Lalita Vistara. Or Memoirs of the Early Life of Sakya Siñha

Lalita Vistara is an amplified treatise on (Buddhist) religion, the noblest of sutras. It expounds the source of Bodhisattva blessings; discloses the light of Tushita; and dilates on the consultation, advent, career, birth-place, and the greatness of the birth-place of the Budhha; it narrates the special excellencies of his boyhood, of his proficiency in all worldly occupations, in writing and arithmetic, both plain and symbolic – in mechanical arts – in the practice of the sword, bow and arrow, and in all sorts of gymnastics; it unfolds his conjugal enjoyments; recites the method of acquiring the final and immutable reward of all Bodhisattva discipline; displays the career of Tathagata triumphing over the Màra, and his might and majesty in all their eighteen declensions; points out the heresies of the Buddha religion; and in short, constitutes the whole of what was imparted by the former venerable and absolute Tathagata Buddhas.