essay on siddhartha

Hermann Hesse

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Siddhartha is born and raised in ancient India by Brahmins, learning spiritual practices of meditation and thought. He excels at everything. He is accompanied through childhood by his friend Govinda , who loves Siddhartha dearly, as does everyone else. But Siddhartha is ill at ease. He does not think he can learn anything more from the Brahmin teaching and so decides to begin a pilgrimage with the samanas, a group of wandering ascetics. His father very reluctantly lets him go but Govinda follows.

Siddhartha and Govinda learn the life of the samanas, fasting and suffering. Siddhartha sometimes doubts whether they are really approaching any higher knowledge. Then, one day, a rumor reaches them that the Sublime Buddha, Gautama , is among them. Siddhartha is dubious of teaching, but agrees to hear the Buddha’s sermon, so the pair journey with many others to Gautama’s grove. Here, they spot the man himself, impeccably calm and with a perfect smile . They know he has reached enlightenment. Govinda decides to take refuge in the teaching. This is the first decision he has made for his own path. But Siddhartha tells Gautama that he does not think accepting teaching from another is the way to find one’s own deliverance.

Siddhartha goes into the forest and has an awakening, seeing all the river’s colors as if for the first time . He wants to learn from the world of ‘things’. He stays with a kind ferryman , then he goes to town and notices a beautiful courtesan, Kamala , and requests that she teach him in the art of love. She will only teach him if he brings her rich gifts, so she refers him to a merchant, Kamaswami , who takes him into service. Here he becomes a rich man, gambling and trading. Years pass and Siddhartha’s spirit sickens. He feels detached from the material world but also caught in its cycle. He has a dream in which Kamala’s songbird dies and with it, all Siddhartha’s hope. He leaves the town, and goes back to the river . Later we find out that Kamala is pregnant with his child.

Siddhartha, wishing to die, edges close to the river. But instead, the word ‘om’ comes to him from the river, and he falls into a deep sleep. When he wakes, there is a samana waiting with him, whom he recognizes as Govinda, his childhood friend. He tries to explain to Govinda that he has become many different people, but he is still searching. Siddhartha muses on his life, where his sadness has come from, and how the ‘om’ saved him. He seeks out the ferryman, who had attained peace by the river . The ferryman agrees to let Siddhartha stay and work with him. He advises that Siddhartha listens to the river as he does. Siddhartha begins to find enlightening visions and voices in the water.

One day, it is rumored that Gautama is dying. Kamala, now a pilgrim too, comes towards the river with her son, young Siddhartha . The boy is sulky and wishes to rest, and it is then that a black snake bites the resting Kamala. Vasudeva hears the cries and brings her to the hut and she sees Siddhartha. Kamala dies, and now Siddhartha must be guardian to his son. But young Siddhartha doesn’t know his father and is used to very rich things in town, not the simple life of a ferryman. He makes life very hard for Siddhartha. Vasudeva, seeing how painfully Siddhartha loves his son, advises that he should let the boy go to the town, because he does not belong here. Siddhartha can’t face letting him go, but soon he has little choice, the boy runs away and it is obvious that he doesn’t want the ferrymen to follow him.

Siddhartha learns the secrets of the river with Vasudeva by his side and eventually his wounds at the loss of his son start to heal. He understands the unity that Gautama taught, through the river. He sees that the river is the same at its source as in the waterfall and in the rain, that time doesn’t really exist. The world is like this river, eternal and whole. Now that Siddhartha can really listen to the river too, Vasudeva is ready to go ‘into the oneness’, and he leaves the river with Siddhartha and disappears into the forest.

In the town, the monks of Gautama live in Kamala’s old grove, and Govinda hears about a wise ferryman. He still seeks enlightenment and goes to the river. He doesn’t recognize Siddhartha when he sees him, and asks for a taste of the ferryman’s wisdom. Siddhartha says he has changed many times, that he was once that sleeper by the river that Govinda protected, but that despite change, everything is part of a whole, always in the present moment. Each sinner is also a Buddha. One must agree with it all, and love everything easily. This is what Siddhartha has learned. Govinda sees that his old friend has become one of the enlightened ones and that his smile radiates like a saint’s.

Hermann Hesse

• Literature Notes
• Essay Questions
• About Siddhartha
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Part 1: The Brahmin's Son
• Part 1: With the Samanas
• Part 1: Gotama
• Part 1: Awakening
• Part 2: Kamala
• Part 2: With the Childlike People
• Part 2: Sansara
• Part 2: By the River
• Part 2: The Ferryman
• Part 2: The Son
• Part 2: Govinda
• Character Analysis
• Hermann Hesse Biography
• Cite this Literature Note

Study Help Essay Questions

1. How does Siddhartha's life with the Samanas condition him for his process of self-recognition?

2. What is the function of the river and of Vasudeva in this novel?

3. Discuss the father-son theme.

4. Examine the process of synthesis as it relates to Hesse's contact with Jungianism and relate its thematic influence in a selected novel.

5. Examine Hesse's treatment of time lapses in this novel, focusing on the close-up technique for extending short spans of time, and the "telephoto" effect for foreshortening long spans of time.

6. Siddhartha and Buddha both eventually attain Nirvana. However, the way that each achieves it is different. Explain the difference, relating this to the reason for Siddhartha's not following the Buddha.

7. What is the function of Kamala in the novel?

Previous Quiz

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Siddhartha — Reflection On The Book Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

Reflection on The Book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Life of the buddha.

The Dream of Queen Maya (the Buddha's Conception)

Birth of the Buddha Shakyamuni

Vajrapani Attends the Buddha at His First Sermon

The Death of the Buddha (Parinirvana)

Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni

Niche with the Seated Bodhisattva Shakyamuni Flanked by Devotees and an Elephant

Reliquary in the Shape of a Stupa

Head of Buddha

Seated Buddha Vairocana

Seated Buddha

Reliquary(?) with Scenes from the Life of Buddha

Book Cover from a Manuscript of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra

Plaque with Scenes from the Life of the Buddha

Buddha Sheltered by a Naga

“Devadatta,” Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra (Hoke-kyō, Daibadatta-bon)

Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan-zu)

Illustrated manuscript of the Lotus Sutra (Miaofa lianhua jing), Volume 2

Unidentified artist (mid-14th century)

Scene from the Life of the Buddha

Kathryn Selig Brown Independent Scholar

October 2003

According to tradition, the historical Buddha lived from 563 to 483 B.C. , although scholars postulate that he may have lived as much as a century later. He was born to the rulers of the Shakya clan, hence his appellation Shakyamuni, which means “sage of the Shakya clan.” The legends that grew up around him hold that both his conception and birth were miraculous. His mother, Maya, conceived him when she dreamed that a white elephant entered her right side ( 1976.402 ). She gave birth to him in a standing position while grasping a tree in a garden ( 1987.417.1 ). The child emerged from Maya’s right side fully formed and proceeded to take seven steps. Once back in the palace, he was presented to an astrologer who predicted that he would become either a great king or a great religious teacher, and he was given the name Siddhartha (“He who achieves His Goal”). His father, evidently thinking that any contact with unpleasantness might prompt Siddhartha to seek a life of renunciation as a religious teacher, and not wanting to lose his son to such a future, protected him from the realities of life.

The ravages of poverty, disease, and even old age were therefore unknown to Siddhartha, who grew up surrounded by every comfort in a sumptuous palace. At age twenty-nine, he made three successive chariot rides outside the palace grounds and saw an old person, a sick person, and a corpse, all for the first time. On the fourth trip, he saw a wandering holy man whose asceticism inspired Siddhartha to follow a similar path in search of freedom from the suffering caused by the infinite cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Because he knew his father would try to stop him, Siddhartha secretly left the palace in the middle of the night ( 28.105 ) and sent all his belongings and jewelry back with his servant and horse. Completely abandoning his luxurious existence, he spent six years as an ascetic ( 1987.218.5 ), attempting to conquer the innate appetites for food, sex, and comfort by engaging in various yogic disciplines. Eventually near death from his vigilant fasting, he accepted a bowl of rice from a young girl. Once he had eaten, he had a realization that physical austerities were not the means to achieve spiritual liberation. At a place now known as Bodh Gaya (“enlightenment place”), he sat and meditated all night beneath a pipal tree. After defeating the forces of the demon Mara, Siddhartha reached enlightenment ( 1982.233 ) and became a Buddha (“enlightened one”) at the age of thirty-five.

The Buddha continued to sit after his enlightenment, meditating beneath the tree and then standing beside it for a number of weeks. During the fifth or sixth week, he was beset by heavy rains while meditating but was protected by the hood of the serpent king Muchilinda ( 1987.424.19ab ). Seven weeks after his enlightenment, he left his seat under the tree and decided to teach others what he had learned, encouraging people to follow a path he called “The Middle Way,” which is one of balance rather than extremism. He gave his first sermon ( 1980.527.4 ) in a deer park in Sarnath, on the outskirts of the city of Benares. He soon had many disciples and spent the next forty-five years walking around northeastern India spreading his teachings. Although the Buddha presented himself only as a teacher and not as a god or object of worship, he is said to have performed many miracles during his lifetime ( 1979.511 ). Traditional accounts relate that he died at the age of eighty ( 2015.500.4.1 ) in Kushinagara, after ingesting a tainted piece of either mushroom or pork. His body was cremated and the remains distributed among groups of his followers. These holy relics were enshrined in large hemispherical burial mounds ( 1985.387 ), a number of which became important pilgrimage sites.

In India, by the Pala period (ca. 700–1200), the Buddha’s life was codified into a series of “Eight Great Events” ( 1982.233 ). These eight events are, in order of their occurrence in the Buddha’s life: his birth ( 1976.402 ), his defeat over Mara and consequent enlightenment ( 1982.233 ; 1985.392.1 ), his first sermon at Sarnath ( 1980.527.4 ), the miracles he performed at Shravasti ( 1979.511 ), his descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods ( 28.31 ), his taming of a wild elephant ( 1979.511 ), the monkey’s gift of honey, and his death ( 2015.500.4.1 ).

Brown, Kathryn Selig. “Life of the Buddha.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Pal, Pratapaditya, et al. Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art . Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.

Snellgrove, David L., ed. The Image of the Buddha . Tokyo: Kodansha, 1978.

Additional Essays by Kathryn Selig Brown

• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Nepalese Painting .” (October 2003)
• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Nepalese Sculpture .” (October 2003)
• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Tibetan Buddhist Art .” (October 2003)

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• List of Rulers of China
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• Central and North Asia, 1–500 A.D.
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52 Siddhartha Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best siddhartha topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting siddhartha topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about siddhartha.

• The Role of Teachers in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse Vasudeva, the ferryman and the river act as the best teachers for Siddhartha in his pursuit for enlightenment; however, one cannot undermine the role played by his own father, the Samanas, Kamala, Kamaswami and Buddha […]
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