun
tain), Vipula, Varâha, Caityaka, and Mâtariga (Rsigiri), the latter reminding us
perhaps of the Untouchable Rsi Matañga of a forest hermitage near Kiskindhà in the
Râmâyana and of the splendid mountain named after him at Vijayanagar.
68 Biardeau (2002, vol. 1), 330 introduces a little uncertainty as to whether Gi
rivraja and Ràjagrha are the same, but that they are early and later names for at least
parts of the same city seems well enough established. See van Buitenen (1975, 15-16);
Lamotte (1988, 17-18); Schumann 1989, 90. The Buddhacarita uses both Ràjagrha
(10.1 and 9) and Girivraja (11.73). For the Mbh to use only Girivraja is probably an
archaism.

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258 ALF HILTEBEITEL
Buddhist tradition thus references the Pândavas, and

assume the Mahâbhârata, and in all likelihood the Jarâsa
sode, when it has the prince cross the Pândavas' tracks on
Mountain.69 From this, the most straightforward assumpti
be that the Buddhists have named as "Pândava Mountain" the
mountain, or at least part of the mountain, which Krsna, Arjun
Bhlma now ascend: the Caityaka Peak, as seems to be borne ou
details supplied by H. W. Schumann.70 Yet Asvaghosa goes bey
other Buddhist sources in describing the Bodhisattva's trek her
though it is not a matter one can demonstrate with a perfect p
fit, it seems from some of Asvaghosa's new themes, simile
points of emphasis that he does so not only out of a resi
folklore but with a Mahâbhârata "textually" in view.
Rather than go over the Jarâsandha episode in detail, as sev
have done71, I present the following chart of parallels and op
tions, which should suffice to give a basic idea of why a jour
69 Indeed, if one assumes that the Buddhist tradition works from oral M
stories before the epic's written text—one would presumably have to pre
proto-Jarâsandhavadha—then the Suttanipâta account may be older than th
since the Suttanipâta is thought to present some of the earliest sources on the
legend (Lamotte, 1988, 660; Nakamura, 2000, 19, 123-24, 131-34; Thomas,
2000, 273). From this standpoint, the Mbh would still remain within its game
it concealed the name "Pândava Mountain." But more likely the Buddhist
develops this detail in the post-Mauryan period.
70 That is, by correlating the map in Schumann (1989, 90) with what he
p. 46: "the Pândava hill, the north-easterly of the five hills surrounding Râ
The map names six mountains around "Old Râjagaha or Giribbaja": Vaibhar
the west, Vipula north, Rama northeast, Chattha with the Vulture Peak to t
Udaya southeast, and Sona southwest. Chattha Mountain would thus be in th
position to be both the likely alternate for Caityaka and another name for P
although the map does not show this latter name. Note that Vaibhara is th
other mountain with a similar name in both texts. Râjagrha became the s
"eighteen vast monasteries" (Lamotte, 1988, 17-18 (19) - presumably vihara
which, of course, comes also the name Bihar. Lodhra trees cover the Pândava
Mountain (B 10.15), or all five peaks (Mbh 2.19.4).
71 See Biardeau (2002, vol. 1, 324—354) and vol. 2, 755-758, for her most recent
discussion; Brockington (2002); van Buitenen (1975, 11-18); Hiltebeitel (1989) and
(forthcoming-a). I am not persuaded by Brockington's method of dating the whole
episode as "late" and "added": he seems to accept the criterion of "grounds of content"
[73], and includes among his own criteria "starting from the premise that [it] ... is
anomalous" [74], that it is "extraneous to the plot of the MBh" [80], and, I think most
basically, observing that it "reflects relatively late Vaisnava-Saiva opposition" [82]).
But it is striking that he proposes for its composition an "immediately post Mauryan"
Sunga date (2002, 84-85) of "the later part of the 2nd century or, perhaps most
probably, the first century B.C." (86). Such a date for me is not, however, late; rather, it
is attractive for the larger Mbh archetype, parts and whole, which, as Brockington
mentions (79), includes the episode (see Hiltebeitel, 2001, 20-31, 2005).

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two Pândavas and Krsna to Magadha would have interested Bu

dhists before Asvaghosa. Further, by accenting what appear to b
Asvaghosa's most important innovations in bold face,72 it should
afford a basic idea of what interested him in the MahabharatcCs
Jarâsandhavadha episode in particular. I suggest that one first read
the unaccented sequence that reflects the prior Buddhist story (items
1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, and 14), and then the whole alignment to see what
Asvaghosa seems to have made of it.
The first thing worth noting is that Asvaghosa introduces an epic
tone to the episode: Magadha's LaksmI shows her favor on the
prince; Srenya now challenges the prince to fight him.73 The challenge
is particularly gratuitous,74 and when it is noticed that Srenya makes
it upon seeing the prince in the garb or guise of a bhiksu, one gets a
good index that Asvaghosa is taking the Mahâbhârata s snâtaka garb
or guises as his epic touchstone.75 In each case it is a matter of
responding to a challenge posed by thinly disguised Ksatriyas: in one
case three Ksatriyas disguised as snâtaka Brahmans,76 in the other a
prince in a mendicant garb that some texts, including some passages
in the Mahabhârata, say should be restricted to Brahmans.77
72 In these determinations, I have consulted the treatment in other versions in

Nakamura (2000, 120-124), Thomas ([1927] 2000, 68-70); Strong (2001, 10-18); and
Poppe (1967, 133-142). On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how all of
Asvaghosa's clearly "Indian" nuances are lost in the Sanskrit-to-Chinese translation;
see Beat (1988, 111-119).
73 Hara misses this challenge when, just before it, he takes King Srenya at B 10.26
to be requesting the Bodhisattva "to unbusom himself to" him as "his intimate
friend" (2001, 164). In the Buddhacarita they are not yet the friends they become.
74 Note how the Suttanipâta achieves an opposite effect by having Bimbisara hurry
as far as he can by chariot, which might denote a challenge, and then walk the rest of
the way to the prince's position on Pândava Mountain (Nakamura, 2000, 122).
75 This garb could also have Râmâyana echoes, since both Ràvana 3.44.8; 47.6)
and Hanumân (4.3.8; 3.21; 5.14) make rather famous turning-point appearances "in
the form of a bhik.su (bhiksurüpa)"
76 See Olivelle (1993, 220-221): A snàtaka "is considered so sacred and his status
so eminent, that many authorities give him precedence over even a king: if a king
meets him on the road it is the king who should salute the latter with respect" (with
citations). Van Buitenen actually wonders whether "the meaning of snàtaka might be
extended to anyone under a studious vow of life, and to include the new mendicants
who followed the Buddha or JTna, but that cannot be made out" (1975, 17).
77 See Olivelle (1993, 195 and n. 40), noting that "there are numerous texts in the
Mahàbhàrata that declare religious mendicancy to be the special dharma of Brah
mans: 3.34.49-50; 5.71.3" [both addressed to Yudhihira], and pointing to Mbh
12.10-25 where this point made to Yudhisthira at the beginning of the Sanliparvan.
Although never using the compound bhiksasrama, the Mbh sometimes uses bhiksu or
bhiksuka to cover the fourth life stage (12.14.12; 12.37.28; 14.45.13).

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260 ALF HILTEBEITEL
Buddhacarita Mahabharata
1. The prince enters the city 1.

of Krsna and the two
the five hills (10.2) Pàndavas approach the ci
of five hills
2. The prince makes his first 2. 2. Following Krsna's couns

appearance dressed (or dis the three are disguised
guised) as a bhiksu (9) snátaka Brahmans (18.21
3. He seems to onlookers like 3. In Krsna is prudent poli
Dharma incarnate (6) {naya, ra//), in Bhlma
strength, in Arjuna victory
(14.9, 18.3). Prudent policy
turns out to have been tricky
dharma (see item 14 below).
4. First amazed (visismiye), on- 4. Onlookers "fell to wonder
lookers then fall still and
ing" (vismayah samajayatd)
silent and have no unruly(19.27) and are at first
baffled
thoughts (anyayamatir) (2-6)
5. The city's LaksmT shows 5. Krsna soon reveals that Srï
favor on the prince (9) favors Ksatriya snatakas
who wear garlands (19.46)
6. The prince climbs Pândava 6. The two Pàndavas and
Mountain (14). After receiv Krsna climb Caityaka
ing a report of his ascent, so Mountain
does King Srenya, "in hero
ism equal to a Pândava" (17)
7. There King Srenya sees the There they destroy the
tranquil cross- legged Bodhi "horn" (srñgam) of Cait
sattva "being as it were a yaka Mountain (19.18)
horn (srñgabhütam) of the
mountain" (18)
King Srenya thus shows The two Pàndavas and
deference and hospitality Krsna come to King
by coming to the mountain Jarâsandha's palace, where
they reject his hospitality
(19.34)

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9. Jarâsandha asks about the

9. The prince looks to the king
"like some being magically dharma of this rejection,
projected by Dharma" (19) and about the trio's dis
guises
10. The king and prince debate 10. Krsna and Jarâsandha air
about dharma\ Srenya links opposing views of dharma:
the trivarga with aging: plea Krsna reveals they are
sure for youth, wealth for Ksatriya snâtakas, and hold
middle years, dharma for old him as enemy; asking why,
age (34-17); but the prince, Jarâsandha protests himself
seeing danger in old age and a ruler by dharma (20.3-5).
death, "resorts to this dhar Krsna says the trio follows
ma out of longing for salva dharma in opposing
tion (mumuksayây (11.7). Jarâsandha's plan to sacri
He should do kuladharma fice 100 kings to Rudra
and olfer sacrices (10.39 (20.9), but Jarâsandha sees
40); but he does "not approve it as Ksatriya dharma to
of sacrifices" or of "happi treat captives as one pleases
ness sought at the price of (20.26).
another's suffering" (11.64
67), etc.
11. King Srenya offers the 11. Krsna's plan will eliminate
prince half his Magadha Magadha's sovereignty so
kingdom (10.25-26), which that Dharmarâja Yud
the prince explicitly rejects histhira can be universal
(11.49-56) monarch by performing a
Râjasûya sacrifice
12. Srenya also challenges the 12. Krsna challenges Jarâ
prince to fight him, moved as sandha to fight one of the
he is by compassion at seeing trio in the guise and garb of
him, a Ksatriya, in the garb snâtakas, now revealing
or guise of a bhiksu (10.27 who they are (20.23-24)
32)
13. The prince implicitly rejects 13. Jarâsandha chooses to fight
such a fight Bhïma (21.3), as Krsna had
devised (20.32-34) '

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262 ALF HILTEBEITEL
14. The prince promises to 14. The f

come back as a Buddha in Girivraja recognize that
(11.72-73), at which point Krsna protects the dharma,
he will preach the dharma and that he is Visnu (22.31
that converts Srenya and 32).
many other Magadhans.
Moreover, Srenya mentions the Bodhisattva's appearance precisely

while challenging him, calling him bhiksâsramakâma, "lover of the
mendicant stage of life" (10.33), thereby providing the one instance in
the text where àsrama clearly means "mode" or "stage of life" rather
than "hermitage." Just as King Suddhodana tells the prince not to go
against the "proper order" of the implied asramas (see above, n. 56),
so now King Srenya-Bimbisâra seconds the point with additional
arguments,78 and with this specific challenge to the Bodhisattva's
appearance as a bhiksu. Both kings are making a "legitimate" point,
for they would be speaking as "protectors of varnâsramadharma," a
role that even Buddhist kings come to play in 6th-century inscriptions
(Olivelle, 1993, 201-204).
Next, as one would expect of an accomplished kavya poet,
Asvaghosa tips his hand further with his similes. To begin with, when
the prince has climbed Mount Pândava, "On that mountain (avait),79
...he, the sun of mankind (nrsürya), appeared in his ochre-colored
robe like the sun in the early morning (balasürya) above the eastern
mountain" (B 10.15).80 As Gawronski puts it in the only scholarly
note I have found on these matters, "the future Buddha standing on
[or, better, ascending] the Pàndava mountain, clad as he is in his red
78 Srenya's correlation of three periods of life with the trivarga (item 10) is
interesting as being not reducible to the âsrama system, and as having a counterpart
in Kâmasutra 1.2.1-6 - but there with different correlations: youth should be devoted
to aims (artha) such as learning, prime years to karna, and old age to dharma and
moksa (see Olivelle, 1993, 30-31 n. 85, 133, 218).
79 Gawronski (1914-15, 37) had noted that some word for "mountain" was
necessary, and proposed girau rather than vane, "in the forest," having read the latter
in Coweil's edition and translation. See Cowell (1968, 106), and Johnston (2004, 143
n. 15) confirming avi as "a certain reading" based on his primary manuscript and the
Tibetan translation.
80 10.15. tasminnavau lodhravanopagü4hej mayüranádapratipürnakuñjeH

kâsâyavâsâh sa babhau nrsürya/ yathodayasyopari balasüryah.

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garment, is compared to the rising sun touching the verge of the

eastern mountain" (1914-15, 37). That is how Asvaghosa describes
what King Srenya's officer sees (10.16), and perhaps what the officer
reported back to Srenya. But now, when Srenya himself ascends this
same mountain with the heroism of a Pândava, he sees the tranquil
cross-legged Bodhisattva "being as it were a horn (srñgabhütam) of
the mountain." That is, the rising sun of mankind has become the
"horn" of the very Pândava Mountain he and Srenya have just
climbed. I cannot imagine that Asvaghosa has any other first pretext
for introducing81 this singular, surprising, and somewhat strained
simile than a reference to the Mahábharata s double use of srhgam to
describe what it is on Caityaka Mountain that the two Pândavas and
Krsna destroy.82 Van Buitenen takes both usages as "tower" (1975,
69, 70), which is certainly a guess. Biardeau (2002, vol. 1, 351) also
calls attention to a verse (Mbh 2.208*) that has the trio break three
drums (bherl) and the a wall of a caitya (caityaprakaram) on the peak,
but this verse is found only in four manuscripts, including the Vulgate
(which Biardeau favors), and is clearly an interpolation. The three
drums made by Jarâsandha's father are mentioned just before the
insertion (2.19.15-16), but without the interpolated verse that follows
there is nothing to say they were destroyed, and nothing about a
Caitya wall, which is clearly a belated explanation built on the
mountain's name.83 On the contrary, Krsna establishes the first
meaning of srñga for the whole passage when he describes Girivraja's
five mountains as all having "great horns and cool trees"
(mahasrñgah parvatáh sitaladrumáh; 19.3).
Asvahosa could also have a second pretext for using the word
srñga to describe the tranquilly seated prince: the word's symbolic
81 Note that the Suttanipáta uses different images when the king's messengers
report back and say, "Great king, the bhikkhu sits in a mountain cave on the front
side of Mount Pândava, like a tiger or a bull or a lion" (Nakamura, 2000, 122) - a
scene that could also evoke girivraja as the "mountain corral" in which Jarâsandha
imprisons the 86 kings. See notes 68 and 69 above on the name Girivraja and the
possibility that the Suttanipáta could precede the epic text.
82 At 19.18, this srñga is described as garlanded, and at 19.41 Jarâsandha men
tions it again when he asks how the trio broke it (caityakam ca gireh sriigam bhittvâ
kim; 19.41).
83 Kosambi must pick up on some such tradition when he writes, "But the
senseless desecration of the holy antique caitya at Rajgir (presumably the Pàsânaka
Cetiya where the Buddha rested so often) by BhTma and Krsna seems wanton sac
rilege (2.19.19), unsupported by any other record" (1964, 36-37; 1975, 126), on
which Brockington comments, "Why he should see the reference to the monument as
being a Buddhist caitya is equally unclear" (2002, 79-80).

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264 ALF HILTEBEITEL
significance is brought out in a Harivamsa passage that

question about the same Jarâsandha cycle:
To what end did the slayer of Madhu (Krsna) abandon Mathurà, that (ze
of the Middle Country, the sole abode of LaksmT, easily perceived as the h
earth (srnga prthivyâh), rich in money and grain, abounding in water, ric
the choicest of residences?84
This "horn of the earth," along side the zebu's hump as t

abode of LaksmT, evokes associations of Krsna with the horn in
contested situations where he uses his Sárñga bow in battles, and,
even more particularly, associations with Visnu's Fish and Boar
avatâras where he uses the "single horn" or "single tusk" (in either
case, ekasmga) to rescue Manu's ark and the earth.85 In other words,
in the Jarâsandha cycle, the horn is a symbol of unique sovereignty in
contested circumstances, which makes it fitting that Krsna and the
two Pândavas break the horn of Magadha's Caityaka Mountain - no
matter how difficult it is to imagine - with their bare arms.86 For they
are intent, in the Mahâbhârata's terms, upon eliminating Jarâsan
dha's rivalry of Yudhisthira for the title of universal sovereign
(.samrâj), and, in the Harivamsa's terms, upon restoring the unique
centrality of Mathurâ to the Middle Country, even in Krsna's
absence from it.
At one level, what is being contested in the Buddhacarita is thus, of
course, royal sovereignty, LaksmT, who favors the prince even though
he declines royal sovereignty when Bimbisâra offers it. But as
Asvaghosa registers in further similes, in fact by doubling one simile,
what is really contested is the dharma: the prince seems to onlookers
"like Dharma incarnate," and to Srenya he looks "like some being
magically projected by Dharma."87 This is the force of the way
Asvaghosa unfolds this matter as one that has to do not with a debate
about the Saiva-Vaisnava overtones of Ksatriya dharma, such as
occurs between Jarâsandha and Krsna in the Mahâbhârata, but one
84 kim artham ca parityajya mathurâm madhusüdanah/ madhyadesasya kakudam

dhâma laksmyâs ca kevalam//srnga prthivyàh svdlaksyam prabhutadhanadhanyavat/
âryâdhyajalabhûyistam adhisthânavarottamam (HV 1.57.2-3).
85 See Hiitebeitel (1988, 96) for this passage and an earlier discussion of it, citing
Defourny (1976, 17-23).
86 That is indeed how Ganguli translates the passage ([1884-96] (1970, vol. 2),
Sabha Parva, 52).
87 Cf. Saundarananda 2.56cd: the Buddha at birth "shone with the majesty of holy
calm like the Law of Righteousness in bodily form (babhrâje sàntayâ laksmyâ dharmo
vigrahavân iva)."

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that has to do quite explicitly with oppositions between Brahmanical

royal dharma and Buddhist dharma - the latter as it is, so to speak,
taking shape in the Bodhisattva-prince's mind. But the force of the
Mahâbhârata story, given the no doubt intended ambiguity of the
term caitya, which can have both Brahmanical and Buddhist mean
ings,88 and given as well the results of over a century of scholarship
that has sensed this ambiguity,89 is that it can be taken not only as
a story reflecting Saiva-Vaisnava opposition but Brahmanical
Buddhist opposition as well.
That brings us to a third pretext for Asvaghosa's surprising "horn"
simile. For when one takes the force of the "horn" and "Dharma
incarnate" similes in conjunction with the fact that it is Srenya, no
the prince, who is made "equal to a Pândava in heroism" and who
sees the Bodhisattva as if he had become the horn of the mountain
one could take it that Srenya sees not only Dharma incarnate but
cross-legged Bodhisattva appearing as the restored horn of th
mountain that the Pândavas and Krsna broke down.
As I attempted to show in Rethinking India's Oral and Classical
Epics, North Indian Alhâ traditions, both in this Hindi oral epic and
in the Bhavisya Parana's retelling of Alhâ in Sanskrit, draw on Ismaili
traditions to transpose the Jarâsandhavadha into a Rajput rivalry that
was also read in terms of opposition over empire, in this case between
Hindu and Muslim rule.90 The Mahâbhârata episode has been open
88 Biardeau richly develops this point; see now (2002, vol. 1, 322 n. 2; 344) (with
Grhya Sutra references); 330-331; 350.
89 See Brockington (2002, 79) and Hiltebeitel (forthcoming-b) tracing this impulse
to (the younger) Adolf Holtzmann (1892-95), and above, n. 83, on Kosambi.
90 Hiltebeitel (1999, 150-164 and 344-351) on Ismaili ginàns about the Buddha
and "Kalinga" (an allomorph of Jarâsandha), though the stories do not relate the
two directly. Cf. Khan (2005): although the ginàns do not mention the Buddha's pre
enlightenment entry into Magadha, they bring him in to address Yudhisthira's
postwar consternation (=Mbh Book 12, etc.), and when he comes before the
Pândavas he "has a very strange appearance: apart from posing as a religious
mendicant, he looks like a warrior, donning Muslim dress.. .. Besides he is a candala
.. . and a leper, from whose body emanates an unbearable odour" (2005, 328; cf. 330,
333. 340). After he challenges Bhlma at the Pândavas' gate, his Satpanth Ismaili
teachings are rich in overtones of bhakti and are presented as dharma (329, 333).
Undercutting the Brahmans who are performing a "huge sacrifice" on Yudhisthira's
behalf, he says "their sacrifice is useless" (as does the half-golden mongoose at the
end of Mbh Book 14), yet before he retires to the Himalayas he convinces the
Pândavas to sacrifice a cow (none other than the Kâmadhenu or "Cow of Wishes")
for a final shared meal that will make possible their liberation (128-131). As Khan
says, the ginàns may draw not only on Hindu sources but Buddhist ones (326,
337-341) - one wonders, with what ironies.

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266 ALF HILTEBEITEL
to such readings because it has to

rivalry over empire, which itself i
persuasive, no matter how many sty
that the Jarasandhavadha is extraneo
the real hinge upon which Asvaghos
episode. For although it may look
Bodhisattva with Krsna on the matter of the Bodhisattva's double
appearance as "Dharma incarnate," we are at the deepest level at
which Asvaghosa engages this Mahdbhdrata scene: the level of
Brahmanical versus Hindu bhakti, which we have seen underscored
by Biardeau. The position of Krsna in representing Brahmanical
dharma in the Jaràsandha episode is decisive. For the first thing to
strike one is that the Mahdbhdrata''s actual "Dharma incarnate,"
Dharmaràja Dharmaputra Yudhisthira, is precisely not among the
trio assaulting Magadha, among whom, as BhTma says first and
Krsna then confirms, Krsna represents prudent policy {naya, riïti),
BhTma strength, and Arjuna victory (Mbh 2.14.9; 18.3). Yet what
Yudhisthira says before the trio departs is pertinent to this train of
associations. Fearing Jarasandha's might and ready to change his
mind about performing a Rájasüya, he says, "BhTma and Arjuna are
my two eyes, Janârdana I deem my mind (;manas); what kind of life
shall be left for me without mind or eyes (imanas caksur vihlnasya)T'
(Mbh 2.15.2).92 Krsna supplies "policy" (naya, riïti) that will turn out
to be tricky dharma, or more precisely upayadharma.93 But it will be
done fully in accord with the mind of King Dharma. Indeed, the two
verses that identify Krsna with policy and Arjuna with victory res
onate with the famous tag line that first occurs right after the
Bhagavad Gîta when Drona tells Yudhisthira, as if he needed to know
91 See Hiltebeitel (2001, 8), noting that "this sequence provides in a flurry most of
the Mbh's usages of the terms samrâj, 'emperor,' and samràjya, 'empire,'" and
mentioning some of the scholars who continue to hold the view that it is late and
extraneous, which has now been revisited by Brockington (2002).
92 See Biardeau (2002, vol. 1, 328) on this passage.
93 On riiti as upàyadharma in the Mbh, see Bowles (2004, 154-158, 165). See
especially 154 and n. 34, citing Mbh 12.101.2 and 128.13, both from the
Râjadharmaparvan, but the latter from an adhyâya transitional to the Apaddhar
maparvan. Bowles comments: "The idea of a dharma of 'strategy,' a 'strategic
dltarma,' or 'an expedient abundant in dharma,' is, in many ways, collateral with the
idea of a proper form of conduct (dharma) for a king in times of distress, since a king
must employ some form of strategy or policy to overcome difficulties that might arise
for his kingdom. Indeed, in a rilti context, upàyadharma could almost be considered a
synonym for apaddharma." Although he explains it only as upaya, Krsna is of course
the master of upàyadharma throughout the Mbh war.

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDD HACA RITA: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 267
it, "Where dharma is there is Krsna; where Krsna is there is victory

(yato dharmas tatah krsno yatah krsnas tato jayah)" (6.41.55).94 In
short, Asvaghosa's reading of the Jarâsandha episode could be
summed up as follows: where Krsna was, there now is the Dharma
looking like the horn of a mountain.
It may thus be no mere coincidence that Asvaghosa focuses on
pivotal matters bearing on Ràma and Krsna in the second books of
each epic, reading each in part through a contrast of Brahmanical
and Buddhist modes of bhakti. Yet if structuralism and symbolism
have lost their fashion, and are in any case not the most reliable
indicators of textual history,95 we have another marker of Asvag
hosa's reading of the Mahâbhârata that may provide a more reliable
gauge of intertextual history, even though I would argue that they
both point to the same historical conclusions. This is the matter of the
epic's didactic teachings mainly on moksa.
Here we come to a point that several have noticed: Asvaghosa
seems to know the Mahâbhârata's Moksadharma Parvan, or at least
material in it.96 Johnston cites, without ever making it clear if he ever
discusses it, a discussion by T. Byôdô (n.d.). More recently, Toku
naga (2005) spoke on this subject at a London conference a week
before I met him at the Dubrovnik conference where I presented a
first draft of this paper, and kindly made his paper available to me
when I learned of it. In fact, Tokunaga begins his paper with an
acknowledgment of a 1930 book by Tsyüsho Byodo of which the
discussion in English is apparently an appendix. Tokunaga summa
rizes Byodo's work as being interested "mainly in philosophical
matters," with Byodo's comparison with the Mahâbhârata in this
94 The line is repeated at 9.61.30, and has the variant, "Where Krsna is, there is
dharma; where dharma is, there is victory (yatah krsnas tato dharmo yato dharmas
tato jay ah)" at 6.62.34 and 13.153.39.
95 Asvaghosa provides one more piece of possible evidence of familiarity with the
Jarâsandhavadha: a curious pair of verses, one about a certain KaksTvat (B 1.10), of
whom Johnston (2004, 3 n. 10) says "nothing is known"; the other about a certain
Manthala Gautama, likewise untraced, who carried corpses to please a courtesan
named Jangha (4.17). These verses may recall some equally obscure verses in the
Jarâsandha story where a KaksTvat is fathered on a südra woman by a Rsi Gautama
who dwelt at Magadha because he favored the Magadha vamsa, and was also sought
out by the Angas and Vangas (Mbh 2.19.5-7).
96 See Hopkins (1901, 387-388); Larson and Bhattacharya (1987, 7, 14-15, 110
122, 129-140), assuming, I think wrongly, that Samkhya references in the
Moksadharma would be from the first to third or fourth centuries C.E. (113), and
thus later than Asvaghosa, even though they date the Moksadharma itself to 200
B.C.E.-200 C.E. (14).

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268 ALF HILTEBEITEL
book centered in the Moksadharmaparvan" (2005, 1). Ac

Tokunaga,
Results of his comparison of the texts are summarized under five head
Sâmkhya teachers, (3) the topic "a younger one sometimes superse
achievement,"97 (4) thought-historical, rhetorical, linguistic correspo
the relationship between the Buddhacarita and the Moksadharmapa
564). In conclusion, he says that Asvaghosa was influenced by the Moks
composition of the Buddhacarita (p. 560) (Tokunaga 2005, 1; see now
1969, 565-568, notably 565 on Asvaghosa's likely acquaintance with
legends "as represented in the present Mbh," and 567-568 on Moksad
comparisons with the Bodhisattva's encounter with king Srenya).
For Tokunaga, "this assumption is not impossible," bu

on to some views of Johnston's: that "it is more natura
that the common matter goes back to a single origin
though Tokunaga finds Johnston going too far when h
"despite the many parallels we cannot establish that Asv
any portion of the epic in the form in which we now ha
xlvii; Tokunaga, 2005, 1). I am of course encouraged by
this point, on which John Brockington is both more su
more extensive: Asvaghosa "definitely draws on the S
(1998, 483). I agree with both Tokunaga and Brockington
very attractive Tokunaga's demonstration that Cantos 9
the Buddhacarita involve a reading of (Tokunaga says
on") the first "forty-five or so chapters in narrative form o
Sântiparvan" (ibid.). For reasons that will become clear, if
his demonstration reinforces my hypotheses, and I will refe
supportive argument." It would seem likely to be a quest
97 See B 1.41-45 as cited above in Section "Asvaghosa and Epic Pre

9S Johnston (2004, xlvi), noting that "much of Arada's exposition o
system has close parallels in the Moksadharma, the connection in one
over several verses of the same passage," and suggesting that "the c
goes back to . . . possibly a textbook of the Varsaganya school." As
Bhattacharya (1987, 131) observe, "Varsaganya" at Mbh 12.306.57 occ
"many older teachers of Samkhya and Yoga." Assuming this list woul
first centuries of the Common Era" {ibid:, see n. 96 above), they d
Asvaghosa's portrayal to such a context, but they do note (136
Johnston (2004, lvi, 172 n. 33), that at B 12.33 Asvaghosa may be q
aphorism pañcaparva avidya, "there are five kinds of ignorance" - fr
since it is elsewhere attributed to him. They thus allow the po
Varsaganya would be earlier than a first century C.E. Asvaghosa (19
Moksadharma reference should, I think, support.
99 Otherwise, it is not appropriate for me to comment on details,
nothing incongruent with what follows, and indeed some congruence
cited.

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDD HACA RITA: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 269
of elements of the Moksadharma and the Buddhacarita dra

some common sources, but of a reading of the Sântiparvan
state of "extant" totality.
One trace of the range of Asvaghosa's familiarity with t
parvan could be his reference at Buddhacarita 8.77 to the sto
Suvarnasthlvin, "Excretor of Gold" (Fitzgerald, 2004, 236-3
by Krsna and Nàrada toward the beginning of Book 12.1
comes not within the segment of the Buddhacarita that To
discusses, but in the canto just before the two in which he
parallels in the first part of the Sântiparvan. In fact, I h
written on the first forty or so chapters of the Sântiparv
another angle: that they present Yudhisthira with arguments fr
Bhagavad Gïtâ for him to reject as inadequate in his postwa
tion, while at the same time foreshadowing the need for ins
that will prove acceptable to him: the instruction he receiv
four subparvans that proceed from these early Sântiparvan a
the Râja-, Apad-, Moksa-, and Dâna-dharma Par vans that, to
complete nearly all of the Sânti and Anusâsana Parvans (see
beitel, forthcoming-c). But Tokunaga is certainly right in turni
main attention to Cantos 9 and 10.
Canto 9 is "The Deputation to the Prince" by King Suddhodana's
Purohita and Minister, and Chapter 10 is "Srenya's Visit," which we
have just been looking at from another angle. I would propose that
Canto 9 of the Buddhacarita is a hinge chapter for Asvaghosa that
allows him to transition from a Râmâyana reading to a Mahâbhârata
reading. This means that the Purohita and the Minister get to double
not only for Rama's two Brahman visitors in the forest but for the
postwar comforters of Yudhisthira: the first explicitly, the second
only implicitly. Yet as I have already attempted to demonstrate, this
Mahâbhârata reading would not be limited to Cantos 9 and 10 but
carry over from Canto 10 into Canto 11 where it is anchored in the
full meeting with King Srenya as an evocation of the
Jarâsandhavadha. Following Canto 12, in which, as now noted, sev
eral have long seen parallels between Arâda Kâlâma's proto-Sàmk
hya and certain teachings of the Moksadharmaparvan, this
Mahâbhârata reading would then be concluded in the encounter with
100 It is SuvarnanisthTvin in Asvaghosa's spelling. I am not persuaded by John

ston's point (2004, 120 n. 77) that Asvaghosa's silence on the son's coming back to
life "suggests that the poet knew only a version in which the happy ending had not
been added." Asvaghosa is not trying to tell the whole story in one verse but making
what he wants of the story in what is contextually a perfectly intelligible allusion.

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270 ALF HILTEBEITEL
Mâra in Canto 13. To understand how Asvaghosa mak

hinge to these unfoldings, however, we must note two m
such a Brahmanical deputation of a Purohita and Minister
prince in the forest seems to be an invention by Asvag
ond, we must look back to a line near the end of Canto 8
Purohita and the Minister define their mission to King S
"Just let there be a war of many kinds between your s
various prescriptions of scripture (bahuvidham iha yudd
tâvat/ tava tanayasya vidhes ca tasya tasya)" (B 8.85cd
two speakers, this war will be a struggle with Brahmanica
which the prince will handle rather easily; but, more than t
the terms for the Bodhisattva's inner struggle102 that carri
all these cantos to his ultimate contest with Mâra.
What I would like to emphasize, however, is that, important
as it is that Asvaghosa knows something of the Mahâbhâratci s
Moksadharma Parvan, it is even more interesting that he knows and
uses the term moksadharma. Before examining the three usages that
occur in the surviving Sanskrit portions of the first half of the
Buddhacarita, all in the segment just described, it is worth noting the
tenor of two likely further usages of the term in subsequent cantos,
assuming that Johnston is consistent in choosing the phrase "law of
salvation" in his attempt to reconstruct the Sanskrit from the Tibetan
and Chinese translations. First, resting after his enlightenment and
preparing to preach, the Buddha saw that "the law of salvation was
exceeding subtle" (B 14.96). And second, just after turning the
"Wheel of the Law" with his first sermon and converting his first five
disciples, "the Omniscient established the Law of Salvation" with
further preaching and more conversions (16.1). "Law of salvation"
(that is, probably moksadharma) would seem to reach its full impact
as one of Asvaghosa's terms for the dharma itself as the "Law" and
"Teaching" of the newly enlightened Buddha.
In any case, of the three verifiable usages, the first two occur in the
exchange between the prince and the Purohita. When the Purohita
and the Minister arrive, they find the prince sitting below a tree
101 In fact, for his Buddhacarita. In his earlier Saundarananda, the events from the
great departure to Mâra take only eight verses (3.2-9) without mentioning either the
deputation or the first meeting with King Srenya.
102 For yuddham, Johnston has "struggle" (2004, 122) rather than "war." Note
that Fitzgerald speaks of "[t]he inner battle that . . . takes place within Yudhisthira"
(2004, 179) occurring (better beginning) at Mbh 12.17, while Arjuna briefly refers to
this process as still lying ahead: "Now conquer yourself (vijitâtmâ . . . bhava)"
(22.10cd). It continues through Books 12 and 13, and indeed beyond.

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARIT.4: THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE 271
(.B 9.8). In being the first to convey the message of the prince's father,
the Purohita seems to mix the king's sentiments with some new words
of his own. Now acknowledging that the prince's "fixed resolve with
regard to dharma" will be realized as his "future goal," but invoking
once again the father's massive grief that the prince is doing this "at
the wrong time" (9.14-16), the Purohita continues:
17. Therefore enjoy lordship for the present over the earth and you shall go to the
forest at the time approved by the scriptures (sastradrste). Have regard for me, your
unlucky father, for dharma consists in compassion for all creatures.
18. Nor is it only in the forest that this dharma is achieved; its achievement is certain
for the self-controlled in a city too. Purpose and effort are the means in this matter;
for the forest and the badges of mendicancy are the mark of the faint-hearted.
19. The dharma of salvation (moksadharma) has been obtained by kings even though
they remained at home, wearing the royal tiara, with strings of pearls hanging over
their shoulders and their arms fortified by rings, as they lay cradled in the lap of
imperial Fortune (laksml).103
The Purohita goes on, purportedly in the father's words, to mention

Bali and Janaka of Videha among several otherwise obscure kings104
who "were versed in the method of practising the dharma that leads
to final beatitude (naihsreyase dharmavidhau viriitâny even while they
remained grhasthas (20-21), and further recalls "the deeds done by
Bhlsma, who sprang from the womb of Gangâ, Râma, and Bhârgava
Râma, to please their fathers" (25). And he concludes by again
recalling the grief caused to others whom the prince has left behind
(26-29). One notes that the Purohita does not cite Yudhisthira, who
heard Bhlsma preach on moksadharma in the Moksadharma. But
Asvaghosa would seem to implicitly acknowledge Yudhisthira's
precedence; for while Yudhisthira claims to want to pursue moksa, he
ultimately listens to Bhlsma and the others who circle around his
doing exactly what the Purohita is claiming can be done by citing
kings who obtained moksa while remaining at home.
When the prince replies "after a moment's meditation (dhyâtvâ
muhürtam)" (B 9.30), he says that fear of the three signs left him no
choice but leaving, even knowing the fatherly affections involved (31);
103 9.17. tad bhuhksva tâvad vasudhâdhipatyam/ kâle vanam yâsyasi sâstradrste/
anistabandhau kuru mayy apeksamj sarvesu bhütesu dayâ hi dharmah//
18. na caisa dharmo vana eva siddhah/ pure 'pi siddhir niyataa yatiinâm/
buddhis ca yatnas ca nimittam atra/ vanam ca lihgam ca hi bhlrucihnam//
19. mautldharair amsavisaktaharaih/ keyüravistabdhabhujair narendraih/
laksmyahkamadhye parivartamânaih/ prapto grhasthair moksadharmah.
104 Johnston cannot trace some of these (2004, 126-127 n. 20).

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272 ALF HILTEBEITEL
in a world of wayfarers, why cherish grief? (35).105 How

is that his father wishes to hand over the kingdom to hi
kingship as an "abode of delusion in which are to be fo
ness, the intoxication of pride, weariness and the los
sion, or "squeezing"] of dharma by the mishandling
(parâpacârena ca dharmapldà)" (39-40).106 It may be "pr
for kings to leave their kingdoms and enter the forest in t
dharma (dharmabhilâsena), but it is not fitting to break
forsaking the forest to go to one's home"; for a man o
who has gone to the forest out of desire for dharma, to
city would be like eating one's own vomit, like reenterin
house (44-47). And now, with precise and loaded words on our
central point, he says:
48. As for the revelation (srutft) that kings obtained final emancipation (moksa) while
remaining as householders (nrpâ grhasthâ),101 this is not the case. How can the
dharma of salvation (moksadharma) in which quietude {sama) predominates be rec
onciled with the dharma of kings (râjadharma) in which severity of action (danda)
predominates?108
Going on to argue that "quietude and severity are incompatible

(samas ca taiksnyam ca hi nopapannam)" for a king (49), he even
subjects the Purohita's affirmative proposition to three other quarters
of a four-sided argumentation:
50. Either therefore those lords of the earth resolutely cast aside their kingdoms and
obtained quietude, or, stained by kingship, they claimed to have attained liberation
on the ground that their senses were under control, but in fact only reached a state
that was not final.
105 These responses may recall the Suka story near the end of the Moksadharma
parvan, in which Janaka of Videha is cast, even in his own palace, as an expert on
renunciation, and in which Vyasa confronts his fatherly affections for his ultimately
affectless son Suka as the latter makes his moksa-departure. See Hiltebeitel (2001,
278-322). On Janaka in other such contexts, see Olivelle (1993, 238-240).
106 For "squeezing," see Bowles (2004, 154 n. 34), on dharmam prapldya at Mbh
12.101.2. Johnston (2004, 131 n 40), also notes a usage of dharmapidâ at Mbh 13.4566
= Critical Edition 13.96.10, which is a verse in which Agastya tells that he has heard,
"Time harms (kills, saps) the energy of dharma (kâlo himsate dharmavîryam),"
coming in a series of stories about when it is dharma not to accept gifts (13.94 -96).
107 Johnston (2004), translates, "As for the tradition that kings obtained final
emancipation while remaining in their homes. . —which I change for the obvious
points of emphasis.
ios 9 4g yQ ca ¿m¡ir nioksam avâptavanto/ nrpá grhasthâ iti naitad asti//
samapradhdnah kva ca moksadharmoj dandapradhanah kva ca rajadharmah.

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51. Or let it be conceded they attained quietude while holding kingship, still I have
not gone to the forest with an undecided mind; for having cut through the net known
as home and kindred I am freed and have no intention of re-entering that net.109
What a crystal-clear Buddhist critique of the ambiguities of the

Brahmanical position. And, I think implicitly, what a subtle response
to the nearly interminable indecisiveness and ultimate resignation to
râjadharma and grhasthadharma, while putting aside moksadharma,
of Yudhisthira Dharmaràja.
The third usage comes early from Mara, fingering an arrow
(B 13.8) as he first verbally challenges the Bodhisattva's right to sit
beneath the bodhi tree:
9. Up, up, Sir Ksatriya, afraid of death. Follow your own dharma (cara svadhar
mam), give up the dharma of liberation (tyaja moksadharmam). Subdue the world
with both arrows and sacrifices, and from the world obtain the world of Vasava.110
This is the first and only usage of svadharma in the first 14 cantos of
the Buddhacarita, and, as far as I can see, the only one likely in the
entire text. Note that whereas in the first usage of moksadharma the
Purohita says it is possible to combine moksadharma with
grhasthadharma, and in the second the prince contrasts moksadharma
with râjadharma,111 Màra now contrasts it with svadharma.
Indeed, as we now see, Asvaghosa uses contrastive terms with a
definite Mahâbhârata caché, and ones by which he might be intending
to prickle Brahmanical ears with references not only to the postwar
predicament of Yudhisthira, who of course wants to do something
like what the Buddha does and is persuaded not to, but also Arjuna,
who has some similar inclinations before the war, and is likewise
109 9.50. tan niscayâd va vasudhàdhipâs te/ râjyâni muktvâ samam áptavantah//
rajyâhgitâ va nibhrtendriyatvâd/ anaistike moksakrtâbhimânâh//
51. tesâm ca râjye 'stu samo yathávat¡ prâpto vanam nâham aniscayena/
chittvâ hi pàsam grhabandhusamjñam/ muktah punar na praviviksur asmi.
That householders can obtain liberating knowledge could be seen as the Mïmâmsà
position; see Oliveile (1993, 238-240).
110 13.9. uttistha bhoh ksatriya mrtyubhíta/ cara svadharmam tyaja
moksadharmam//banais ca yajñais ca vinlya lokam/ lokât padam prâpnuhi vâsavasya.
Schreiner (1990) brings out that there is a variant varasva dharmam, "choose
dharma," for cara svadharmam. Weaker, and non-contrastive (see just below), I think
we can treat it as secondary.
111 As to such a contrast, a further likely usage of râjadharma occurs when the
Buddha goes to Kosala to meet King Prasenajit, and hears from him, "O Lord, I
have suffered and been harassed by passion (raga) and the kingly profession
{râjadharma)" (20.10), to which the Buddha replies at length (12-51) as to how kings
can benefit from the Buddha's teaching or law (14-17), earlier called his
( moksa-) dharma.

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274 ALF HILTEBEITEL
counselled against them.112 Indeed, from the first word utt

imperative "Up, up" or "Arise," Asvaghosa puts Mâra's
challenge in the simplest language of the Bhagavad Gïtâ,]l3
especially BhG 2.31-37 where this command at 2.37 is prec
double urgings that Arjuna do his Ksatriya svadharma in
Krsna's most insulting prods, goading him, just as Mara
Bodhisattva, to stop looking like he is abstaining from battl
fear (2.35). But the beginning of the Santiparvan remains As
first frame of reference, for, as already noted, early in hi
predicament Yudhisthira, who has more trouble than A
accepting this svadharma concept,114 hears similar argum
after Yudhisthira says he is renouncing the kingdom and go
forest, Arjuna begins his insulting and mocking replies, as
been insulted himself (which he has not):115
What misery! What pain! What heights of sissy feebleness (aho vaikla
mam)\116 That you should renounce this Royal Splendor (in) after doin
deeds! Having killed your enemies and acquired the earth — which cam
your own Lawful Duty (svadharmenopapaditam) — how can you renou
thing now that your enemies are slain, unless you are daft (buddhilaghavàt
a eunuch be a king (ktibasya hi kuto rajyam)? ... (Mbh 12.8.3 5a).
Fitzgerald is probably right in this translation to take sva

upapâditâm as implying Yudhisthira's svadharma, and that A
112 Olivelle ( 1993, 103-106, 150) also sees their dilemmas in parallel and b
that, in contrast to Arjuna who never hears about àsramas in the Gîta, Y
wants to hear about them at length. See 12.33.12, where Yudhisthira disc
asks, "Grandfather, tell me about some especially good hermitages" (â
visesams tvam mamàcaksva pitâmaha)" (Fitzgerald, 2004, 243), or "espe
life-stages"; and 13.57.42c where, to his brothers' and wife's great relief, h
said to have "no longer longed to dwell in a hermitage/life-stage (nâsra
vâsam)." Olivelle's treatment of the G it a s emphasis on svadharma and v
rather than àsrama is full of implications for understanding these two
differences (105-106, 197), but it is not "likely that the author [of the BhG
have known the classical [àsrama] system" (Olivelle, 1993, 105) such as it
to the author of the beginning of the Sàntiparvan.
113 Krsna tells Arjuna "Arise!" four times: BhG 2.3; 2.37, 4.42, and finally
less decisively at 11.33. Mara uses the verb three times in his short speec
twice in the imperative.
114 See on this point Hiltebeitel (2001, 90); Sutton (2000, 318).
115 See Fitzgerald (2004, 182-183), and my discussion of this passage in
(forthcoming-c).
116 Krsna, of course, likewise begins his taunts of Arjuna in Bhagavad Gî
"Do not act like a eunuch (klaibyam ma sma gamah), Pàrtha, it does no
you!" (BhG 2.3; van Buitenen, 1981, 71).

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not saying that the earth has been "delivered by svadharma" itself -
that is, handed over to Yudhisthira on a silver platter, as it were, by
Ksatriya svadharma, which, as Vyâsa soon tells Yudhisthira, pro
duced the whole holocaust.117 But if we note that Arjuna embodies
svadharma above all, Arjuna could be deepening the insults by
implying that the victory was his doing. Arjuna goes on to deliver
further bits of what he can still remember of the Gîta, which he claims
to have forgotten by Book 14 when he asks Krsna to repeat it, and
Vyâsa summarizes some Gîta theology as well (12.26.14-16; 32.11-15;
34.4—7) (see Hiltebeitel, forthcoming-c) - all to no avail, because
Yudhisthira finds these arguments inadequate, eventually requiring
Vyâsa to come up with a ritual solution (the Asvamedha sacrifice of
Book 14), which Vyâsa, of course, already anticipates in this early
Sântiparvan sequence (12.32.20-24).
The upshot for Asvaghosa is that Mâra's challenge to fight and
perform Ksatriya svadharma rather than pursue moksadharma not
only invokes Arjuna's recalling of the Bhagavad Gîtâ, but puts
Krsna's words into the mouth of the devil. As we have seen,
Asvaghosa can be a bit arch at times when he symbolically juxtaposes
Krsna and the Buddha. Unlike King Srenya, who also - if only in the
Buddhacarita - challenges the Bodhisattva to fight, Mara must be
overcome, and, with him, so too must such (from the Buddhist per
spective) convenient and self-serving ideas as the svadharma of
118
princes.
But let us now return to the opposition between moksadharma and
rajadharma. These terms, of course, provide the title topics of the first
and third subparvans of the Sântiparvan. But they are also part of
117 Vyàsa could also be equating svadharma with ksatradharma when, upon
hearing Yudhisthira asking to be told about good hermitages/life-stages, Vyâsa gets
him back on track by saying, "Do not be depressed, king. Remember ksatradharma.
These Ksatriyas were surely slain by (their) svadharma, O bull among Ksatriyas (ma
visâdam krtha râjan ksatradharmam anusmara/ svadharmena hata hyete ksatriyah
ksatriyarsabha)" (12.34.2). Or, since Vyâsa has been hammering away about
Yudhisthira's svadharma (12.23.3; 25.31; 26.35; 32.8, 22), he could also be implying
they were all killed "by your svadharma, Yudhisthira."
118 See Gombrich (1985, 436) on Buddhist criticism of this "Hindu notion":
"Buddhists do not even have the term svadharma (Pali *sadhamma). . .

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276 ALF HILTEBEITEL
what I call an instructional arc119 of teaching that runs thr

only what James Fitzgerald (2004) calls the three anthologi
Sântiparvan but what he calls the fourth anthology in the
Anusâsanaparvan. This arc of teaching, levelled at Yudhisthira but
overheard by all the Pândavas and DraupadT as well (13.57.42-44),
goes through four dharma topics: râjadharma, âpaddharma,
moksadharma, and (in the Anusâsanaparvan) dânadharma. It is this
arc or sequence through which Yudhisthira must not only learn
about kingship and its distresses, but renounce his inclination to seek
moksa, and finally, in the dânadharma, abandon his wish to retreat to
an ashram (ibid.) in order to become a giving king. As far as I am able
to discern, this fourfold sequence is unique in Indian dharma litera
ture to the Mahâbhârata, and may, I believe, be called one of its
signature formulations about dharma,120 It presents an outcome that
the Buddha must, at least for himself, reject, but not one that he
119 I began using the term "arc" in discussions at the July 2005 "Mbh Con
structions Conference" at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and
heard Adam Bowles use it similarly at the September 2005 4th DICSEP meeting.
This is fitting since Bowles's dissertation helped me formulate my usage. On the
sequence of the three Sântiparvan anthologies, he writes, "A logic of action informs
this structure, a logic that models the proper duties of the royal life. A king's desire
for salvation must follow the proper completion of his royal duty, or, rather, it
follows from the proper completion of his royal duty. The syntactic order of the
Santiparvan text . . . mirrors, therefore, the proper syntactic order of the royal life
and the proper order of the king's concerns" (2004, 297). In Hiltebeitel (forth
coming-c) I write, after quoting this passage: "I believe Bowles has found the right
terms here for us to deepen our investigation of the fourth anthology: Would not
dânadharma follow moksadharma in 'the proper syntactic order of the royal life'? I
have in mind, to begin with, that the Mbh would be developing this 'further
instruction' for kings as a Brahmanical counterpart to the Buddhist (and not just
Mahâyàna) dânapâramitâ." See also Hiltebeitel (2005), which introduces further
considerations on this transition from Book 12 to Book 13.
120 It is, however, worth noting an intriguing parallel, though not a likely influenc
one way or another, in the addition of a Bodhisattvapitaka as a fourth canonica
"basket" (pitaka) by the Dharmaguptakas (see Nattier, 2003, 46 n. 80; 80-83, 129
274-76; Pagel, 1995, 7-36). With four "baskets" (which denote collections of
manuscipts) we have an analogy with Fitzgerald's notion of four "anthologies."
And, putting aside the obvious reservation that one collection is for monks and the
other for an epic king, there would also be some minimal correspondence in the last
two pairings between the two sets of four in sequence: 1. dharmapitaka: râjadliarma;
2. vinayapitaka: âpaddharma; 3. abhidharmapitaka: moksadharma', and 4. bodhi
sattvapitaka: dânadharma - with the bodhisattva basket stressing the practice and
teaching of the six paramltas that begin with dâna (Nattier, 2003, 154 n. 38; 186).
Curiously, the BahusrutTyas, with whom Johnston attempts to link Asvaghosa (2004,
xxx-xxxv), also had a bodhisattvapitaka, but in a canon of five baskets (Nattier, 2003,
46 n. 80). I believe that Nattier's study of Ugrapariprcchâ could open new consid
erations on the sectarian and intertextual placement of Asvaghosa (see n. 23 above).

18:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
would necessarily reject for all. Indeed, Asvaghosa has found it worth
engaging, for I believe that his juxtaposition of râjcidharma and
moksadharma, along with his demonstrations of textual familiarity
with both the Râjadharma- and Moksadharma-Parvans of the Scinti
parvan, show that he has the first and third units of this arc firmly in
view. But what about cipad and dandi
With âpad the evidence is not very strong, but still worth consid
ering. Apad comes up only once in the first fourteen cantos, and not
in the segment where Asvaghosa undertakes what I have called a
Mahâbhârata reading. When the prince addresses the horse
Kanthaka in preparation for his great departure, he says:
5.76. Easy it is to find companions for battle, for the pleasure of acquiring the objects
of sense and for the accumulation of wealth; but hard it is for a man to find com
panions when he has fallen into distress (âpadi) or attaches himself to dharma}2'
It is emphasized in this speech that the prince speaks to Kanthaka as

a companion (sahaya) and friend (suhrd; 5.79), but while foreshad
owing that the prince will have to make his battle alone, without
friends, as we have seen. Thus the interesting juxtaposition: com
panions are hard to find "for a man who has fallen into cipad or
attaches himself to dharmaSince this is the only usage of âpad in
the Buddhacarita, it is hard to say whether the prince uses the term to
define his present situation, or is speaking disjunctively and implying
that, rather than being in distress, he is only attaching himself to
dharma. One is perhaps helped by a verse in which Udâyin says he
speaks out of friendship offered in adversity, using âpad's near
synonym vyasana (B 4.64) (see Bowles, 2004, 40-54), when he
counsels the prince to gratify the women who are trying to seduce him
between the third and fourth signs. This suggests that the prince's
situation is adversity (apad, vyasana) as others see it, but as he is
beginning to see it himself when he speaks to Kanthaka, it is not
adversity once he has begun resorting to dharma. In this vein, the two
main Apaddharmaparvan units to address the topic of friendship in
adversity - sequential fables: "The Conversation between a Mouse
and a Cat beneath a Banyan Tree" (Mbh 12.136) and "The Con
versation between the Bird 'Adorable' and King Brahmadatta"
(12.137) (see Fitzgerald, 2004, 496-498, 512-529) - are apposite on
the limits of friendship in times of distress, particularly when, in
the latter, the bird "Adorable" ultimately defines those limits when
121 5.76. sulabhah khalu samyuge sahaya/ visayav aptasukhe dhanarjane va

purusasya tu durlabhâh sahàyàh/ patitasyâpadi dharmasamsraye va

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278 ALF HILTEBEITEL
she tells King Brahmadatta, who has in her eyes broken

her, that the only friends one can truly trust are one's inna
(jmitrani sahajâni), the friends one is born with - that is
good qualities - a passage that itself may recall the Buddh
"Be a friend unto yourself':
Knowledge, bravery, initiative, strength, and fortitude the fifth - the

one's innate friends by which the wise make things happen here (vid
daksyam ca balam dhairyam ca pañcakam/ mitrani sahajânyâhur var
budhâh). (12.137.81)
Also interesting, and within the Buddhacarita's Mahàbh

is a verse using vyasana, where the prince responds to th
9.41. For kingship is at the same time full of delights and the vehic
(vyasanasrayam), like a golden palace all on fire, like dainty food mix
or like a lotus pond infested with crocodiles.122
But these are no more than reminders of a general theme. In

the disjunctive use of apad and dharma makes it clear tha
question of a compound apaddharma. The best we get is
explanation as to why cipad would not be used in the firs
Buddhacarita in the sense of apaddharma. Unless perhaps
of Mara, there are no princes or kings in distress over th
of losing their kingdoms in the text's first fourteen cantos.
As to dâna, quite surprisingly there is no use of the term
half of the Buddhacarita. But giving is made an importan
Canto 18 where, not surprisingly, the Buddha is addressin
but one of those wealthy merchants, gahapatis or gr
important to both Theravâda and early Mahàyàna texts1
economic support of early Indian Buddhism. A wealthy m
Kosala named Sudatta, "who was in the habit of giving w
destitute," came "from the north" at night (B 18.1-2
Buddha in Ràjagrha. Having welcomed him, the Budd
quickly to "the fame in this world and the reward in th
[that] arise from giving," and urges that "at the proper t
should "give the treasure that is won through the Law"
122 9.41. jambunada harmyam iva pradiptaml visena samyuktam ivott

grahakulam càmbv iva saravindam/ rajyam hi ramyam vyasanasrayam
123 As noted in note 111 above, it is a different matter in the second h
Prasenajit of Kosala, and of course with Srenya-Bimbisâra too, who
dered by his son Ajatasatru.
124 See Bailey and Mabbett (2003, 43-53) and passim-, Nattier ([2003
and passim.

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hearing an initial sermon mainly on impermanence, Sudatta

"obtained the first fruit of practice of the Law; and ... only one drop
remained over from the great ocean of suffering for him. Though
living in the house, he realized by insight the highest good" (15-16).
As with Yudhisthira, whom the Buddhacarita never, of course, crit
icizes, somebody has to do this job of giving, and must be educated to
do it in the right spirit. After a lengthy interval in which the poet
describes Sudatta's insight in terms of the Brahmanical views he now
gives up, including those about a deity (18-29), we return to Sudatta
as he is offering to donate a monastery at Srâvastï (57). Here the
Buddha praises giving at length (61-80), mentioning that it is "one of
the elements of salvation" (74), expounding on the varied virtues of
giving wealth, food, clothes, abodes, vehicles, and lamps (76-78), and
concluding that Sudatta's gift is of the best kind since it "has no
ulterior motive" (79). Sudatta's gift will be land: the Jeta grove for the
Jetuvana vihâra (81-85). The verses on the varied merits of giving
different things could be called a capsule Dânadharma, since they are
reminiscent of the middle third of the Dânadharmaparvan in which
Bhlsma regales Yudhisthira on the merits of giving all the same
things, though above all, giving food and land to Brahmans. As with
âpaddltarma, we must again pose a negative explanation, this time as
to why dâna is not used in the first half of the Buddhacarita, but in
this case unfolded in the second. It is not a matter of import until
the Buddha must develop a post-enlightenment theory of the gift125
- albeit without any evidence that it would have been called
dânadharma.
Nonetheless, as I have shown elsewhere (forthcoming-c), giving
food is among the topics brought up toward the end of Yudhisthira's
discussions with Vyâsa in the first forty adhyayas of the Sântiparvan,
where the topics of all four dharma anthologies are in fact antici
pated.126 So if Asvaghosa is familiar with that segment, he would be
familiar at least with these topics, if not with the plan and contents of
the four subparvans themselves that describe the full arc of
Yudhisthira's postwar education on dharma. Actually, however, all
four terms are also developed earlier in the Mahâbhârata. Not
counting the epic's Parvasamgraha or table of contents, where
dânadharma is the only one not mentioned, there are, prior to the
125 See the succinct and elegant essay on this subject, said to be "highly theorized
in Indian Buddhist textual discourse," by Ohnuma (2005, quoting from p. 102).
126 See Hiltebeitel (forthcoming-c, citing Mbh 12.37.1-2 and 43) on food and
giving.

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280 ALF HILTEBEITEL
Sàntiparvan, 14 usages of râjadha

moksadharma, and 6 of dânadharm
plural (-dharmas) instances. And in
about each of these dharmas, the
unfolding to him in Books 12 and 1
there is also follow-up in Book 14
14.2.17; 16.16; 19.63 and 49) and d
the two that would still be ringing
uses of râjadharma are basic and not
the four mentioned in the Râmâyan
dharmasütras and Manu, even Bhlm
Manu spoke on râjadharma (3.36.2
âpaddharma as something basic and a
return dice match, with a warni
Pândavas prepare for exile (2.69.19). But moksadharma and
dânadharma are novel enough matters to be the subjects of
upâkhyânas or subtales told to Yudhisthira and company in the
Forest Book. From Màrkandeya Yudhisthira learns that he has just
heard "the entire moksadharma (krtsne moksadharmey (3.204.1) in
the speech just recounted by a pious hunter (dharmavyâdha) to a
Brahman in the Pativrata-Upâkhyâna (also called "The Colloquy of
the Hunter and the Brahman"; van Buitenen, 1975, 617-638). And
dânadharma is a topic Yudhisthira wants to know about enough to
ask the author himself, Vyâsa, which weighs more in the afterworld,
dânadharma or tapas (3.245.26). Vyâsa favors dânadharma so long as
one gives rightfully obtained wealth (245.32), which leads him to
recount the Mudgala-Upâkhyâna about the Rsi Mudgala who gave
unstintingly to guests what little he had garnered from living righ
teously off what he gleaned from harvested fields. When an envoy of
the gods tries to interest Mudgala in ascending with him to heaven, he
tells Mudgala he will find there "the Law-minded, the masters of self,
the serene and controlled and unenvious, those accustomed to the
Law of giving (dânadharmaratâh), and champions with the scars
showing" (3.247.4; van Buitenen, 1975, 703).127 But Mudgala rejects
heaven in favor of "the eternal and supreme perfection that is marked
by Extinction (sásvañm siddhim parâm nirvânalaksanâm)" (247.43;
van Buitenen, 705). As this upâkhyâna shows, the unfolding of
127 It is interesting to see van Buitenen translate danadharma this way for the first
time, having seemingly struggled with it before this: translating it as a dvandva
(1.94.11 and 17), omitting its translation (3.155.10), and trying out "the merits of
gifts" and just "giving" earlier in the Mudgala-Upakhyana.

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dânadharma involves weighting it favorably over tapas: a matter that

is returned to repeatedly in the Danadharmaparvan,]2S and one that
deserves further study (see Olivelle, 1993, 162-170). Indeed, a pref
erence of dânadharma over tapas would probably win Asvaghosa's
and the Buddha's agreement, as would Mudgala's spurning of heaven
for nirvana.
Within the skein of Books 12 and 13, however, it is clear that what
counts most for Asvaghosa is moksadharma, which he seems to have
introduced into Buddhist literature as a way to translate nirvana that
would clarify in both Buddhist and Brahmanical circles what is
comparable and what is distinctive about Buddhist and Brahmanical
dharmas. I remain under the impression that neither moksadharma
nor a would-be Pâli equivalent have appeared in Buddhist texts
before Asvaghosa.129
POSTSCRIPT ON THE BUDDHACARITA AND ASOKA
Asvaghosa offers three verses on Asoka toward the very

Buddhacarita (B 28.63-64):
63. In the course of time king Asoka was born, who was devoted to
caused grief to proud enemies and removed the grief of people in suf
pleasant to look on as an asoka tree, laden with blossoms and fruit.
128 From Mbh 13.57 on, see 13.93-94, 106, and 109-110. In some p
trasting the two, tapas is associated with sacrifice and fasting, as i
description of the anchorites in Buddhacarita Canto 7.
129 Asvaghosa also uses nivrttidharma in the same vein, contrasted wi
see B 7.48, where the prince tells the anchorites, "the dharma of ces
activity (nivrttidharma) is apart from the continuance of active being (pr
11.63 contrasting pravrtti with vinivrtti; 5.24-25 on "nirvrtâas dis
I am not aware that nivrttidharma occurs earlier than the Mbh, where the
Moksadharmaparvan s Naràyaniya has seven pertinent references from 12.325-28,
treating it more or less interchangeably with nirvana and moksa (see Bailey, n.d.-a,
19, 30). As Bailey notes, while "early Buddhist literature" in Pâli offers evidence of
"abstract bodies of knowledge being formed around" nivatti and pavatti (nivrtti and
pravrtti), "it never develops this opposition in the way it is done in the MBh," which
he identifies as "the fundamental text which contains the fully developed theories"
(n.d.-b, 1-2). Asvaghosa's usage thus points again in the Mbh's direction. Moreover,
the fact that Asvaghosa uses both moksa and nivrtti (along with pravrtti) in his earlier
Saundarananda, but not in a compound with dharmacould suggest that he did
his close reading of the Moksadharmaparvan between writing these two kàvyas. For
his earlier work, he coins the decisive compound moksamârga (17.1; cf. 17.13), which
does not occur in either epic.

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282 ALF HILTEBEITEL
64. The noble glory of the Maurya race, he set to work for the good of
provide the whole earth with stupas, and so he who has been calle
became Asoka Dharmaràja.
65. The Maurya took the relics of the Seer from the seven stüpas in
been deposited, and distributed them in due course in a single day
thousand majestic stüpas, which shone with the brilliancy of autumn
Now one touchstone130 in marking a slightly less than c

tion of Buddhism in the Mahñbhñrata has been Mâ
prophesy about a Kaliyuga overrun with edükas (Mbh 3
70), edüka being the oldest term for Buddhist reliquari
with those for the bones of the Buddha after his crem
found in both in Sanskrit and Pâli as a term for stüpas
counter-prophesy can be found in the Mañjusrlmulakalp
Buddha tells King Ajatasâtru of Magadha (who had by
his father Srenya Bimbisâra):
After my decease, the masters of the world will kill each other from fa
bhiksus will be engrossed in business affairs and the people, victim
laity will lose their faith, will kill and spy on one another. The land wil
Devas and Tirthikas, and the population will place its faith in the brahm
take pleasure in killing living beings and will lead a loose life.131
Devas and Tirthakas would seem to be Brahmanical t

other holy places served by Brahmans. Note that the M
passage also makes a rare predictive reference to Brahm
ples (devasthñnas; 3.188.65c), along with Brahman settle
hermitages of the great Rsis, as being supplanted by th
edükñs.
As John Strong shows, it is Asoka's proliferation of st
the Asokñvadñna actually calls dharmarñjikñs, that ma
sition from his being called Candâsoka, "Asoka the F
Dharmâsoka, "Asoka the Righteous" - a term for which
lets "Asoka Dharmaràja" stand alone, and that gives
name Dharmaràja, which is also an epithet for the Budd
because the building of stüpas represents "the reconstru
Buddha's body" (1983, 117-118). For Asvaghosa, as fo
dharma appears to be more a universal value than a civili
something the Buddhist dharma makes possible for e
levelled terms. If indeed the Mahñbhñrata presents first and
Dharmaràja Yudhisthira, perhaps at times in tandem with
130 As discussed by Biardeau (2002, 2: 759-760), and in Hiltebeitel (f

131 See Lamotte (1998, 94 [103]), translating Mañjusñmülakalpa ver

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Arjuna, as an answer to the never quite mentioned Buddha and

Asoka, Asvaghosa would seem to provide both the Buddha and
Asoka as answers to the chief heroes and the main deity of the
MahabharatcCs never quite mentioned main story.
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Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita-The First Close and Critical Reading of The Brahmanical Sanskrit Epic (Alf Hiltebeitel)

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AŚVAGHOṢA'S "BUDDHACARITA": THE FIRST KNOWN CLOSE AND CRITICAL READING

OF THE BRAHMANICAL SANSKRIT EPICS

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23497363

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ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA: THE FIRST KNOWN

The topic of "Buddhism and the Mahâbhârata" is one I have

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and nivrtti.4 Although I will return briefly to this topic, h

EARLY DISCOURSE ON DHARMA AND KINGS

Olivelle's recent publications - one revealingly titled "The

4 Or pavatti and nivatti; see Bailey (2003), now followed up by presen

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Manu - both types of texts giving accented attention to the dharma of

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authoritative fashion, both Sanskrit epics take up the p

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(ahimsa), and truth as among the virtues especially pertinent to

It is against this background that it is worth looking at Asvaghosa's

8 As Olivelle (1999), xxxix puts it for Apastambha.

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(2004), who after nearly 70 years still offers, I believe,

9 Johnston's monumental 10-year study of the Buddhacarita prov

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- introduce women pretending to stumble to attract th

THE CENTRALITY OF DHARMA IN ASVAGHOSA'S BUDDHACARITA

It is a surprising point to have to make that Asvaghosa

13 Boccali, "Introduction" to concluding roundtable discussion on "Origins of

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mahâkâvya. The scholastic parts remain faithful to the tra

18 See e.g. B 6.68, describing the groom Chandaka's return: "Sometimes he

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scattered, and he might have had a somewhat nebulous ahistorical

19 These are 1. the Buddha's "teaching," 2. "good conduct" or "good behavior,"

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ever precisely calling it that,23 he provides special mom

23 As Olivelle (1993) shows, Brahmanical asruma ("life-pattern" or "l

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fashion a lifeless man, arranging it so that only the prince and

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are the sons of ministers. He rides Kanthaka, but the chario

27 In the Nidanakatha, this episode occurs when he is a mere child wi

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awareness of dharma (upalabhya tatas ca dharmasamjñám) and set his

ASVAGHOSA THE BRAHMAN, BUDDHIST CONVERT, AND SCHOLAR

29 5.21 gaganam khagavad gate ca tasmin/ nrvara samjahrse visismiye ca//

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with Rg Vedic knowledge,31 familiarity with Brahmanical ri

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that Asvaghosa's accuracy and even pedantry bind us "to assume

ASVAGHOSA AND EPIC PRECEDENTS

For both Brahmanical epics, we thus have the possibility

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seers the sons accomplished the various deeds their ancest

Verses 42-43 establish a clear Mahâbhârata-Ràmâyana alternation

33 Another Bhârgava; but see Johnston (2004, 10 n. 43).

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But Asvaghosa also has a point in making epic and other

37 For unknown and uncertain references and usually Johnston's discussion

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against Krsna, the end of Vrsnis and Andhakas over

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their different but also complementary guidelines on a basic

THE BUDDHACARITA AND THE RAM AY AN A