Jairam Ramesh's "THE LIGHT OF ASIA: the poem that defined THE BUDDHA” - II

Light of Asia's 'stunning impact in Ceylon' forgotten and the 'Uncrowned King' buried

- BY ROHANA R. WASALA

One of the dozen of books that Nehru got from his father, when he was imprisoned in a Lucknow jail by the British in 1922, was a copy of The Light of Asia. Eighteen years later, in February 1940, Nehru himself sent his daughter (Indira), who was convalescing in a hospital in Switzerland, ‘Arnold’s two little books The Light of Asia and The Song Celestial’ to keep her company’.

(The Song Celestial was Edwin Arnold's 1885 English translation of the Sanskrit language ‘Bhagavad Gita’ or literally ‘Song of the Lord’. Arnold’s choice of ‘Celestial’ as an English equivalent to Sanskrit ‘Bhagawad’ in the title reflects his deep insight into the Hindu sacred text which, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada called, in 1984, ‘a definitive guide to the science of self-realization’.)

No doubt, The Light of Asia was Edwin Arnold's most inspired poetic work. He drew upon many previously existing sources and his own personal interactions with the scholars as well as the ordinary people of India whom he loved. The inscription set up at the university chapel at Oxford where his ashes were deposited after his death contained the following information: Born June 10th, 1832, Died March 24th 1904. Newdigate Prizeman. (While a student at Oxford he won this prestigious prize for his poem ‘The Feast of Belshazzar’)

These lines were inscribed there, too:

‘He found his sympathy with - Eastern religious thought Inspiration for his great - Poetical gifts.’