AgVAGHOSA'S WORKS 59
secular life with its duties, and true to the rule which requires a description of a battle he provides a spirited picture of the contest of Buddha against the demon Mara and his monstrous hosts. . £&*)
. There is not the slightest doubt of one of the sources of Acvaghosa. Though Cowell was unable to find decisive proof of his knowledge of the Ramayana as opposed merely to the legend of Rama, the fact is put beyond doubt, apart from a men- tion of the poem in the Sutralainkdra, by careful study of the references in the Bitddhacarita itself 1 ; when the people of the town see that Siddhartha has not returned they weep as afore- time when the chariot of Dacaratha's son returned without him ; Quddhodana compares himself to Dacaratha, bereft of Rama, whose death he envies, and in 'these and many other passages there is clear knowledge by Acvaghosa of the wording of our present text. It was natural that the parallel should deeply affect Acvaghosa, and the broad structure of the episode of the return of Sumantra to Ayodhya without Rama and of Chan- 1 daka to Kapilavastu without Siddhartha is unmistakable ; the charioteer leaves his master, and returns to the city now sadly changed ; the eager citizens rush out to greet him, learn his news, and are filled with lamentation ; the women throrfgThe windows and then withdraw in deep depression to their inner chambers ; the charioteer enters the presence of the king. Similarly again, Yacodhara's lament for the sufferings of the prince in his new life of hardship is modelled on Sita's sorrow for her husband's sufferings in the forest. Nor does it seem reason- able to deny that the description of the aspect of the women 6f the harem in sleep is based on the portraiture of Ravana's harem. 2
2. AQvaghosd s Style and Language.
Dandin 3 draws a vital distinction between two styles as preva- lent in his day, the Gauda and the Vaidarbha, easterr? and 4S outhern, and from his account and other evidence we gather that
1 Gawronski, Studies about the Sansk. Buddh. Lit., pp. 27 ff.
- v. 9-1 1, which Wintemitz (GIL. i. 417) asserts to be based on Acvaghosa. But
see Waller, Indifa, iii. 13. ' Kavyadarca, i. 40 ff.
