Like the German Romantics, he believed that Eastern philosophy would resolve the problems of Western society's spiritual degradation. Hesse ultimately believed that 'the real India was in its philosophy, in its asceticism, in its deep thinking about life,' Kämpchen says. That feeling wore off slowly, adds Kämpchen. Hesse's journey left him amazed but disappointed, explains Kämpchen, as the author did not find that idealized version of India during his trip to Indonesia or Sri Lanka (which in Hesse's view were part of India). But a severe stomach ailment after his trip to the Indonesian islands rendered him immobile, and he had to give up his plans to go to southern India. Hesse set off on his journey in 1911, expecting to visit Java, Bali and Sri Lanka, followed by a trip to southern India, from where he would sail back home to Europe.

Hesse's book has been translated into many Indian languages, including Tamil The birth of 'Siddhartha' The Protestant Christian missionary not only learned the Malayalam language, but also wrote a dictionary and a book on Malayalam grammar. Hesse's family actually did have ties with India: His mother was born in South India during one of the missions of her father, Hermann Gundert, in Kerala. Despite his strictly Protestant upbringing in Calw in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, India seemed to be a natural choice for him, explains German scholar Martin Kämpchen, who is currently based in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India and has written several books on Hesse and European Indologists. Like his protagonist Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse himself was on a spiritual quest when he traveled to India in 1911. 'This was rooted in German Romanticism and the classical India of the 'Vedas' and Romantic Hinduism,' says Jyoti Sabharwal, who teaches at the University of Delhi's Department of German Studies and has done extensive research on Hermann Hesse and his books. Like them, Hermann Hesse had an idealized image of ancient, spiritual India. Hesse's story about the Brahmin boy looking for salvation was based on a perception of India that was popular among Western scholars studying India at the time, known as Indologists. Hermann Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 The idea of spiritual India

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