A Bibliography of Aśvaghoṣa

Abstract

Though quite extensive in its coverage, the present bibliography does not claim to be exhaustive. Among the many works traditionally (but incorrectly) ascribed to Aśvaghoṣa, some, such as the *Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra (Taishō no. 1666, 1667) or, to a lesser degree, the Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā alias Sūtrālaṅkāra, have lived their own lives in modern scholarship and received virtually as much attention as Aśvaghoṣa himself. An attempt has been made to list all the contributions that have proved decisive in questioning and finally rejecting the poet’s authorship of them. In much the same way, most of what has been written about the Chinese and Japanese elaborations of the figure of Aśvaghoṣa (as a patriarch, as a god of sericulture, etc.) has been disregarded. Collecting in a systematic way all Indian editions and translations in modern-day Indian languages (Bengali, Hindi, etc.) has proved practically impossible. Finally, this bibliography does not include all the entries on Aśvaghoṣa in dictionaries, encyclopedias, histories of Indian literature, etc. Only the earliest and the historically or scholarly most significant ones (e.g., those of Winternitz and Keith, and, very recently, Salomon) have found their way into the list. This bibliography would have been even more limited in its coverage had Nobuyoshi Yamabe not generously agreed to include the most important Japanese titles on the subject. In carrying out this task he acknowledges his indebtedness to Kiyoshi Okano’s online bibliography (http://gdgdgd.g.dgdg.jp/asvaghosa-index.html). This bibliography is meant as a work in progress. We would like to invite all those who are writing on Aśvaghoṣa to send us their publications or at least detailed references to them so that the bibliography (an online version of which should be available soon) can be regularly updated (vincent.eltschinger@ephe.psl.eu; yamabe@waseda.jp). The sign “†” signals references that were not/could not be accessed directly.