Overview

By combining the spirit of fiction with the fabulism of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research, Vanessa R. Sasson shares the evocative story of the Buddha from the perspective of a forgotten woman: Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife. Although often marginalized, Yasodhara’s narrative here comes to life. Written with a strong feminist voice, we encounter Yasodhara as a fiercely independent, passionate and resilient individual. We witness her joys and sorrows, her expectations and frustrations, her fairy-tale wedding, and her overwhelming devastation at the departure of her beloved. It is through her eyes that we witness Siddhattha’s slow transformation, from a sheltered prince to a deeply sensitive young man. On the way, we see how the gods watch over the future Buddha from the clouds, how the king and his ministers try to keep the suffering of the world from him and how he eventually renounces the throne, his wife and newly-born son to seek enlightenment. Along with a foreword from Wendy Doniger, the book includes a scholarly introduction to Yasodhara’s narrative and offers extensive notes along with study questions, to help readers navigate the traditional literature in a new way, making this an essential book for anyone wanting to learn about Buddhist narratives.

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9781350163164

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Reviews

Sasson's book is a page-turner, an enchanting fairytale, and at the same time grounded in the realities of the human condition. I was captured and pulled into the events of a time and place to which I was already predisposed. It opened my eyes to the human side of Buddha's story. * Shambhala Times * Vanessa R. Sasson combines the spirit of fiction with the beauty of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research. She shares the evocative story of the Buddha from the perspective of a forgotten woman: Yasodhara, the Buddha's wife. * Integral Yoga Magazine *

Sasson's book is a page-turner, an enchanting fairytale, and at the same time grounded in the realities of the human condition. I was captured and pulled into the events of a time and place to which I was already predisposed. It opened my eyes to the human side of Buddha's story. * Shambhala Times * Vanessa R. Sasson combines the spirit of fiction with the beauty of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research. She shares the evocative story of the Buddha from the perspective of a forgotten woman: Yasodhara, the Buddha's wife. * Integral Yoga Magazine * Yasodhara and the Buddha is splendid for conjuring visions of floating, of gods and a tree watching over Buddha, of doors of flowers in the forests, or of love walking in the form of a man as it speaks about human ways of comprehending life. * Asian Book of Reviews *

Author Information

Vanessa R. Sasson is Professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal and Creative Arts Department of Marianopolis College, Canada. She is the author of The Birth of Moses and the Buddha: A Paradigm for the Comparative Study of Religions (2007), co-editor of Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture (2009), and editor of Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (2013).

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