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A Siddhartha-like figure wills himself into the womb of an Untouchable woman. This is the magical telling of the saga of Raja Salhesh.

Mahisautha. A kingdom nestled at the foot of the Himalayas, the land known today as Madhubani. King Somdev’s boon of a son, Jaybhardan, bears the weight of expectations of valour and glory. The prince is prophecy incarnate: destined to be the hero of an epic, with poets singing of his magic, of warring cousins, battles of conquest, and pillage.

But Jaybhardan turns away. He attends to a different calling. He believes in the unity of all beings, willing and able to dedicate his entire existence to an aspiration to enlightenment. He questions quiet assumptions—how are some people high, others low. As the gods look on in awe, he leads a motley band of rejected souls to create a new society, where each life and leaf is cherished. Heralding heaven at every threshold, he becomes Salhesh, the King of the Mountain.

Passed down orally since the eighth century by the Dalit community of Dusadhs, the story of Raja Salhesh inverts every convention of the epic genre. Hindu myths blend with Buddhist, Tantric and Jaina legends in this enchanting tale that finds new form in the translucent prose of Martine Le Coz.