A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.42

v2.c19.s6.t3.42

He clothes manifold meanings and ideas in a few words, which rejoice the heart of the reader so that he never feels tired from reading the poem. Besides, it should be counted as meritorious for one to read this book, inasmuch as it contains the noble doctrines given in a concise form.”¹ We gather from the words of I-tsing that he knew the Buddha-Carita in the form in which it appeared in the Chinese translation,² where the epic consists of 28 cantos, and the narrative is continued down to the Nirvāṇa of the Buddha. As the Tibetan translation³ also consists of 28 cantos, we must assume that the Sanskrit text, which consist of 17 cantos, and ends with the conversions in Benares, only represents a torso. In any case the work is a torso, for even of these seventeen cantos, only the first thirteen are old and authentic. The work was completed by a certain Amṛtānanda, who copied it at the beginning of the 19th century, and added the conclusion, because (as he himself admits) he could find no complete manuscripts.⁴