Ashvaghosha 馬鳴尊者
Ashvaghosha (Skt. Aśvaghoṣa; Tib. རྟ་དབྱངས་, Tayang; Wyl. rta dbyangs) (b. ca. first century) — originally a Hindu master, known as Durdharṣakāla, Bhavideva (bha bi lha), or Mātṛceta [1], he became a Buddhist after being defeated in debate by Aryadeva[2] at Nalanda University. He went on to compose many texts in beautiful Sanskrit verse, including the Buddhacharita, the most famous work on the life of Buddha. He authored the important Fifty Verses on the Lama.
Quotations
སྐྱེས་ནས་ལ་ལ་མ་ཤི་བ། །
འགའ་ཞིག་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་བའམ། །
Have you ever, on earth or in the heavens,
Seen a being who was born but will not die?
Have you ever heard that this had happened?
Or even had suspicions that it might?
- Aśvaghoṣa, Letter of Consolation
མཁའ་ལ་རྒྱང་རིང་འགྲོ་བ་ཡང་། །
གང་ན་འཆི་མེད་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་བའི། །
Great rishis with the five superknowledges,
Can fly far and wide through the sky,
Yet they will never reach a place
Where they might live and never die.
- Aśvaghoṣa, Letter of Consolation
Further Reading
- Lobsang N. Tsonawa, Indian Buddhist Pandits from The Jewel Garland of Buddhist History (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1985).
- Lama Chimpa, Alaka Chattopadhyaya and Debiprasad Chatterji, Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India (Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1990), pages 124-126 & 131-136.
