Story of Nanda -Buddha’s half-brother

Asvaghosa was the writer of a famous court poem of his time called the Saundara Nandakavya. This poem was discovered and edited by Pandit Haraprasad Shastri. This poem is also on the life of Buddha, but completely different from anything that has ever been written about Buddha's life before. There is a special mention of the city of Kapilavastu in the poem. The poem is dedicated to the love story of Sundari and Nanda. Nanda was the half-brother of Buddha. The story goes like this: Nanda is initiated into being a Buddhist against his will. This sickens the heart of Sundari, his wife and Nanda also longs to be his wife. All the other monks try to console him, but all that effort goes in vain because Nanda continues to suffer. Even the word of Buddha does not put his heart and mind to peace. To this, Buddha takes Nanda to heaven with him. On their way to heaven, they pass the mighty mountains of the Himalayas. Nanda comes across a dreadful-looking one-eyed female monkey. Buddha asks him if he thought Sundari was prettier than that female monkey to which Nanda replies yes vehemently. Later when they reach heaven, they meet many heavenly and celestial nymphs. Nanda falls for them and feels very passionate towards them, forgetting all about Sundari. He comes back to earth with Buddha and resigns to ascetic practices in the hope of attaining heaven when he dies. Seeing this, Buddha's disciple Ananda teaches Nanda that even the pleasures of heaven are transitory and in vain. This convinces Nanda that he does not want the joys of heaven and he goes to confess that with Buddha. Buddha becomes very impressed with Nanda and decides to teach him lessons from the Buddhist doctrine himself. After some time, Nanda renounces everything and goes into exile to the forests. There he practices four great meditations dedicatedly, which results in him becoming an arhat. This spiritual achievement of Nanda mostly pleases Buddha, and he asks Nanda to preach to other people and work towards the emancipation of mankind.