P.B. Shelley’s Cosmology of Light and the Doctrine of the Brahman

This essay explores the light paradigm in P.B. Shelley from a comparative perspective by arguing that his well-known representation of the cosmos in terms of light physics goes far beyond Western culture’s narrow boundaries. On the contrary, it draws from ancient India’s Vedic and Upanishadic cosmology, specifically, the so-called ‘doctrine of the Brahman’, whom Shelley learned through Sir William Jones’s Works and artistically modelled in his writings, from Queen Mab to The Triumph of Life.