ABSTRACT
Here, in blank verse of what has been described as 'Orientalluxuriance, in which colour and music were blended in the Tennysonian manner with heightened effects', Arnold had told the story of the Indian prince, on whom had been lavished every luxury and worldly joy conceivable in the sixth century Be. But he had chosen instead to renounce his inheritance, his palace, his beautiful wife and son, and to devote himself as a recluse to the momentous spiritual task of discovering the reason and remedy for human suffering. The poem ended with a triumphant account of his attainment, under the Bo Tree at Bodh Gaya, of complete and perfect enlightenment and the blessed state of Nirvana.
