Reading Sanskrit Anew
Buddhism and the Language of the Gods
Luke Gibson
In the Western popular imagination, Sanskrit stands almost exclusively for the religious writings of Hinduism. It thus often comes as a surprise when people learn that the earliest surviving work of Classical Sanskrit belles lettres is an epic poem recounting the life of the Buddha, composed by the second-century poet Aśvaghoṣa, the first of many Buddhist authors to contribute to the development of Sanskrit literature. By foregrounding Buddhist works, my textbook, Reading Sanskrit: A Complete Step-by-Step Introduction with Texts from the Buddhist Tradition, seeks to open a fresh pathway into the language that broadens our understanding of what Sanskrit literature has to offer, immerses us in the other great current of South Asian spirituality and culture, and highlights Buddhism’s deep connections with other religious and literary traditions.
Due in large part to the distorting effect of Buddhism’s near disappearance from the Indian subcontinent around the twelfth century CE, the vast Sanskrit literature of the Buddhist tradition has long been relegated to the margins of Western Sanskrit studies and received little attention in Sanskrit textbooks. Stories from the Rāmāyaṇa, fables and maxims from the Pañcatantra, passages from the Bhagavadgītā, and a few other Hindu texts have formed the standard corpus used in most first-year textbooks since the advent of Sanskrit study in the West.
From the first centuries of the Common Era onward, Buddhist philosophers, preservers of sacred texts, and poets came to embrace Sanskrit.
The roots of this underrepresentation may run deeper than the decline of Buddhism in India, lying in the tradition’s own long-standing ambivalence toward the “language of the gods.” From the outset, Buddhism treated Sanskrit with suspicion. The Buddha himself, after all, is said to have instructed his disciples to transmit his teachings in the local languages of the people rather than Sanskrit, which was then the preserve of cultured Brahmins. Yet this initial reluctance did not prevent later Buddhist communities from recognizing the prestige that Sanskrit increasingly commanded. From the first centuries of the Common Era onward, Buddhist philosophers, preservers of sacred texts, and poets came to embrace Sanskrit, which was by then moving beyond its original Brāhmaṇical confines to become a vehicle for new forms of literary artistry and dialogue across traditions.
By the time of Aśvaghoṣa and philosophers such as Nāgārjuna, Sanskrit had become the language of Buddhism’s intellectual vanguard, enabling Buddhist authors to contribute their distinctive voices to the broader religious discourse. So thorough was this change of heart that the study of Sanskrit grammar (vyākaraṇa)—referred to in Buddhist texts as śabda–vidyā, the “science of language”—was elevated in Mahāyāna Buddhism to the first of the “five sciences” (pañca–vidyā) to be mastered by a bodhisattva, the figure of the ideal practitioner.
Buddhism’s relatively late adoption of Sanskrit did not prevent it from leaving a profound imprint on the language’s history. Not coincidentally, Sanskrit entered its golden age in the first millennium CE as this wider plurality of voices—including the Buddhist and Jain traditions—was becoming part of the emerging Sanskrit cosmopolis. This legacy is apparent in the fact that Buddhist authors stand behind some of the most enduring works of the language’s shared canon, from Amarasiṃha’s influential lexicon, the Amarakośa, to Vidyākara’s Subhāṣitaratnakośa, the first major anthology of maxims and single-stanza poems (subhāṣīta-s).
Buddhism’s relatively late adoption of Sanskrit did not prevent it from leaving a profound imprint on the language’s history
As I set out to create this new textbook, the diversity of Sanskrit Buddhist writings revealed a major, largely untapped pedagogical opportunity, allowing me to assemble a thematically coherent collection of texts spanning a wide range of literary genres, from simple narrative texts such as the Buddhist “edifying tales” of the Avadāna-s, to philosophical masterpieces like Śāntideva’s “Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva” (Bodhicaryāvatāra), to more ornate poetic works such as Aśvaghoṣa’s “Acts of the Buddha” (Buddhacarita). Buddhist stories and ideas run as a thread through the textbook’s readings, exercises, and lesson illustrations, linking them into a thematically cohesive whole. In particular, by drawing on the Buddhist tradition’s vast collection of prose writings, I was able to fill the translation exercises with beginner-friendly, idiomatic, and often memorable sentences, minimizing reliance on artificial examples of my own making.
Building on this varied textual material, this book does not shy away from delving into religious and philosophical themes. I aimed both to present the distinctiveness of the Buddhist tradition, including its own internal diversity, and to highlight some of the ethical orientations shared across all South Asian traditions, rather than catering to narrow sectarian interests. In my classroom experience, investigating these themes tends to resonate more deeply with students than the narrative-focused or “secular” approach to Sanskrit literature. Students engage not only with case endings and verb forms but also with ideas that have inspired generations across South Asia and beyond. This philosophical and cultural dimension helps learners persevere through the challenges of Sanskrit grammar, rewarding them from the earliest stages of their journey with stimulating reflections.
Reading Sanskrit introduces the reader to India’s wider religious and literary world through the writings of a number of non-Buddhist authors
To deepen this engagement and situate these ideas in a broader cultural context, I was mindful not to present the Buddhist tradition and its literature in a vacuum. Reading Sanskrit introduces the reader to India’s wider religious and literary world through the writings of a number of non-Buddhist authors, often echoing some of the same perennial themes, such as Kālidāsa on the innate compassion of great beings, Bhartṛhari on the transiency of saṃsāric existence, and Kṛṣṇamiśra on the destructive power of anger. The reader’s curiosity about the world of Hindu thought, mythology, and culture is further stimulated by Reading Sanskrit’s many notes and cultural asides. Students learn about the scriptures, ritual practices, and pantheon of the ancient Vedic religion, the six orthodox schools of Hindu thought, the Brāhmaṇical ideal of the four stages of life, the episode of Kāma’s burning by Śiva—contrasted with the Buddha’s own victory over the god of love—and much more.
This book is not meant as a “Sanskrit textbook for Buddhists.” It is designed for anyone drawn to a way of learning the language that engages deeply with religious and philosophical ideas—the very aspect of South Asian culture that often inspires students to study Sanskrit in the first place. By centering texts from the Buddhist tradition, Reading Sanskrit aims not to replace the traditional canon but to enrich it, contributing to a fuller view of Sanskrit’s diverse and multivoiced literary heritage.
Discover more about Reading Sanskrit, including its distinctive approach to Sanskrit grammar and improving accessibility, at the textbook’s companion website.
Luke Gibson has been teaching Sanskrit for more than a decade, primarily at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Taiwan. He is the author of Reading Sanskrit: A Complete Step-by-Step Introduction with Texts from the Buddhist Tradition.