Light of Asia The Great Renunciation (Mahabhinishkramana) By Edwin Arnold

About the Book:- The author has drawn a beautiful sketch on the life and teachings of Buddha. The book is an account of a poetic masterpiece and his teachings. This poem reveals Buddha\'s life from the Buddhist perspective. It describes the life, character and philosophy of the great reformer and teacher, whose wisdom and compassion have influenced and enabled the lives of millions of people for centuries, are drafted here with enlightening charm. A generation ago little or nothing was known in Europe of this great faith of Asia, which had nevertheless existed during 24 centuries, and at this day surpasses, in the number of its followers and the area of its prevalence, any other form of creed. Four hundred and seventy millions of our race live and die in the tenets of Gautama; and the spiritual dominions of this ancient teacher extend, at the present time, from Nepaul and Ceylon, over the whole eastern Peninsula, to China, Japan, Thibet, Central Asia, Siberia, and even Swedish Lapland. The poem is divided into 8 parts and is occasionally illustrated with line drawings taken chiefly from Buddhist sculptures and frescos. About the Author:-Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work The Light of Asia. He was educated at King\'s School, Rochester; King\'s College London; and University College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize for poetry on the subject of ‘The Feast of Belshazzar’ in 1852. He became a schoolmaster, at King Edward\'s School, Birmingham, and in 1856 went to India as Principal of the Government Sanskrit College at Poona, a post which he held for seven years, which includes a period during the mutiny of 1857, when he was able to render services for which he was publicly thanked by Lord Elphinstone in the Bombay Council. Here he received the bias towards, and gathered material for, his future works. It was, however, as a poet that he was best known to his contemporaries.