    (devanagari: à¤à¤¶à¥à¤µà¤à¥à¤·) [ÉÉÊÉgÊ°oËÊÉ] (c. 80 â c. 150 ce) was an indian philosopher-poet, born in saketa in northern india to a brahmin family. he is believed to have been the first sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest indian poet prior to kÄlidÄsa. he was the most famous in a group of buddhist court writers, whose epics rivalled the contemporary ramayana.randall collins, the sociology of philosophies: a global theory of intellectual change. harvard university press, 2000, page 220. whereas much of buddhist literature prior to the time of aÅvaghoá¹£a had been composed in buddhist hybrid sanskrit, aÅvaghoá¹£a wrote in classical sanskrit. ==life as an ascetic== according to the traditional biography of aÅvaghoá¹£a,stuart h. young (trans.), biography of the bodhisattva aÅvaghoá¹£a, maming pusa zhuan é¦¬é³´è©è©å³, t.50.2046.183a, translated by tripiá¹­aka master kumÄrajÄ«va. which was translated into chinese by kumÄrajÄ«va, and preserved in that language, he was originally a wandering ascetic who was able to defeat all-comers in debate. he set a challenge to the buddhist monks that if none could meet with him in debate then they should stop beating the wood-block which signalled to the people to bring offerings to them. there was no one there to meet the challenge so they stopped beating the wood-block. however, in the north there was an elder bhiká¹£u named pÄrÅva at the time, who saw that if he could convert this ascetic, it would be a great asset to the propagation of the dharma, so he travelled from northern india and had the wood-block sounded. the ascetic came to ask why it had been sounded. though thinking the old monk would be unable to debate with him, he accepted the challenge. after seven days, the debate was held in front of the king, his ministers, and many ascetics and brahmans. the loser agreed to become the disciple of the other. they agreed that the elder pÄrÅva should speak first, and he said: "the world should be made peaceable, with a long-lived king, plentiful harvests, and joy throughout the land, with none of the myriad calamities", to which the ascetic had no response and so was bound to become pÄrÅva's disciple, and he was given full ordination as a bhiká¹£u. althou
150s_deaths 2nd-century_people 80s_births Ancient_Indian_dramatists_and_playwrights Ancient_Indian_poets Buddhist_philosophers Converts_to_Buddhism Indian_poets Zen_Patriarchs