Abstract
Sundarananda, the Sanskrit epic on the Buddhist theme of Moksha and Nirvana, has become a trendsetter in the epic writing in Sanskrit and Nepali. Hindu born poet and philosopher, Ashwaghosh has composed this text after his deep-rooted impression on Buddhism. The epic has the narrative on how Buddha’s half brother, Nanda has undergone the severe practice for Moksha. He has adopted his family life, he has the close affiliation to the worldly things and he appears to be closely inclined to the material world. Buddha, not as a person, but as a philosophy or a practice, has provided him a pathway to the mode of liberation from the worldly life. At the beginning, Nanda is a common man, but by the end of the epic, he has got transition from the physical to the mode of unworldly realization. The whole epic describes his different steps of transition, dilemma between worldly and unworldly, confusion between love to life and love to beyond, and ultimately gives his successive transformation into the point of physically liberated life on earth. This study examines how he has made a resourceful transition from the physical love to the love beyond. Also, it raises some typical questions on the Buddhist negation of the material world, suffering and the debate on rebirth with the close observation on the relationship between body and mind, and ‘being’ and ‘non-being’. Sundarananda, not as a pure Buddhist text in this study, but as a literary creation, has adopted the lessons of Buddhism and at the same time, it has opened the discussion of existing for not to exist. The epic has provided a strong platform to interpret the text as a Buddhist quest for the non-existence through the existence.
Highlights
Born in India as a Brahmin, Ashwaghos was the greatest poet and philosopher writing and discoursing in Sanskrit even before Kalidash
Would Siddhartha be Buddha if he had no existence as physical body? This article does not intend to question on Buddhism, but it aims to observe on how the point of liberation- the freedom from suffering and rebirth has become possible in Buddha, and in Nanda- the half brother of Siddhartha through the body
Hindu philosophy has the belief that the creation takes place from Brahmaand, so was it at the beginning. Such mythological lessons of creation; silence or any particular creator try to explain the existence of the being or the present creation, but the silence about the point if all men/women follow the mythological lessons and move to the point of moksha or nirvana, the creation, in the long run of many generations, the human creation might go to an end. The motive of such preaching is that everyone intends to get rid of the sufferings, the burden of life-death and rebirth, leaves all the desires and passions, focuses just on the dharma and the unity of the self with supreme being (Parama-atma) and everyone is liberated
Summary
Born in India as a Brahmin, Ashwaghos was the greatest poet and philosopher writing and discoursing in Sanskrit even before Kalidash. As a born Hindu, he was having the power to discourse on the mythology of Hindusiam and later he became the follower of Buddhism and began to preach under Mahayana doctrines. He has composed epics in Sanskrit literature and he is one of the trendsetters of writing epics in Sanskrit and later on it has become the trend of writing epics in Nepali literature. This article does not intend to question on Buddhism, but it aims to observe on how the point of liberation- the freedom from suffering and rebirth has become possible in Buddha, and in Nanda- the half brother of Siddhartha through the body Would Siddhartha be Buddha if he had no existence as physical body? This article does not intend to question on Buddhism, but it aims to observe on how the point of liberation- the freedom from suffering and rebirth has become possible in Buddha, and in Nanda- the half brother of Siddhartha through the body
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