The Light of Asia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is a book by Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879.

In the form of poem, the book endeavors to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Buddha, who after attaining enlightenment became the Buddha, the learned one. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara.

A few decades before the book's publication, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and Buddhism, the religion which he founded, and which had existed for about twenty-five centuries.

The book has been highly acclaimed from the time it was first published, and has been the subject of several reviews. It has been translated into several languages like Hindi (by Acharya Ram Chandra Shukla).