A History of Sanskrit Literature c10.s1.1

c10.s1.1

THE deplorable darkness which still envelops early India renders it impossible to establish with certainty the date of Açvaghoṣa, famous alike as a poet and as a philosopher. Tradition unquestionably makes him a protégé of the famous Kaniṣka, but the matter is complicated by the fact that if the *Sūtrālaṃkāra*¹ is his, he tells two stories in which Kaniṣka's reign seems to be referred to as in the past; this may be explained either on the theory that Kaniṣka died before him, which does not accord with tradition, or on the view that the stories are interpolated in whole or as regards the name, or that there was an earlier Kaniṣka; again an inscription² held to belong to the time of Kaniṣka mentions an Açvaghoṣarāja who has been temerariously identified with the poet. Assuming the validity of the tradition despite these difficulties, the date of Açvaghoṣa would fall to be determined by that of Kaniṣka, for whom *c.* A.D. 100³ still seems a just estimate. Tradition also tells that he was originally a Brahmin, that he first adhered to the Sarvāstivāda school of Buddhism, but was attracted by the doctrine of the saving grace of faith in the Buddha, and became one of the forerunners of the Mahāyāna school. I-tsing, who travelled in India in A.D. 671–95, refers to him as one of the great teachers of the past, and asserts that a collection of his works was still studied in his time. From the colophons of his own works we learn that his mother was named Suvarṇākṣī and that his home was Sāketa, while he is given the style of Ācārya and Bhadanta.