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SADHU combines the cultural explorations of Naguib Mahfouz's THEBES AT WAR with the spiritual search of Herman Hesse's SIDDHARTHA. The late fifteenth century proves to be a tumultuous period in India's history. The Islamic Delhi Sultanate pushes into South India, and while the remaining Hindu kingdoms war with each other, the newly-arrived Portuguese seek a permanent colony on the Malabar Coast. Amidst this churning, age-old attitudes about caste and society are questioned while new forms of spirituality challenge the ancient orthodoxies. SADHU recalls the journey of Vishwa-rupa, a real-life spiritual seeker born in 1484, in the village of Navadwipa, on the banks of the Ganges River in Bengal. Little is known about this mysterious sadhu, except that he furtively left home as a young boy to travel throughout India, determined to uncover his eternal spiritual identity. Vishwa-rupa joins a group of forest-dwelling yogis, becomes entangled in a power struggle between two South Indian Hindu kingdoms, studies at an isolated monastery, is ambushed by the Sultan's mercenaries and suffers enslavement in a Portuguese galleon near Goa. He escapes with the help of African warrior-slaves during the subsequent invasion but, having lost his caste, wanders about distractedly until introduced to the historical saint Tukaram and the new, democratic brand of spirituality he teaches. At the heart of Vishwa-rupa's travels are the evolving relationships with his mother, Saci, and younger brother, Nimai, who he abandoned but cannot forget. As he grows from the frightened young child who left home at the age of twelve to a grown man at the conclusion of his travels, Vishwa-rupa matures in understanding his connection with his family and arrives at a shocking, unexpected realization of his true spiritual identity.

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9781738853045

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