The Awakening of Faith: Introduction: Nativity and Peregrinations

NATIVITY AND PEREGRINATIONS.

There is not so much discordance in the traditions about the wanderings of Açvaghosha as about his date, though indeed we do not have as yet any means of ascertaining his birth-place, other than the statements

1 he was a son of a rich Brahman called Samghaguhya who married the tenth and youngest daughter of a merchant in Khorta. As a youth, when thoroughly familiar with every department of knowledge, he went to Odiviça, Gaura, Tîrahuti, Kâmarûpa, and some other places, defeating everywhere his Buddhist opponents by his ingenious logic.

All these places are situated in Eastern India, and among the Chinese traditions the Record of the Triratna (Li tai san pao chi) as well as the Accounts of Buddha and the Patriarchs (Fo tsu tung chi) agree with Târanâtha in placing Açvaghosha's native land in the East; but the Life of Vasubandhu makes Açvaghosha a native of Bhâshita in Çrâvastî, while in Nâgârjuna's work, the Mahâyânaçâstravyâkhyâ (Shih mo ho yen lun), he is mentioned as having been born in Western India, Loka being the father and Ghoṇâ the mother. The Record of Buddha and the Patriarchs Under Successive Dynasties (Fo tsu li tai t‘ung tsai) agrees with neither of the above statements, for it says (fasciculus 5): "The twelfth patriarch, Açvaghosha Mahâsattva was a native of Vârâṇasî." A further contradicting tradition is pointed out by Prof. S. Murakami in one of his articles on the history of Buddhism, 2 quoting the Shittanzô (fas. 1), which makes Açvaghosha a man of South India.

1 could not resist the temptation. Not satisfied with his intellectual campaign against commonplace Buddhists in his neighborhood, who were crushed down as "rotten wood before a raging hurricane," 2 he went, according to a Chinese tradition, to Pâṭaliputra, and according to the Tibetan, to Nâlanda. The Life of Açvaghosha evidently refers to this fact when it states that Parçva, the eleventh patriarch and eventual teacher of Açvaghosha, on being informed of the paramount influence of the Brahman

Footnotes

18:1 Geschichte des Buddhismus, p. 90.

18:2 The Bukkyô Shirin, Vol. I., No. 6. 1894. Tokyo, Japan.

19:1 The Transmission of the Dharmapitaka (Fu fa tsang ch‘uan, fas. 5).

19:2 The same as above.