This unique and meticulously edited collection includes: The Light of Asia_x000D_ The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita (from the Mahâbhârata)_x000D_ The Essence of Buddhism_x000D_ Hindu Literature: Comprising The Book of good counsels, Nala and Damayanti_x000D_ Indian Poetry:_x000D_ The Indian Song of Songs (Hymn to Vishnu -11 Sargas)_x000D_ Miscellaneous Oriental Poems:_x000D_ The Rajpoot Wife_x000D_ King Saladin_x000D_ The Caliph's Draught_x000D_ Hindoo Funeral Song_x000D_ Song of the Serpent-charmers_x000D_ Song of the Flour-mill_x000D_ Taza ba Taza_x000D_ The Mussulman Paradise_x000D_ Dedication of a Poem From the Sanskrit_x000D_ The Rajah's Ride_x000D_ Two Books From The Iliad Of India_x000D_ "The Great Journey."_x000D_ "The Entry Into Heaven."_x000D_ "Night of Slaughter."_x000D_ The Morning Prayer._x000D_ Proverbial Wisdom From the Shlokas of the Hitopadeśa..._x000D_ Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) was an English poet and journalist. The literary task which he set before him was the interpretation in English verse of the life and philosophy of the East. _x000D_ The Light of Asia, subtitled The Great Renunciation, is in a form of a narrative poem. The book endeavors to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Siddhartha, who after attaining enlightenment became The Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy, in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara. A few decades before the book's publication, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and Buddhism, the religion which he founded, and which had existed for about twenty-five centuries. Arnold's book was one of the first successful attempts to popularize Buddhism for a Western readership._x000D_ The Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.