Light of Asia

by Edwin Arnold

Sir Edwin Arnold has rendered in exquisite poetic form the story of the Buddha's search, enlightenment, and teaching. First published in 1879, the book has become a classic and has been published in many editions and many languages. Not only is it deeply philosophical in nature, but because of its poetic form and its narrative of the dramatic incidents in Siddhartha's life, it is delightful and absorbing reading.

Genres: Buddhism, Poetry, Religion, History, Philosophy, Classics, Spirituality

165 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1879

About the author

Sir Edwin Arnold CSI CIE was an English poet and journalist who is most known for his work, The Light of Asia.

Reviews

[Owlseyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sir Edwin Arnold wrote it in the 19th century; it was published in 1879. Yet, today, Buddhism is much more spread than at that time. Edwin referred by his time it was vast the influence of Buddhism. Truly a son of India, Gautama's teachings reached Ceylon, Nepal, Tibet, Central Asia, Siberia, Japan... even the Swedish Lapland.



Being an old book it doesn't take away any merit of this beautiful, versed-account of the life of Gautama.

The story spans the princely birth to royal parents, the childhood, youth and marriage, and beyond.



Suffering, world-suffering, is a problem-to-answer for young Gautama. So he leaves the palace in search for Truth, in his own way. It will become the royal way to Enlightenment.



Finally, the Teacher's role; the master of the Law; the Eightfold path.



Onto Nirvana
he's one with Life
Yet lives not
He is blest ceasing to be



OM MANI PADME UM!
The dewdrop slips
into the shining sea.

[João Sá Nogueira Rodrigues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro extraordinário!!!Depois de o ter lido percebi perfeitamente porque continua a ser procurado e lido 140 anos depois da primeira edição!Consegue-nos fazer sentir próximos de Buda e mostra-nos a vida de Siddartha Gautama e o seu despertar de uma forma que cativa e nos faz sentir felizes só de lermos!Adorei!

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hoping for a historical perspective, but except for some magnificent poetry, the book was mostly a compilation of the myths and legends surrounding the story.

[David]

Brilliant . . . profound . . . a must for my personal collection . . . reading this book is meditation in and of itself.

[Chandar · Rating 4 out of 5]

My curiosity piqued by an excerpt from Jairam Ramesh's latest book, I read this story-poem novel about the life of Buddha. Edwin Arnold, an English poet who came to India as Principal of the Sanskrit College in Poona in 1856, turned an Indophile and mastered Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic to be able to study the original texts of these cultures. His depth of understanding and appreciation for an alien culture and its nuances is a humbling lesson for modern scholars. This exquisite poem written in 1879 captures the essence of the Buddha's life and his momentous renunciation.

This was not his only writing! He seems to have written on the Bhagavad Gita and Jayadeva's Geet-Govindam too. He was in India till 1861 (and observed India closely, including the dramatic events of 1857) and returned due to his wife's ill health where he worked with the Daily Telegraph. There are so many wonderful books being written today, but I wonder, how many would qualify as invaluable contributions to Literature.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Buddha as written by Edwin Arnold, an Englishman who spent some time studying in India. This book was one of the first to introduce eastern thought to the west in 1879.

The book was mentioned in something I read about the transcendentalists...I can't remember where, but it wasn't Thoreau or Margaret fuller as they were deceased by the publication date. Perhaps Emerson or one of the Alcott's.

Nevertheless, this book has basically the same ideas as siddartha by Herman Hesse, the difference was Arnold's poetic emphasis. I liked Hesse's more for the more narrative form. The poetry of Arnold became a little cumbersome to me (I'm not much of a poetry enthusiast). The book is a retelling of the Lalitavistara Sūtra...which i have not read, but is now of interest to me.

This book had an excellent summary of the 4 noble truths and the eight fold path in the final chapters. I will definitely return to that.

I also noticed a lot of similarities between Jesus' life and Buddhas/siddarthas life in this book. He starts out as a prince who renounces his glory (Jesus leaving heaven) and ends up dealing with all kinds of tempting spirits before he starts his earthly ministry...Arnold even uses phrases like "preach the word" and "gospel" in describing buddha. When siddhartha reaches enlightenment and becomes Buddha, spirits cry "it is finished" and another bystander remarks "a mighty thing has happened here today" --nearly verbatim for things people said at Jesus' crucifixion. It could be like one of the 4 gospels found in the New Testament...but about Buddha.

I discovered on Wikipedia people in Edwin Arnold's day thought his siddhartha had too many connections to Jesus. It ended up setting the stage for another book Edwin Arnold wrote "the light of the world" which was a similar book about Jesus' life.

Overall I liked the book, glad I read it, not too long, but it's written in the poetry style and in my opinion the narrative was bogged down rather than enhanced by it. Close to 4 stars, but halfway through I was thinking I just wanted to get through it, so I'll give it 3.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of how the Buddha came to be in poetry form. It started out strong and captivating but my interest was lost towards the middle and I really struggled to finish this book. The story of the Buddha feeding himself to a starving tigress moved me the most of all, but the story of Siddhartha’s wife Yasodhara also moved me — because while he was having his hero’s journey she sat in the palace grieving him.

Fun fact is I accidentally borrowed a wrong book which gave a good overview of the writer Edwin Arnold and the influence of this book:

The book captivated an Indian monk who remains an onic personality-Swami Vivekananda. At about the same time, it deeply moved a young man in Colombo who has become famous in history as Anagarika Dharmapala. It caught the attention of an aspiring Indian lawyer in ondon in 1889. This man later became immortal as Mahatma Gandhi. A few years hence it impacted a teenager Allahabad who would, in 1947, become the first Prime inister of India-Jawaharlal Nehru. Two copies of the book adorned the bookshelves of B.R. Ambedkar, the prime architect of the Indian constitution. It informed the work of men who were active in the movement for social justice, especially in south India in the early part of the twentieth century.

The book had a marked influence on at least eleven literary personalities from across the world. Five of them were Nobel Laureates: Rudyard Kipling in 1907, Rabindranath Tagore in 1913, W.B. Yeats in 1923, Ivan Bunin in 1933 and T.S. Eliot in 1948. The other six are legendary figures: Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Lafcadio Hearn, D.H. Lawrence, John Masefield and Jose Luis Borges. It opened new frontiers for Joseph Campbell later to become one of the world's leading authorities on comparative mythology.

Excerpts

“The horrible dark death—and what beyond
     Waits—till the whirling wheel comes up again,
     And new lives bring new sorrows to be borne,
     New generations for the new desires
     Which have their end in the old mockeries?”

“First of the "Noble Truths"; how Sorrow is
     Shadow to life, moving where life doth move;
     Not to be laid aside until one lays
     Living aside, with all its changing states,
     Birth, growth, decay, love, hatred, pleasure, pain,
     Being and doing.”

“The First Truth is of Sorrow. Be not mocked!
          Life which ye prize is long-drawn agony:
     Only its pains abide; its pleasures are
          As birds which light and fly,
     Ache of the birth, ache of the helpless days,
          Ache of hot youth and ache of manhood's prime”

“Ah! Blessed Lord!  Oh, High Deliverer!
     Forgive this feeble script, which doth thee wrong.
     Measuring with little wit thy lofty love.
     Ah!  Lover!  Brother!  Guide!  Lamp of the law!
     I take my refuge in they name and thee!
     I take my refuge in they order!  OM!
     The dew is on the lotus!—Rise, Great Sun!
     And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.
     Om Mani Padme Hum, the sunrise comes!
     The Dewdrop Slips Into The Shining Sea!”

[John Geddes · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Now what was the real purport of [this] book and what was its essence? To lift up... the Founder of Buddhism, at the expense of Jesus Christ... The intention was to show that [Buddha] was equally a divine teacher with as high an aspiration, as great a mission, as lofty a morality as our Divine Lord Himself. This was the object of the book; what was its essence? A falsification of history by weaving a series of poetical legends around a character, about whose actual life practically nothing is known. But not only this, the character was built up upon the model of Our Lord, which the author had in his own mind as the precious heirloom of Christianity; and his [Buddha] whom he intended to stand out as at least the divine equal of the Founder of Christianity, became in his hands in reality a mere echo of Christ, the image of Christ, made to rival the Word made flesh! Buddhism, in the borrowed garments of Christianity, was thus made to appeal to the ideals of Christian peoples, and gaining a footing in their admiration and affections, to usurp the throne in the Christian sanctuary. Here was a work of literary merit, although it has been greatly exaggerated in this respect... [that is no doubt] a most vicious, anti-Christian book!"
- Liberalism is a Sin, p.89-90 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Tânia Carmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

O objetivo desta leitura seria conhecer/perceber/aprender mais sobre a filosofia budista. Embora tenha conseguido retirar alguns ensinamentos esperava algo mais concreto...

[Nitin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far beyond what I'd expected, no words of praise shall be enough.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads # Buddhism, Buddha’s Biography & Retellings

Sir Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia is a strange and beautiful artefact: not a dry biography, not a scripture, but a Victorian epic poem that dared to bring the Buddha’s life into the imagination of English readers in the late nineteenth century.

Published in 1879, written in blank verse across eight cantos, it retells the life of Prince Siddhartha Gautama—his birth, his childhood in luxury, his encounters with sickness, old age and death, his renunciation, his years of austerity, the great awakening beneath the Bodhi tree, and his career as a teacher of the Dharma. Arnold frames the narrative as the testimony of an “imaginary Buddhist votary,” a voice of devotion rather than scholarship, and this choice gives the poem both its power and its limitations.

He does not simply translate Pali or Sanskrit texts; he mixes, adapts, and invents, drawing on Mahayana sources such as the Lalitavistara Sūtra, smoothing, compressing, and re-shaping for poetic flow, moral resonance, and the sensibilities of his Victorian audience. This was one of the first big “popular” depictions of the Buddha in English, and its influence was immense: it was translated into many languages, quoted by reformers and politicians, dramatized on stage, and became a bridge text between India’s Buddhist heritage and a curious West. For countless readers it was the first time the Buddha’s life appeared not as an exotic rumour but as a living, morally charged story.

Arnold’s gift is his lyricism. He can paint scenes of palace life, forest wanderings, and moments of awakening with lush detail. The language may feel archaic now, but there is a strange music when his verses swell during key transitions—the renunciation, the moments of suffering, the recognition of truth. He is at his best when he lets the moral drama rise naturally from the imagery: the young prince walking among the sick and dying, the night of departure from his wife and child, and the emaciated ascetic on the brink of despair.

This is spiritual biography, not as dry scholarship but as poetic imagination. He also foregrounds compassion and ethical struggle. The path he presents is not easy or painless; it is paved with hardship, self-denial, and love. For Victorian readers, used to thinking of “religion” in terms of dogma, the Buddha as Arnold portrays him appeared as a moral exemplar: a figure of sacrifice, self-discipline, and universal sympathy rather than a deity or a nihilist. The poem’s moral framing allows the life of the Buddha to be felt personally rather than simply admired from afar.

Crucially, Arnold writes in English but constantly reaches across cultural boundaries. He draws implicit comparisons between Christian and Buddhist notions of love, renunciation, and moral good while trying, with uneven success, to preserve the distinctiveness of the Buddha’s teaching. This makes the unfamiliar approachable. It is not without distortions, but the project of translation—cultural as much as textual—is bold. The poem’s influence is not just literary.

It sold widely, spurred translations, shaped public imagination, and became a touchstone in colonial India’s own cultural revival. Indian reformers and nationalists could point to it as proof that their spiritual traditions could command respect abroad. In this way, the poem became more than a poem; it became a symbol of a new, complex encounter between East and West.

From today’s vantage point, the limitations are obvious. Arnold simplifies and romanticises many Buddhist teachings. The austerities, the trials, and the persons around Siddhartha are filtered through Victorian ideals of heroism, purity, and self-denial. Doctrinal points are smoothed over or presented in ways that align with Western moral expectations rather than with the paradoxes and philosophical depths of early Buddhist texts.

Compared to modern works such as Hans Wolfgang Schumann’s The Historical Buddha or Richard Gombrich’s How Buddhism Began, Arnold’s version is interpretive rather than critical. It shepherds the reader toward admiration rather than inviting questioning. Because Arnold is a Victorian Briton writing about “the East,” certain tropes of Orientalism creep in—the exotic palace, the idyllic forest, the sage wandering in saffron robes. He makes Buddhism intelligible to Western notions of spirituality by overlaying Christian analogies and using familiar language, which can flatten real differences. His sources are largely later hagiographical texts rather than the earliest discourses, so the timeline, the miracles, and the characters’ roles are more literary than historical. And for readers used to modern prose, the blank verse and ornate style can feel heavy or sentimental, slowing the narrative when one is reading simply for information.

Yet these very qualities are also what give The Light of Asia its enduring power. It works best not as a factual biography but as a spiritual or literary experience of the Buddha’s life. The renunciation sequence, for example, is deeply moving: Arnold emphasises the emotional and relational costs of leaving his family and his palace, heightening the moral stakes. The natural world—the forests, dawns, and groves—is more than a backdrop; it mirrors Siddhartha’s internal journey and dramatises his transformation.

Arnold does not shy away from the miraculous—omens, celestial beings, gods—but uses them to evoke wonder and moral awe rather than to assert literal history. A recurring idea is moral universality: the Buddha’s teachings are for all beings; ethics over ritual; compassion without dogma. Arnold positions the Buddha as not divine but supremely endowed with moral authority and spiritual depth, appealing to readers seeking spirituality without creed. The dramatic arc of the poem—luxury and palace life, exposure to suffering, renunciation, extreme asceticism, disillusionment, the Bodhi tree, enlightenment, and teaching—is structured for maximum emotional engagement, with sharp contrasts between palace and forest, austerity and compassion, and withdrawal and return.

To understand why the poem resonated, one has to see it in context. In late nineteenth-century Britain, Orientalism and colonialism coexisted with a genuine fascination for Eastern religions. Christianity was under pressure from science and scepticism, and alternative spiritualities were in the air. Buddhism attracted some because it seemed ethical, rational, and non-theistic. Arnold’s poem offered an image of a religion without dogma, built on compassion and moral discipline, and thus entered directly into the religious debates of his time. In India, meanwhile, nationalist pride was rising, and The Light of Asia was read as a vindication of Indian civilisation, translated into Indian languages and used in public life. In other words, it was not only a literary event but also a cultural artefact engaged in the religious, political, and literary currents of its era.

Reading The Light of Asia now is like stepping into a moonlit forest full of symbolism. Sometimes the language makes you pause; sometimes the poetry startles you into recognition, especially in moments like Siddhartha’s departure from the palace. Arnold’s empathy for the Buddha’s struggle shines through. At other times the Victorian comparisons to Christianity or the melodramatic treatment of suffering jar against a more nuanced understanding of Buddhist philosophy.

Doctrinal complexities such as non-self, dependent origination, karma, and rebirth are touched only lightly. But when you close the book, you may still feel illuminated—not because you have gained exact historical knowledge but because the life of the Buddha feels alive in your imagination, charged with longing for truth, the cost of awakening, and the power of compassion.

Placed alongside other retellings of the Buddha’s life, Arnold’s poem stands out as a stained-glass window rather than a clear lens. Compared to Thich Nhat Hanh’s Old Path White Clouds, which is more modern, rooted in early discourses and concerned with meditation practice, Arnold’s work is more poetic and filtered through Victorian imagination. Compared to Schumann’s The Historical Buddha, which is sober and critical, Arnold embraces legend and myth.

Compared to Carrithers’s Buddha: A Very Short Introduction, which gives you distilled ideas and historical context, Arnold offers sweep and moral imagination. Compared to Vishvapani Blomfield’s Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One, which tries to combine narrative with modern ethics and history, Arnold leans into narrative epic-poem biography. In each case, if the others are clean lenses, Arnold is stained glass: wonderful colours, shadows, and light, but less translucence of detail.

The value of The Light of Asia lies in this hybrid status. It is neither devotional scripture nor academic biography but a poetic transmission of what the life of the Buddha meant to a Victorian poet and his readers. Its legacy is strong—translations, influence on reformers, a role in popularising Buddhism outside Asia, and an enduring capacity to move readers into imagining the life of Gautama in moral and emotional ways. At the same time, it reflects the colonial and religious currents of its time—both admirable in its curiosity and problematic in its interpretive filters. Approached as art rather than as a historical record, it can still illuminate.

For readers who love narrative, poetry, and spiritual biography more than strict scholarship, for those curious about how Buddhism was first imagined in the West, and for anyone willing to sit with its dated but musical language, The Light of Asia remains a rewarding read. Treated as poetic imagination plus moral narrative rather than definitive history, it earns its place in any #BuddhaBiography binge.

[Márcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to read because of Sanskrit words meanings and footnotes.

[Manan Sheel · Rating 5 out of 5]

So gentle and beautiful is the path of the Buddha. This book is like a beautiful gem - the life of Buddha in poetry. It has melted so much of me. The book made the Buddha of 2000 years ago, alive again, the towns, people, their loves, everything is made alive again by this book - such beautifully it describes the time of the Buddha. And only poetry can do justice to Buddha - Buddha, who never wrote a poem, but was the greatest poet who ever lived, whose way of being was poetry in itself.

Manan.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very beautiful, poetic read. It gave me a better understanding of what Siddhartha (the Buddha)must have gone through when he decided to abandon his royal life, his wife and his son to pursue and end to suffering.

[Leisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Light of Asia is the book very close to my heart. It requires time and patience to enjoy the beauty of this book. The journey of Siddhartha to Buddha is not a journey of a single man, but it is the journey of the mankind. I loved this book.

[Jaspreet Dhaliwal]

best reading of 2016 , love it...

[John Engelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Light of Asia,” by Sir Edwin Arnold, introduced the story of Guatama Buddha to the English world in 1879. It was based on “Buddha-Charita,” which was written toward the end of the first century AD.

Siddhartha, who later on became the Buddha, was the son of an East Indian king. The king was determined that his son never see evidence of sickness, age, and death. Nevertheless, when Siddhartha was in his twenties he by chance witnessed an old man, thinned by starvation, bent by age, and ravaged by disease.

This encounter traumatized Siddhartha. What I noticed, however, was that he did nothing to help the old man. He could have taken the old man to his palace. His physicians could have treated the old man’s infirmities. His cooks could have prepared nutritious food for the old man. He could have enabled the old man to live out the rest of his life in a state of comparative comfort.

Siddhartha did none of this, but left the old man with his misery. Jesus would have healed the old man. Mohammed would have given him generous alms.

Instead, Siddhartha left his wife and son, moved out of his palace, and adopted the life of a mendicant, pondering the unfairness of human existence. “The Light of Asia,” and presumably “Buddha-Charita” sees this as a great act of renunciation, because his wife, Yasodhara, was beautiful, and life in the palace was pleasant.

Yasodhara disappears from the story, only to reappear toward the end. When she is mentioned again we are told how much grief Siddhartha caused her by leaving her. Siddhartha does not lessen her grief by re accepting her as his wife.

When Siddhartha became enlightened he was known as the Buddha. The religion he founded promoted kindness to humans and animals, and peace between countries. By counseling against craving what we do not have and cannot get, Buddhism promotes mental health.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but be troubled by Siddhartha’s two youthful moral failures.

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Light of Asia (Kindle Edition) by Edwin Arnold- July, 1879- The book is a poetical depiction of the life and Indian philosophy of Gautam Buddha. Buddist philosophy is in two parts Hinyana and Mahayana. In the form of a narrative poem, the book endeavours to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Buddha, who after attaining enlightenment became The Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara. The first six chapters deal with the early part of Buddha's life – his birth as Siddhartha, prince of Kapilavastu; his gaining first-hand knowledge of the sufferings of mankind; his resorting to meditation; and his ultimate transformation as the "Enlightened One" after long years of meditation. The subsequent chapters speak of the Buddha's travels and the important elements of the message he spread are discussed — for instance, that suffering is a built-in aspect of existence; that craving for sensuality and identity is the root of suffering, and that suffering can be ended. It calls for right understanding; right thought; right speech; right action; right livelihood; right effort; right mindfulness; and right concentration. Throughout his peregrinations, mostly in eastern India, Gautama Buddha was joined by thousands of disciples and admirers from all walks of life. It is a good read book a must read for all.

[Philemon - · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit of a shock to learn how little the West knew about Buddhism before 1879, when Edwin Arnold, an English poet, journalist, and translator published The Light of Asia, a 5300-line poem about one Prince Gautama's path to enlightenment as the Buddha. The book-length poem became a sensation, sold over one million copies, and made Arnold a wealthy man, free to pursue oriental research.

The surprisingly readable poem provides a vivid, detailed introduction to classical India. Prince Gautama's moral growth, culminating in his leaving a life of royal luxury to embrace destitution and beggary, provides the dramatic structure. The poem's suitably noble narrative tone, studded with brilliant poetic effect, recalls Homer's epics. Having only heard mention of it for decades, it was a delight finally to read it.

[Tonya Andreovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poem is not historically correct but that is due to the conflicting views of the translations. The historical value of this poem is that it was part of and assisted a western tend into Buddhism during the mid to late Victorian period. Previous scholarships into Buddism were written with a negative or cynical view. Arnold had a love for India and the Indian people and wrote the poem to celebrate the life of a historical view. Arnold kept in this biographical poem all the legends and myths unlike his contemporaries who omitted them. This beautiful verse inspired Rudyard Kipling's Kim.

[Riya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chronicle of life of Gautam Buddha in verses. Most books based on Buddha deals with history and anecdotes of his life, this is no different. A historical account amalgamated with Buddhist philosophies. No doubt, this is said to be the book to introduce Buddhism in the West, while being employed as a reference for other Buddha related literature.
You don't find here Boddhisatta Or the Jataka events or any other such info.

Similar to this - a fictional account of Buddha by Deepak Chopra.

[Madhav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of Jairam Ramesh's book (sort of biography of this book) kind of forced me (not a big fan of medieval religious texts) to read this book.
Apart from historical and scriptural significance, there could be various reasons to delve into medieval stories of royal opulence, divine foretelling, foreordained renunciation and revealation and English balladry! Understanding basic tenets of Buddhism is definitely not a concern of this rendering.
Read it, shelve it and anyway, you'll forget it.

[Sunil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story of siddartha's life from birth to enlightenment. Written in a poetic style. The majority of this book dwells on his early life in the palace and with his wife. Deducted a star as i wanted more on his post enloghtenment life - i will have to find another book to continue the story.

[Ana Rita Ramos]

Uma maravilhosa viagem feita por Siddhartha, o príncipe, até se tornar Buda, incluindo a sua vida familiar, a adoração da esposa e a esperança do pai para receber de volta o seu filho.
Através desta experiência vamos ficando a conhecer os princípios do Budismo. Muito interessante!

[Ravi Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the best rhymes ever written on Buddha

[Isabelle Rezende · Rating 3 out of 5]

O último capítulo “A Elevação de Buda” faz valer a pena todo o livro ♥️

[Robinckurian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. I really enjoyed it

[Subramaniam Thirumeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite rendering of the life of the Buddha

[A.soorianarayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic book of poetry about Lord Buddha

[Luana Cardoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me impressionei com o livro! Linda forma de apresentar e homenagear o Buddha, nada mais belo que a poesia.