The Caravan Sartha

[Guest guest]

A spiritual caravan

 

Jayalakshmi K

 

Interspersed with scholarly descriptions and heavily researched, the

translation of this book allows a wider audience to enrich their

lives.

 

The Caravan Sartha S L Bhyrappa, translated by S Ramaswamy,

 

Oxford University Press, 2006, pp 292, Rs 395.

 

A Vedic scholar Nagabhatta is deputed by his king Amaruka to study

the trade secrets of caravans by travelling with one. Amaruka has

designs on Nagabhatta's wife Shalini. Nagabhatta comes to know of

this later and disillusioned, refuses to turn back. In his onward

journey he gets drawn into spiritual adventures that see him

pursuing yogic and tantrik practices and even taking up Buddhism.

Finally, there is Chandrika.

 

 

Set in the eighth century this novel portrays the intellectual

clashes of the period between Hinduism and Buddhism and eventually

how the advent of Islam affected the existing streams of thought.

Authentic recreation of the period was made possible by extensive

research and travel, something which is known to be the hallmark of

the writer, as also his popular appeal. Quoting the author, "each of

my novels takes me a step nearer to a mysterious centre of

experience and has enabled me to understand and appreciate the

complexity of life and its meanings… it has brought to the fore

several problems which were lying hidden in my subconscious mind."

It is this brilliant and questioning mind that one encounters in

this book as well.

 

Pursuing a style that is basically simple even when writing on a

complex topic like philosophy, Bhyrappa makes it possible for the

connoisseur and the interested layman to follow his train of

thoughts. `Sometimes I felt that serious academic study was a way of

destroying the lovely little stories that illustrate great

philosophical truths,' says Nagabhatta aptly, when disillusioned

with the logical tangles and arguments that were the hallmark of

studies at Nalanda.

 

Scholarly twist

 

Besides meeting the danseuse Chandrika whose yogic prowess and

physical beauty prove to be too heady a combination, Nagabhatta who

first has a taste of theatre, later comes across scholars like

Mandana Mishra, Kumarila Bhatta and Shankaracharya whose

contributions to his thinking are brought out very lucidly in the

book. Descriptions of the scholarly discussions point clearly to a

mind well versed in philosophy and history.

 

The preoccupations of the time, the clash of vedic and Buddhist

sects, the thoughts of the protoganist as he goes through various

phases, the emptiness he carries, the craving, his strife with age-

old faith and his own convictions that for a long time stop him from

conducting the last rites for his departed mother, his fluctuating

feelings for Chandrika, the almost spiritual love they share (`Love

never comes in the way of spirituality' as she says), above all his

experiences or rather experiments, are what make up this traveller's

tale.

 

Such a translation would not have been possible unless the

translator had been as well versed in the topics himself. A special

mention must be made of the introduction where S Ramaswamy talks of

the Kannada language and its literary wealth. This gives the

newcomer a glimpse of its richness, leaving one with the hope that

more such translations allow a wider audience to enrich their lives.

One only wishes the proof reading had been up to the mark.

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