A Buddhist Critique of Desire: The Notion of Kāma in Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda

The critical analysis of desire is a staple of classical Buddhist thought; however, modern scholarship has focused primarily on doctrinal and scholastic texts that explain the Buddhist understanding of desire. As a result, the contribution of kāvya (poetry) to the classical Buddhist philosophy of desire has not received much scholarly attention. To address this dearth, I explore in this article the notion of kāma (desire or love) in Aśvaghoṣa’s epic poem, the Saundarananda (Beautiful Nanda). I begin by framing the poem’s Buddhist interpretation of desire and highlighting the didactic and transcendental role of kāma in transforming Nanda, the poem’s protagonist. Then, I examine Aśvaghoṣa’s poetic depictions of Nanda, Sundarī, and the apsarases, outlining the Saundarananda’s phenomenology of desire. Overall, this article illustrates how Aśvaghoṣa employs the genre of kāvya to express a Buddhist critique of desire that focuses on the nature of the desirable object and the state of mind of the desirous subject.