The stories of the fallen woman and the enlightened Lord have dwelled in the collective subconscious of humanity. The legend of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene has been inspirational down the ages. Supposedly a sinful woman, it is said that Jesus cast out “seven devils” from her — following which she became his disciple and travelled with him and witnessed his crucifixion and was the first to see his resurrection and spread the message.
In times when a woman had no worth in society, she was given the honour of first seeing the Lord come alive.
Closer home is a parallel legend of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha and Ambapali, also known as Amrapali, who lived in the ancient city of Vaishali by the Gandak river in the region we now know as Bihar. She was found as an abandoned baby in the royal orchards by a gardener and thus given her name. Her beauty and talent went against her and she was made the Nagarvadhu (courtesan) of the city for royalty and the nobles.
As the story goes, she listened to a sermon of Buddha and was so influenced that she gave up her palace and riches to become a “bhikshuni” or a Buddhist nun. The lives of Sidhartha and Ambapali have attracted stories from the time of the ancient Jataka tales of Buddhism.
Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
{{/usCountry}}Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
{{/usCountry}}One of the early 20th century novels, going back to the times of Buddha, was written by German poet and novelist Hermann Hesse. Although titled “Siddharth”, it was not the story of Buddha, but of a man with this name in the times of the enlightened one.
The namesake, of this 1922 novel, takes a journey of self-discovery along with his friend Govinda and both have an encounter with Buddha. Govinda joins the Buddhist order, but Siddhartha moves on seeking his own path.
Then he comes across the city courtesan Kamla, a character with shades of Ambapali. She is fascinated by him and insists that he become rich if he wishes to learn the art of love from her. He then earns money, wins her love, but the quest is not yet over for him. He returns to the river to be a ferryman and again meets Kamla who has joined the Buddha’s order and is travelling to see the enlightened one in his last days with her young son. However, she cannot complete the journey and dies on the way of a snakebite. Siddhartha realises the son is his and wishes to father him, but the boy rejects him to move on in his journey.
Published in the US in the 1950s, it became a cult novel of the 60s and early 70s. Made into a film in 1972 by Cornard Rooks, starring Shashi Kapoor and Simi Grewal, the film created controversy in India, a long way away from ancient times, because of bare-bodied shots by Grewal.
Return of the quest
From the past to the present, one sees two novels by different authors this year that return to the times of Buddha. London-based actor-writer Advait Kottary tells the story of the boy who became Buddha in “Siddhartha” in his first novel published by Hachette. And then we have the seasoned novelist Tanushree Podder return to retell the story of Ambapali, the bride of the city, in a lyrical mode in the novel “Ambapali”, published by Penguin.
Kottary’s retelling of the story of Siddhartha, he says, comes from his own quest to understand the self and Buddha’s teachings leading the way. Being passionate about cars and engineering, he worked as an engine designer until he gave it up to pursue his interests in literature and performing arts. He played a prince in Gurinder Chadha’s “Beecham House” and was part of Bollywood show “Jaan-E-Jigar”.
The novel comes with strong endorsements with poet Pritish Nandy saying: “A refreshing new take on a man who gave up his kingdom to discover his own self, and changed the world in world in the process’ filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj calls it a beautiful cinematic interpretation of the Buddha’s journey. It is juxtaposing the past with the present that makes for interesting moments.”
Come to Ambapali, the seventeenth novel by Podder, and one gets enveloped in the Vaishali of yore, which is created lyrically, but not without the false notes of a woman’s place in the ideal kingdom. The novel begins at the end of the life of the renowned beauty and rich bride of the city, thrust upon her against her will yet making what she can of it with grace and dignity. Finally, confronted with the tragic outcome of war, she makes the choice of renouncing her riches and fame and going into the Buddhist fold as a nun — singing what she can of the Buddhist hymns.
Podder’s narrative is exquisite; “She who had ruled over the hearts of many men, was now a mere skeleton, her skin brittle like dry leaves in autumn. The eyes that had been compared to glittering jewels were now clouded with cataracts. The lips , the sensual curves of which had made men swoon, were cracked. The supple body that had driven men crazy, was now a wasted and shrunken one”. It is indeed difficult to put away this soulful saga of a girl named Ambapali: the one found under a mango tree.
EOM
caption: Shashi Kapoor and Simi Grewal in a still from the 1972 Cornard Rook’s film ‘Siddhartha’ based on the novel of Herman Hesse and ‘Siddharth’, novels that take one back to Buddha’s times.