Late one night, as he seeks shelter in a potter’s entrance hall, Kamanita meets an old ascetic. Encouraged by the monk, he relates the story of his life so far: how, born the son of an Indian merchant, he follows in his father’s footsteps; how, on his first trading trip, he meets and loses his great love Vasitthi; how he builds up a fortune and raises a family; and how one day he leaves everything behind to set on a pilgrimage. But the old monk is not who he seems, and when Kamanita refuses to accept his teachings, the consequences are startling and irreversible. What follows is a colorful, bewildering, revelation-filled journey through the past, present, and the Paradise of the West. Sixteen years before Hermann Hesse published Siddharta, there was another European writer who used Buddhism as a source of inspiration for a novel. After earlier naturalistic works such as Minna and Germanernes Lærling (The German Apprentice), The Pilgrim Kamanita was a stylistic turning point for the Dane Karl Gjellerup. It became a worldwide success, and his subsequent novels would touch on Buddhism as well. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition published by William Heinemann in London, 1912.