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Ashvaghosha

Type Figure Region India Time 1–150 Also known as Ashvaghosha、阿湿缚婆窭沙、Aśvaghoṣa

Ashvaghosha was a 1st–2nd century CE Indian Buddhist poet, philosopher, and debater, an early Mahayana thinker patronized by Kushan king Kanishka.

Timeline

  1. 1–80Gandhara · Khyber PakhtunkhwaAccording to Buddhist biographical tradition, Ashvaghosha was early on versed in Vedic and secular learning and famed for his eloquence; he later debated eminent Buddhist monks and converted, becoming an important Mahayana debater.
  2. c. 100–150Purushapura (modern Peshawar) · Khyber PakhtunkhwaAshvaghosha composed Sanskrit narrative poems such as the Buddhacharita and treatises such as the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (attributed to him), promoting Mahayana doctrines through literary appeal and philosophical argument, influencing later Chinese- and Tibetan-language Buddhism.

Sources