The principal subject of this thesis is the place of emotion in Buddhist practice. Asvaghos&dotbelow;a's epic poem, the Saundarananda , has served as a case study. The bulk of the information in the preliminary chapters has been presented in order to provide a background to Asvaghos&dotbelow;a's thinking. In this regard, there are two principal streams of thinking that feed into Asvaghos&dotbelow;a's work: the aesthetic and the Buddhist. A great part of this thesis has been devoted to the process of translating the concept of emotion into a corresponding concept in Asvaghos&dotbelow;a's Saundarananda. However, my primary motivating interests here have been the role of emotion in meditative attitude, and the place of emotion in the mind of the enlightened sage.

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