The Light of Asia was published in 1879. The book is renowned as a classic and has been published in various editions and different languages. In this poetic masterpiece, Sir Edwin Arnold tells the life and lessons of Buddha. The man who was to become known as Buddha to the world was born Prince Gautama of India. However, he rejected the wealthy and lavish lifestyle and abandoned all the powers he had gotten when he began his journey to find the importance of life. This poem uncovers Buddha's life according to the Buddhist point of view, so you don't need to be a Buddhist to see the value in this wonderful work. As soon as you read about Buddha, you will start discovering your own life. Not just the philosophical part, but because of its poetic form, the story of the dramatic incidents in Buddha's life is delightful to read.
Sir. Edwin Arnold (10 June 1832 - 24 March 1904), was born in the United Kingdom. He was a journalist and poet, most popular as the writer of The Light of Asia (1879), which describes the life and lessons of Buddha. Pearls of the Faith (1883), on Islam, and The Light of the World (1891), on Christianity, got less success. After leaving the University of Oxford, Arnold became a schoolteacher in Birmingham, and later became principal of the British government college in Pune, India. He came back to Britain in 1861 to join the staff of the Daily Telegraph, where he worked as a chief editor from 1873 to 1889. He published various volumes of short poems, as well as translations of the Indian section and a good deal of travel composition. The essays collected in Japonica (1892) were a popular contribution to the late nineteenth-century (cult of Japan) in Britain, similar to his variations of Japanese poetry in The Tenth Muse (1895) and his Japanese play Adzuma (1893). He was knighted in 1888.
