This is the title of one of the most important religious books in the world, occupying, in the literature of the Higher Buddhism, a place not dissimilar to that of our own New Testament.

Its importance is increased when one considers that it formulates the fundamental doctrines of the Mahayana School, and was written by Ashvaghosha, one of the greatest poets of India, during the early part of the first century AD-a period when communication between East and West was reasonably frequent and extensive.