The Counter-Invasion of Britain by Buddhism in Marie Corelli's a Romance of Two Worlds and H. Rider Haggard's Ayesha: The Return of She

Abstract

PRIOR TO THE MIDDLE of the nineteenth century, Europeans had heard of Buddhism, if at all, as an aside in tales of the exotic Orient in which the Buddha figured as a minor Hindu deity or a celestial sun god. Eastern thought had trickled back toward the seats of Western empires for centuries along the same routes used for tea and opium, but serious engagement with that thought only began in the late eighteenth century with translations of the Bhagavadgita, and systematic study of Eastern sacred texts did not begin in France, Germany, and England until around the 1820s.I draw here and throughout on a number of historical studies, in particular Almond, Batchelor, Lopez, and Welbon. As Almond notes, it was only in the first half of the century “that the term ‘Buddha’ (‘Buddoo’, ‘Bouddha’, ‘Boudhou’, etc.) began to gain currency… and that the term ‘Buddhism’ first made its appearance in English in the scholarly journals which appeared, in part at least, as a consequence of the developing imperial interest of both England and France in the Orient“ (7). The first English study of Buddhism that I have found is Upham (1829). As late as the 1860s, but rapidly at that point, Buddhism “hit” Europe, becoming a wide-spread topic that peaked in London's “Buddhism-steeped Nineties” and then declined after the turn of the century (Caracciolo 30).This claim is supported by the fact that a search of the PCI (Periodicals Content Index) database for articles published with “Buddha” or “Buddhism” in the title reveals this pattern: 3 in the period 1840–50; 0 in 1851–60; 13 in 1861–70; 74 in 1871–80; 148 in 1881–90; 367 in 1891–1900; 287 in 1901–10; and 243 in 1911–20. One indicator of burgeoning British interest was the publication in the last three decades of the century of at least three book-length poems recounting the life of Buddha. In particular, Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia. Being The Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Büddhism (1879) became a best-seller in Europe, India, and America and was credited with inspiring conversions to Buddhism, as well as with influencing Rudyard Kipling's creation of the character of the Teshoo Lama in Kim (1901).The other two poems I refer to are Philips's The Story of Gautama Buddha and his Creed: An Epic (1871) and Alexander's Sakya-Muni: The Story of Buddha (1887), which was the Newdigate Prize poem at Oxford in 1887. The most famous conversion attributed to reading The Light of Asia was of Charles Bennett, who in 1901 became Ananda Metteyya, the first British Buddhist monk. As Humphreys puts it in The Development of Buddhism in England, Bennett, “like many before him and untold thousands since, found that a new world of spiritual adventure was opened before his eyes” by The Light of Asia (13). On Arnold's influence on Kipling, see Whitlark “Nineteenth-Century ‘Nirvana Talk’.” The initial premise of this essay is that through the latter decades of the century themes and figures drawn in part or whole from Buddhism increasingly made their way into British literary di...

Buddhism

“…Victorian women writers constructed their own image of Buddhism based on the source material they readwhether from missionary accounts, scholarly publications, or popular literature, such as Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia. Buddhist (and Hindu) concepts, such as reincarnation, karma, and nirvana, can be found in works by Victorian women writers; however, these concepts are often cross-pollinated with Christian, Gnostic, Rosicrucian, alchemical, Greek pantheistic, ancient Egyptian, and other occult concepts (Franklin 2003). The advent of Buddhism in England enabled women writers to explore alternative spiritualities and stake out unique religious experiences outside of patriarchal Christian systems.…”

“…In contradistinction to Eliot's interest in Buddhism as an alternative to Christianity, Marie Corelli's ▶ A Romance of Two Worlds (1886) combines elements of spiritualism, Theosophy, and Buddhism to articulate an "electric-aesthetic Christianity." A Romance of Two Worlds is not about Buddhism but rather cross-pollinates Christianity with Buddhist (and Hindu) concepts of karma, reincarnation, and nirvana (Franklin 2003). The novel, Corelli's first, follows the testimony of an unnamed young heroinea talented musician suffering from debilitating illness, depression, and thoughts of suicide.…”

“…J. Jeffrey Franklin argues that the colonization of Buddhism by European scholars ultimately created a hybrid religion in Victorian Englanda "Protestant Buddhism." The overemphasis on the primacy of textual origins he calls "a form of discursive violence that served imperialism" (Franklin 2005(Franklin , 2012.…”

“…In 1857, Matthew Arnold, a proponent of the Broad Church movement, began his first lecture as Professor of Poetry at Oxford by quoting a Buddhist sūtra that he had read in the works of Eugène Burnouf and Bathélemy Saint-Hillaire. Arnold found this sūtra's emphasis on contemplation, morality, and wisdom appealing (Franklin 2012). In general, Buddhism became the most agreeable non-Christian religion for Victorians and, consequently, Christianity's chief competitor (Clausen 1975).…”

‘Eulogiseth Marie: A Critic’s Review of Recent Corelli Scholarship’

“…Religion and Corelli’s eclectic electric creed have attracted much, and probably the most, attention among critics in the past decade and this overview cannot do justice to the wealth of information, ingenious approaches, critical frameworks and insightful readings scholars have produced. Ever since The Sorrows of Satan became an Oxford World’s Classics in 1998, 8 critics have found much in Corelli’s religious creed that taps into the turn‐of‐the‐century ‘crisis of orthodox faith’ (White; Lee), the interest in foreign religious frameworks (Franklin) and the interest in (a feminised) spiritualism and mesmerism (Moody 2006; Siebers 2006a,b; Willburn; Galvan 2003, 2010). These religious tendencies are often contextualised through the emergence of modern (neuro‐)science, pseudo‐science and (communication) technology (Stiles, Hallim 2006, Galvan).…”