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Oriental
Seeds in Occidental Soil
By Swami B. G. Narasingha and
Satyaraja dasa
(Steven Rosen)
Introduction
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Teacher, Quaker, Rover, Mystic
Walter Whitman
Early American Indologists
T. S. Eliot
Conclusion
Bibliography
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Introduction Although worlds apart in terms of geography and culture, no two nations have been so intimately connected as the United States and India. It was Christopher Columbus' fateful error, in his search for a new route to India, that led him to the discovery of America. He had heard of India from the writings of Marco Polo [1], whose descriptions of India's riches had fired the ambitions of many a traveler. "The part of India known as Malabar," Polo had written, "was the richest and noblest country in the world." [2] And Marco Polo, it may be remembered, had by then seen many lands, not least China. The hope of discovering a passage to India was not given up even after
the time of Columbus and settlement in the New World. Rather, the hope intensified
as Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton dreamt of discovering a land route
"The part of India known as Malabar," Marco Polo had written, "was the richest and noblest country in the world." Up until the eighteenth century, interest in India was largely for trade
and other commercial purposes. India was a land with multifarious riches:
silks, spices, diamonds, gold. And these brought good prices in Western
ports. In Boston, for instance, merchants dealing with Indian trade quickly
grew in wealth and prestige. It was considered a distinction to have one's
office on "India Wharf," where American captains sought for their
families and business acquaintances such treasures as carnelian necklaces,
pieces of valuable cobweb Dacca muslin and even rare books in Sanskrit. [4] When Captain Heard of the Salem brig Caravan
"There is the East; there lies the road to India." Sanskrit literature was soon in great demand. And it was not long before
Indian thought began to manifest itself in American writing. Defending Indian
lifestyle against various attackers, American writers-especially those with
a deep appreciation for Indian philosophy- began dedicating much of their
work to establishing the undeniable value of ancient Indian thought. Pamphlets
appeared criticizing the British attitude toward India, most notably the
exploitative tactics that East India Company exerted on Indian villagers.
Writing under the name "Rusticus," John Dickinson, author of Letters
of a Pennsylvania Farmer
For nearly three decades, from 1836 to 1866 or the end of the Civil War
in America, the United States witnessed the flowering of an intellectual
movement the like of which had not been seen before. The movement flourished
in Concord, Massachusetts and was known-though it had no formal organization-
as the Transcendental Club
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