Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita. The Life of Buddha: Sanskrit Text with Word-by-word Translation, Melodies for Chanting and Verses in English Grammatical Explanation

The Buddhacarita is a great poem on the life of the Buddha. This work was composed by Aśvaghoṣa, who probably lived in the first half of the first century A.D. He is also the author of Saundarananda and Sariputraprakararna. He was a Brahmin converted to Hinayana Buddhism. The Buddhacarita is written in very proper Sanskrit. Aśvaghoṣa uses an extensive vocabulary, incorporating all kinds of grammatical difficulties for the students! Furthermore, the text is composed in 10 different metres. Altogether this makes it very interesting material for beginning Sanskrit students.