17. The Recovery of a Lost Epic by ASvaghosa. 
By MAHAMAHOPADHYAYA HARAPRASAD SHASTRI. 
In the last annual address a regret has been expressed 
that no startling discoveries have been made in philology and 
kindred subjects in recent years. Startling or not startling, I 
am going to announce to-night a very interesting discovery 
of a manuscript. It is the discovery of a new ancient epic poem 
by no less a person than the great poet, musician, and philo- 
sopher of the first century of the Caristian era—by Asvaghoéa, 
‘the spiritual preceptor of the greatest Indo-Scythian monarch, 
Kaniska, who held nearly a third of Asia under his sway, 
who is credited with having established the Saka era with 
giving a new life to a higher form of Buddhism, and in whose 
court flourished some of the most brilliant men both in science 
and literature. 
Asvaghosa is the first great writer of the Mahayana school 
of Buddhism, and author of the first artistic epic in Sanskri 
the Buddha-carita. It was not known whether he had written 
any other great work in poetry, though some beautiful songs are 
attributed to him by the Chinese and the Tibetans. But the 
own. It is by Asvaghosa. The style is the same as that 
of Buddha-carita; the sentiments the same; the religious 
the catalogue of Chinese Tripitaka and of the Tangur as far as 
available, but the name of this new poem does not occur in them. 
It is called Saundarananda Kavya. In the first chapters it 
deals of the great love which Nanda, a brother of Buddha, bore 
for his wife Sundari. Then it describes how Buddha took Nanda 
; : : i Nanda was 
persuaded him to persist in his mendicant life. Now this spiritual 
struggle between Buddha and his royal disciple forms the central 
point of interest of this fascinating epic. During the course of 
this struggle Buddha takes his disciple to heaven, shows that 
even heaven should not be worthy of one’s desire, and ends the 
work by giving him a taste of Amrta or the nectar of Nirvana. 
The first chapter contains a description of Kapilavastu as 4 
great hermitage. 
