Nanda has it all&8212;youth, money, good looks and a kittenish wife who fulfills his sexual and emotional needs. He also has the Buddha, a dispassionate man of immense insight and self-containment, for an older brother. When Nanda is made a reluctant recruit to the Buddha&##8217;s order of monks, he is forced to confront his all-too-human enslavement to his erotic and romantic desires. Dating from the second century CE, Ashva.ghosha s Handsome Nanda portrays its hero s spiritual makeover with compassion, psychological profundity, and great poetic skill.

Co-published by New...

The Epitome of Queen Lilavati tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embodiments on their way to final liberation from the continual cycle of death and rebirth. Told as a means to promote the non-violent ethic of Jainism, it abounds in memorable incidents and characters, such as Dhana, the rich merchant who attempted to justify cheating in trade, Padmaratha, who while invisible attempted to seduce the ladies of the royal household, and Vasundhara, the bogus holy man who was caught in a compromising position with a female...

Rama, the crown prince of the City of Ayodhya, is a model son and warrior. He is sent by his father the king to rescue a sage from persecution by demons, but must first kill a fearsome ogress. That done, he drives out the demons, restores peace, and attends a tournament in the neighboring city of Mithila; here he bends the bow that no other warrior can handle, winning the prize and the hand of Sita, the princess of Mithila.

Valmiki's Ramayana is one of the two great national epics of India, the source revered throughout South Asia as the original account of the career of Rama, ideal...

The fifth and most popular book of the Ramayana of Valmiki, Sundara recounts the adventures of the monkey hero Hanuman leaping across the ocean to the island citadel of Lanka. Once there, he scours the city for the abducted Princess Sita. The poet vividly describes the opulence of the court of the demon king, Ravana, the beauty of his harem, and the hideous deformity of Sita's wardresses. After witnessing Sita s stern rejection of Ravana's blandishments, Hanuman reveals himself to the princess, shows her Rama's signet ring as proof of identity, and offers to carry her back to...

This court epic describes events leading up to the birth of Kumara, the war god who will defeat the demon Taraka. The gods try to use Kama, the Indian Cupid, to make the ascetic god Shiva fall in love with the daughter of the Himalaya mountain. Kama fails, and is burnt to ashes by the angry Shiva. Then Parvati, the daughter of the mountain, herself turns to asceticism to win the husband she longs for. She is successful, and the climax of the poem is the marriage and lovemaking of Shiva and Parvati, parents of the universe.

The greatest long poem in classical Sanskrit, by the greatest...

The Book of Shalya recounts in gory detail the final destruction of the Kaurava army and the defeat of its leader, Dur.yodhana. In this first volume heroic duels and martial speeches abound as Shalya, the king of the Madras, is made general of the Kaurava army, only to be slaughtered in his turn.

The Book of Shalya recounts in gory detail the final destruction of the Kaurava army and the defeat of its leader, Duryodhana. In this first volume heroic duels and martial speeches abound as Shalya, the king of the Madras, is made general of the Kaurava army, only to be slaughtered in his...

Volume Two continues this fast-paced tale of mystery and sorcery up to canto 28. Nara.vahana.datta's epic quest to become the human emperor of the sorcerers leads him and his companions to win yet more wives. Unfortunately, the surviving manuscripts of the text break off while he is in pursuit of his sixth wife. The primary narrative is punctuated by diverting subplots.

Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation

For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http: //www.claysanskritlibrary.org

Each of the ten princes has several adventures on his quest to be reunited with the crown-prince. Variegated violence and sorcery figure in their exploits, but love affairs are even more prominent. Commentators have lambasted Dandin's heroes for their antiheroic, apparently random, escapades, while in fact the architecture of his plot reveals an elegant, instructive construction.

What Ten Young Men Did is a coming-of-age novel from the seventh century CE. In combat and in the bedroom, ten individuals juggle virtue and vice on their heroic progress from adolescence to maturity....

The king despairs of his idle sons, so he hires a learned brahmin who promises to make their lessons in statecraft unmissable. The lessons are disguised as short stories, featuring mainly animal protagonists. Many of these narratives have traveled across the world, and are known in the West as Aesop s fables.

Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation

For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http: //www.claysanskritlibrary.org

After Bhishma is cut down at the end of the previous book of the Maha.bharata, the book which bears his name, Duryodhana selects Drona as leader of his forces. Drona accepts the honor with Bhishma's blessing, despite his ongoing personal conflicts as mentor to both the Pandava and Kaurava heroes in their youth. The fighting rages on, with heavy losses on both sides. Furious and frustrated, Duryodhana accuses Drona of collaborating with the enemy, but he replies that as long as Arjuna is on the field, the Pandavas will remain invincible. When Arjuna is finally diverted from the main...