The Nirvana Hunters

Richly illustrated, written in a style that would put Tom Clancy to shame, Allen’s opus is a silent rebuke to Indian historians who neglect the muse, intent on scoring points over who has been Left behind, or who is Right.

What drove a group as varied as William Jones, Francis Buchanan, Alexander Cunningham and James Prinsep, to search out this elusive Buddha? Curiosity. With time heavy on their hands, they did their level best, using their natural intelligence to hunt down and verify whatever information they could, trying to crack the strange silence of their Indian interlocutors.

They made bloomers — that the Buddha was African. They were unable to dump their cultural baggage — Jones died believing that Indian history could not be so ancient, since then it would have preceded Adam and Eve. They gave their health — Prinsep collapsed under the strain of deciphering the inscriptions that revealed Asoka. But in the end, they found their quarry.

They found him all over India. By torchlight, James Alexander beheld the wonders of the Ajanta caves. In the Punjab, there came to light what was to be known as Gandhara art. Using the account of the Chinese travellers Fa-Hian and Hiuen-

Tsang, Nalanda and Rajgriha were found. As was the area in the Himalayan foothills where the Buddha’s home, Kapilavastu, was once situated.

And they found him beyond India. In Burma, in Ceylon, Pali and Sanskrit texts revealed the nature of the religion. And the Hungarian adventurer Alexander Csoma di Koros walked across the Himalayas to discover Buddhism’s Tibetan version.

It is a pity these men are so little known and even less honoured today. This is partly due to the fact that the soubriquet once collectively applied to them — Orientalist — is today employed in a pejorative sense, thanks to Edward Said and his uncritical admirers. Allen has made a strong case for bringing them in from the cold, just as they ripped away the veil of ignorance covering the Buddha and his religion.