Life of the Buddha

Recently this translation and edition has been superceded by Olivelle's version of Buddhacarita in the Clay Sanskrit Series, yet Johnstone's landmark translation remains a towering edifice in the corpus of Mahayana Buddhism. The work is deeply and profoundly moving and the spiritual investiture from imbibing the work is inexpressible. A pure treasure of religion and world literature.

I ordered this book because it is used as a textbook for my Buddhism class. After reading it, I understand much more about the culture and religion, as well as appreciate the artistic poeticism that is behind the story of the Buddha's life.

This book is the paperback edition (cloth is ISBN 8120810295) of the reprint of the 1936 Lahore edition of Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita, translated in English by E.H. Johnston. Part I is the complete Sanskrit text of Cantos I to XIV, using as its chief authority a Sanskrit manuscript dating from app. 1300 AD, supplemented by the Tibetan version and a fifth century A.D. Chinese translation. Part I: Sanskrit Text of I-XIV Part II: English translation of I-XIV Part III: English translation of XV-XXVIII Part II includes a lengthy introduction by the translator on Asvaghosa's life and works. The book includes the original Sanskrit text of Sargas I-XIV, but not the original Tibetan and Chinese texts used for part III.