The Light of Asia

The Light of Asia, with subtitle of The Great Renunciation, is a book written by Edwin Arnold. The book narrates in the form of poetry the life and teaching of Gautam Buddha. The first edition of the book was publihed in London in July 1879. This book presents in a series of verses, the life, character, and philosophy of Guatam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Hardly few decades before the publication of this book, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and the religion which he had propounded, and which was in existence for about twenty-five centuries.