Nivedan: The Autobiography of Dharmanand Kosambi

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The autobiography of Dharmanand Kosambi , pioneering scholar of Pali and Buddhist Studies, is one of the most moving and spellbinding life stories ever written.

Born in rural Goa, Dharmanand came under the spell of the Buddha's teachings during his adolescence. At an early age, he set off on a remarkable journey of austere self-education across the length and breadth of Britain's Indian Empire, halting at places connected with Buddhism. He went to Sri Lanka to master Pali, lived in a Burmese cave as a bhikshu, and even reached Nepal and Sikkim after arduous, sometimes barefoot, treks. Over those itinerant years, Dharmanand acquired such mastery of the Buddhist canon that he taught and researched at Calcutta, Baroda, Harvard and Leningrad.

Dharmanand blended Buddhist ethics, Gandhi's philosophy and the ideals of socialism. He exchanged letters withthe Mahatma, worked for his causes and died in the approved Buddhist/Jain manner by voluntary starvation at Sevagram Ashram. No Indian scholar's life seems as exemplary as Dharmanand's or has approximated as closely to the nobility and saintliness of Mahatma's.

Meera Kosambi's annotations and introduction contextualize the life, career and achievement of one of modern India's greatest scholar-savants.