Indian cultures and religions had been familiar to Hesse already since his childhood. Both his parents had lived in India as missionaries, his grandfather, Hermann Gundert, was an expert of Indian art and language, as well as a writer and author of translations and of an English-Malayam dictionary.
In the twenties Hermann Hesse writes:
«I have thought in Indian for twenty years, even though in my books you read this between the lines. At the age of 30 I was Buddhist, of course not in a confessional sense».

In 1911 Hermann Hesse sets out, together with hs friend Hans Sturzenegger, for a three months journey to, at that time called, the «Indian» Countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and Sry Lanka). He describes his impressions in Aus Indien [From India], published in 1913.

His reflections on Eastern religions in relation to the Western thought and our way of life will be analysed afterwards in Siddharta, Journey to the East, and The glass Bead Game.