Jasper first travelled to India during his 19th summer holidays in 1963 as a bird-watcher for the Bombay Natural History Society. He quickly discovered other sides of India, met Ginsberg and Orlovsky in Calcutta, and determined to return.
In 1966 he flew back to India, ostensibly to study Sanskrit at the Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya (aka The Sanskrit University, Banaras) but soon found, once again, that his interests lay elsewhere.
From 1967 he considered himself an initiated student (shishya, chela) of guru(s) at the Ananda Akara in Bareilly, where he officially joined the Naga Babas and took sanyasa, an attraction and life-decision that remained with him until he died in Oxford in 2004.
He wrote a book ('MAYA') describing his experiences which is an unvarnished look at the 60s and 70s both in India and London and elsewhere.
re provenance:
I would like to personally thank Jasper's sister, Penelope Newsome, who allowed me access to his papers & worked hard to sort out what might be publishable here. This was hard work & is much appreciated. Many of the photos & documents here are copyright Penelope Newsome & I am very grateful to her, to be able to show them off on this site.
