Seas and Lands

A scholar of Europe as well as the Orient, Sir Edwin Arnold began a teaching career in England after graduating from Oxford, and soon took a position as principal of a school in India. Here, he learned Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, and acquired the knowledge which enabled him to write The Light of Asia, or The Great Renunciation, a book of verses on the Buddha's life and teachings. Although controversial among scholars, the book won tremendous commercial success. Arnold was regarded by many as a poet only of Oriental culture until he published a similar work on Christ, The Light of the World, or The Great Consummation.