Resumo de A Spoke In The Wheel

A Spoke In The Wheel is two stories in one. One is the story of Upali, a Buddhist monk in the time of Ashoka. Another is the story of the Buddha himself. The second story insinuates itself into the first, in the form of Upali?s biography of the Buddha.

Basically, the approach of the book is to view both the worlds -- that of the Buddha and of Ashoka with a heavy skepticism and doses of gentler irony and sarcasm. It?s a great way to view history, especially of such well-known and revered characters. Upali lived in Kalinga when Ashoka invaded that kingdom and ravaged it with a savagery so great that he himself was devastated by what he had wrought and renounced violence. However Upali is deeply embittered by the war and does not trust Emperor Ashoka at all. He moved to a monastery in another part of India and started dabbling with writing a coherent history of the Buddha?s life from the existent ?patakas? ? collections of poems and parables about the Buddha. To his shock, his work came to the attention of the Emperor, who approved and authorized him to work on it officially.

The story of the Buddha that is entwined in the above story of Upali is entrancing in its own right. The tale is unsparing in its treatment of the contemporaries of the Buddha, specially the rich and powerful of Kapilavastu, the kingdom he grew up in. The Buddha himself is portrayed with warmth and humanity and not deified. One can hardly comment on the accuracy of a historical reconstruction such as this, but this reviewer found the treatment of the characters fascinating and entirely believable.

The writing of this history causes enormous controversy among in the Buddhist religious order. There are heated debates at religious conclaves and this is an important thread of the story. The mainstream monks are hardened and have settled on various conservative positions, all hagiographic to different degrees, of the Buddha. The iconoclastic account of Upali, treating Buddha much more as a human, and being quite uncomplimentary in the treatment of people such as his father raises many hackles. The debates are highly stimulating and interesting to read.

Upali also has a knack of getting himself involved in other peoples? problems and getting into all kinds of very monk-inappropriate trouble. There are separate strands to do with displaced Kalinga tribes, a ?forbidden love? story and a regional insurrection. All these are woven skillfully together in the novel.

There are vivid descriptions of the large cities of the times like Pataliputra and Ujjayani and of the lives of people. The following are some excerpts that give a flavor of the earthy, irreverent flavour of the book.

?The Shakyas gave a lot of importance to the name, believing that the correctly chosen one nurtured the seeds of an individual?s potential and made him flower. In fact, they gave the name so much importance that they wound up terrified of it, believing that to know a person?s name was to have power over his life. As a result, all Shakyas had two names, one for use and the other, the real one, known to only the person himself, his parents and his priest and never mentioned once the naming ceremony was done. ?

?One who was a favourite with all teachers was Devdutta, his cousin. Devdutta went on to become a dedicated thorn in the side of the Buddha, in fact he seemed to have no other ambition in life but to murder his cousin. The methods he used were colourful and devious but somehow they always failed and he was always being caught and pardoned, to try again with the same steadfast commitment and the same miserable luck.?

The book is historical fiction of high quality. The discussions about the Buddha are highly stimulating and accessible to non-specialists.

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