ii4 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 

 sanctuary. ' No, no/ said the priest. ' Come in. You 

 are a Sadhu.' 1 



Several visits too were made to the Kumaon district, 

 one with a stay with the monks at Mayavati ; and each 

 time with visits to the villages an element indeed running 

 through all these journeys, and an interest no less real than 

 that in the monuments and associations of the past. And 

 in India, though definite historic record be too often lacking, 

 in the present village and the past legends, the traditional 

 spirit none the less survives ; and the simplest -seeming 

 villagers are thus often deeply imbued with Hindu culture 

 and mythology. With all these journeys such interests 

 could not but strengthen. 



At Budh-Gaya under whose pipal tree, still represented 

 by its descendant, Buddha attained his illumination a 

 vacation was largely spent as guests of the Mahanta (the 

 Abbot), whose conversations increased their insight into 

 the spirit of Buddhism. Then too they saw the old city 

 of Rajgir, where Buddha pleaded for the lives of the goats 

 from its king, and which was the scene of the first assembly 

 of his faith after his death. 



Such interest in the ancient centres of Indian learn- 

 ing had an old and natural nucleus in youthful memories 

 of Vikrampur and its traditions. Hence our pilgrims 

 went at one time to Taxila, with its excavations now guided 

 by Hiuen Tsaing's travel- journal of thirteen centuries 

 ago ; and at another time to the ruins of Nalanda, to 

 which Hindus look back as a great University, which had 

 in the days of Athens thousands of students, including 

 some from other lands beyond India. But of all journeys 

 the best remembered seems that which was most of 

 the traditional pilgrimage character to Badrinath and 

 Kedarnath, the goal of the last journey of Judhisthira, 

 one of the heroes who there sought his end. For this long 

 journey the start begins with what is the terminus for 



1 A Sadhu is a man who has devoted himself to the contemplative 

 and religious life, whether as hermit or wanderer. 



