The Transposed Heads

I read somewhere that Thomas Mann admired Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, and The Transposed Heads (1940) evokes that earlier fable. Both are set in India, both are written simply, and both are freighted with life lessons. Mann's story of two friends of different castes who desire the same woman has them changing heads, literally, as a device to explore the divided nature of existence and beauty -- physical versus spiritual. It is an elegant tale, not without humor even as it tells of beheadings and funeral pyres.