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The books line up on my shelf like bright Bodhisattvas ready to take tough questions or keep quiet company. They stake out a vast territory, with works from two millennia in multiple genres: aphorism, lyric, epic, theater, and romance. oWillis G. Regier, The Chronicle ReviewNo effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers: the paper is of high quality, the typesetting immaculate. The founders of the series are John and Jennifer Clay, and Sanskritists can only thank them for an initiative intended to make the classics of an ancient Indian language accessible to a modern international audience. oThe Times Higher Education SupplementThe Clay Sanskrit Library represents one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot... Anyone who loves the look and feel and heft of books will delight in these elegant little volumes. oNew CriterionPublished in the geek-chic format. oBookForumVery few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs. oTricycleNow an ambitious new publishing project, the Clay Sanskrit Library brings together leading Sanskrit translators and scholars of Indology from around the world to celebrate in translating the beauty and range of classical Sanskrit literature... Published as smart green hardbacks that are small enough to fit into a jeans pocket, the volumes are meant to satisfy both the scholar and the lay reader. Each volume has a transliteration of the original Sanskrit text on the left-hand page and an English translation on the right, as also a helpful introduction and notes. Alongside definitive translations of the great Indian epics o 30 or so volumes will be devoted to the Maha*bharat itself o Clay Sanskrit Library makes available to the English-speaking reader many other delights: The earthy verse of Bhartri*hari, the pungent satire of Jayanta Bhatta and the roving narratives of Dandin, among others. All these writers belong properly not just to Indian literature, but to world literature. oLiveMint
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The Clay Sanskrit Library has recently set out to change the scene by making available well-translated dual-language (English and Sanskrit) editions of popular Sanskritic texts for the public. The Buddhist monk Ashva*ghosha composed Life of the Buddha in the first or second century CE probably in Ayodhya. This is the earliest surviving text of the Sanskrit literary genre called kavya and probably provided models for Kali*dasa's more famous works. The most poignant scenes on the path to his Awakening are when the young prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, is confronted by the reality of sickness, old age, and death, while seduced by the charms of the women employed to keep him at home. A poet of the highest order, Ashva*ghosha's aim is not entertainment but instruction, presenting the Buddha's teaching as the culmination of the Brahmanical tradition. His wonderful descriptions of the bodies of courtesans are ultimately meant to show the transience of beauty. Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I remember like yesterday the excitement I felt in the summer of 1986 when I first began to read the teaching of a true buddha-ancestor in his own original words. At that time the ancestor in question was Zen Master Dogen, and the text in question was his masterwork Shobogenzo, written in a combination of Chinese characters and Japanese kana. In the past couple of weeks I have experienced the same excitement again, thanks to the publication by the Clay Sanskrit Library of this book, along with the other of Ashvaghosha's surviving works, Saundarananda, or "Handsome Nanda."
Having got my hands on these two books, I have found myself drawn back to my copy of Teach Yourself Sanskrit by Michael Coulson, which has lain heavily on my shelf for nearly 20 years. Without the carrot of a penetrable and accessible Sanskrit text by a revered author, this donkey could not apply his mind to the proper means of Sanskrit study. But now, gripped by the truth of Ashva-ghoshas's words, which seem to reach out of the page and grab me even though I recognize only a few of them, I know that my study of Sanskrit in earnest has already started.
If, like me, you are inspired by the existence of these two books to start studying Ashva-ghosha's words in their original Sanskrit, then this one, Buddhacarita, Life of the Buddha, is probably the one to start with. Because the English translation is evidently very faithful to the original, and because it is in the form of four-line verses, one can soon begin to recognize, even without the bother of looking everything up in a dictionary, which Sanskrit words correspond to which English words on the facing page.
Thus in Canto 12.205, Patrick Olivelle has:
Mental concentration springs up
when one's mind is well and serene,
And practice of trance advances
when concentration grips one's mind.
This seems to me to be a strikingly good translation -- one that indeed springs up off the page and grips one's mind.
But the fact that I have the four lines of Sanskrit on the facing page enables me to see that "mental concentration" and "concentration" are translations of samadhi, and "trance" is a translation of "dhyana." I am therefore enabled if I wish to revise Patrick Olivelle's translation more to my own liking:
When one's mind is well and serene,
Stillness springs up,
And stillness grips one's mind,
So that meditation practice progresses...
Or (after a few more weeks of Sanskrit study inspired by this publication):
When the mind is well and serene,
Physical balance asserts itself;
And when balance is in the harness of intelligence,
Zen practice gets going.
Aided by this treasure of a book, may samadhi spring up and grip us all.
Having got my hands on these two books, I have found myself drawn back to my copy of Teach Yourself Sanskrit by Michael Coulson, which has lain heavily on my shelf for nearly 20 years. Without the carrot of a penetrable and accessible Sanskrit text by a revered author, this donkey could not apply his mind to the proper means of Sanskrit study. But now, gripped by the truth of Ashva-ghoshas's words, which seem to reach out of the page and grab me even though I recognize only a few of them, I know that my study of Sanskrit in earnest has already started.
If, like me, you are inspired by the existence of these two books to start studying Ashva-ghosha's words in their original Sanskrit, then this one, Buddhacarita, Life of the Buddha, is probably the one to start with. Because the English translation is evidently very faithful to the original, and because it is in the form of four-line verses, one can soon begin to recognize, even without the bother of looking everything up in a dictionary, which Sanskrit words correspond to which English words on the facing page.
Thus in Canto 12.205, Patrick Olivelle has:
Mental concentration springs up
when one's mind is well and serene,
And practice of trance advances
when concentration grips one's mind.
This seems to me to be a strikingly good translation -- one that indeed springs up off the page and grips one's mind.
But the fact that I have the four lines of Sanskrit on the facing page enables me to see that "mental concentration" and "concentration" are translations of samadhi, and "trance" is a translation of "dhyana." I am therefore enabled if I wish to revise Patrick Olivelle's translation more to my own liking:
When one's mind is well and serene,
Stillness springs up,
And stillness grips one's mind,
So that meditation practice progresses...
Or (after a few more weeks of Sanskrit study inspired by this publication):
When the mind is well and serene,
Physical balance asserts itself;
And when balance is in the harness of intelligence,
Zen practice gets going.
Aided by this treasure of a book, may samadhi spring up and grip us all.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
The greatest story ever told (Eastern edition)
22 July 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Clay Sanskrit Library series is, without doubt, a gift from a very benevolent and gracious God (exactly which one of the 330 million is unclear however - but whichever one it is, "thank you"). One of the latest incarnations of this series, Professor Patrick Olivelle's translation of Ashvaghosha's epic poem "Life of the Buddha" is not only a thoughtful and aesthetically pleasing translation but also contains an extremely helpful and fascinating introductory essay. Worth the price of the book nearly on its own the introduction details how Ashvaghosha's work fits into its larger socio-religious milieu - engaging in a dialogue with the Brahmanical tradition over just what "real" dharma truly is. As such, it helps one understand how these traditions of Brahmanism and Buddhism interacted, challenged and developed alongside one another in conversation. I highly recommend this title, not only for the beauty and impact of the poem itself but also for the information Professor Olivelle provides on how to understand the work in its larger context.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Life of the Buddha
26 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
This is a rewarding book that was required for class, but is now a great new edition to my library.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
BUY!
22 July 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
perfect size, amazing story, and Sanskrit on the left side, so you can (even without any formal instruction) see which words translate 2 wut... def buy this, dont hesitate, just buy.
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