A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.69

v2.c19.s6.t3.69

In the Buddha-Carita, too, Aśvaghoṣa's teaching is in the main that of the Hīnayāna, though traces of the Mahāyāna are not wanting. Book XVI contains the "Sermon of Benares,” which is only a poetical and expanded version of the text known from the Tipiṭaka, but it also speaks of the body as “empty, without a self” (śūnyam anātmakam, XVI, 28), calls the Buddha not only “the Self-born” (Svayambhū), “the Overlord of the Whole Dharma,” but even the “Lord of the World” (XVI, 64; 69). And he even says that he has attained the Great Vehicle, the Mahāyāna, that has been set forth by all the Buddhas for establishing the welfare of all beings (XVI, 75; 85). Thus Aśvaghoṣa probably belongs to the period of the beginning of the Mahāyāna.