August 11, 2025

Lost in India, Found in China: Nine(+) Lives of the Buddha

Key Points

The article examines nine versions of the Buddhacharita, showing its influence across different cultures and languages.
Key findings include significant divergences in cultural details from the original Sanskrit to later translations in Chinese and Tibetan.
This analysis utilizes a meta-textual approach to explore the textual transition and transformations the Buddhacharita underwent over centuries.
Significant attention is given to how the exotic portrayal in The Light of Asia defined Western perceptions of Buddhism during colonial times.

Abstract

This is an article about a major poetic text that was partially lost in the original language but many centuries later found in translation in two other countries and languages: the foundational epic biography of the Buddha, composed in Sanskrit c. the 1st/2nd century CE by Ashvaghosha, the Buddhacharita. Nine versions of this text are examined, which were produced successively in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, English, Hindi, and back into Sanskrit. After a meta-textual overview, a close discussion is offered of some significantly divergent cultural details. Also taken into consideration is a hugely popular life of the Buddha which was in no way connected with the Buddhacharita but because of its exotic “Orientalist” character became the most widely known version of the life and teachings of the Buddha in its day, in the high noon of imperialist England, The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold.

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