Ashvaghosha

Ashvaghosha was a brahmin convert to Buddhism at the court of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and the earliest Sanskrit dramatist and epic poet whose work survives. His Buddhacarita, the Acts of the Buddha, recounts Siddhartha's journey from sheltered prince to awakened teacher in verse of great beauty, turning doctrine into story. He wrote not for scholars but to move the heart toward the dharma, arguing that suffering and impermanence are felt truths before they are reasoned ones. Through him, Buddhist thought entered the high literary culture of India.