The book on Asvaghosa by Bimala Chum Law was first published in 1946 by the Asiatic Society. First reprint came out in 1993. This is the second reprint of the book.
In the book an attempt has been made “to build up a connected account of the life and labours of Asvaghosa who was one of the most distinguished poets, born and brought up in the Theravada tradition, from the available materials”. I quote excerpts of what the author said in the preface of the book, “It is indeed an arduous task to prepare a useful compendium of what we yet know of Asvaghosa both from his own works and from other relative documents. Asvaghosa was the celebrated author of two poetical works called the Buddhacarita and the Saundarananda and a drama known by the name of Sriputra-Prakarana. … This treatise is, I believe, the first of its kind. It supplies some new historical data and presents some new aspects of the problems concerning Asvaghosa. The importance of Asvaghosa as a poet and teacher has generally been discussed from the Brahmanical point of view. But I have tried to show here that the Brahmanical side of his kavyas was of secondary importance. This was brought in just to serve as the historical background of his own faith or as a means of embellishing his poetical delineations.
I hope the book would be useful to the scholars and students in the field.
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