The final section of TS Eliot’s 434-line epoch-making poem The Waste Land ends with a reference to a thunder crack and the Sanskrit refrain Shantih Shantih Shantih. Eliot refers to three other alliterative Sanskrit terms—datta (charity), damyata (compassion) and dayadvam (self-control), which give rise to the “Da Da Da” sound of thunderous rain. These references have evoked curiosity about Eliot’s study of Sanskrit texts. 

It triggered in depth critical analysis ever since the modernist poem was published in 1922—four years after the end of World War I. Indian critics and academia were particularly appreciative of the influence of Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads on Eliot. The newly-released slim volume, 100 Years of The Waste Land: Indian Responses (Orient BlackSwan), captures the Indian excitement over Eliot’s recourse to Hindu texts in his search for ultimate durable peace (shantih) in a landscape marked by post-war loss, desolation and urban chaos.