This is the first in-depth examination of India's influence on the Western imagination and, in particular, on English Romantic poetry. Beginning with Forster's A Passage to India, Drew reconsiders the story that Pythagoras gained his wisdom from the Brahmins and then moves forward in time tothe Romantics--including Coleridge and Shelley--and the present century, revealing the influence of Indian traditions and mythology on Western creative thought. In addition, the book clearly delineates the European idea of India and offers a new, speculative thesis concerning the nature of the humanimagination.