BABU AUROBINDO GHOSE'S SPEECH
A PUBLIC meeting was held on Wednesday evening at Harrish Park. Bhowanipur. to consider means for the celebration of the Partition Day Babu Kritanto Kumar Bose. Vakil. High Court, occupied the chair.
The proceedings opened with the singing of a national song. The Chairman then briefly explained the object of the meeting after which Babu Lolit Mohan Das in a short speech recalled the events that led up to the celebration of the Partition Day. In conclusion he urged that on that day they should all subscribe their mite to the fund for the erection of the Federation Hall.
Mr. Aurobindo Ghose then delivered the following speech: — Gentlemen. — The time before us is extremely short. There are other speakers who will address you and the sun is now hastening down to its set. Therefore I hope you will excuse me if what 1 have to say to you is very briefly said. We meet here preliminary to the holding of the anniversary of the partition. Babu Lolit Mohan Das has told you the significance of that day. Let me add this, that the 16th of October has become one of the chief landmarks of our year, and not only the chief landmark of our year but the landmark of the progress of our movement — a movement of the progress of swadeshi and boycott which we undertook in the year when the partition was effected. We see on that day how far it has progressed, or if it has receded, how far it has receded. We are carrying on that movement at the present time under greatest difficulties possible. Every kind of obstruction is being thrown in our way. You know very well what efforts have been made to mar the attendance at the meeting. It is supposed that the meeting is mainly composed of students, a delusion which the authorities cannot get rid of and therefore strenuous efforts are made to prevent students of our colleges from joining any political meeting and pressure is brought to bear upon the authorities of colleges to dismiss from their employment any professor who joins in the political life of his country. Yesterday the news was published of the suppression of another Samiti, the Anushilan Samiti. We all know what the Anushilan Samiti is. We all know that it is one of those
Samities which has the least to do with politics. It is one of the most self-restrained and self-denying of all the associations and confined itself to perfectly harmless activities, to improve the physique of the nation, to give relief in time of famine, to help their countrymen on occasions like the recent Ardhodaya Yog. This was the kind of work which this Samiti did. Suddenly the Government has found out that with the existence of this Society it is impossible to carry on the administration of the law. Our Associations have been suppressed and we are carrying on this Swadeshi movement without organization, without proper instrument and without proper equipment. We have to face any number of temptations, we have to face any number of obstacles, we have to face also intimidation. In spite of all that we cling to the movement and we go on with it.
The one message we can give to you. under such circumstances, is the message to-hold firm. If you cannot progress see that you have not receded. Hold firm to the Swadeshi, hold firm to your refusal to the recognition of the partition, hold firm to the National movement which is uplifting India. Let not any act of yours individually or collectively make you guilty in the eye of posterity in this critical hour of the destinies of India. Remember this, whether we look to our own efforts to raise the nation or whether we look to our rulers, that nothing can be done by the weak and so nothing is given to the weak. Remember the people of England do not understand weakness. They only understand strength. Remember this that they do not understand those who aspire to a height and yet flinch. They only understand resolution, steadfastness and determination. Even if you look from that standpoint the only message that the leader of the people can give to you is always to hold firm. If we look higher, if we look to the deeper significance of this movement, remember that whenever a subject nation arises it is by the will of God. If only we are true and hold firm, everything in this God-given movement will help towards the goal. As favourable circumstances help us so also will unfavourable circumstances help us Temptation is necessary to maintain the moral fibre of the nation, both to maintain and to strengthen it. Resistance to obstacles is necessary to train its capacity to resistance, refusal to yield to intimidation necessary to attain that strength and courage without which no nation can rise, or if it rises to maintain itself in the great struggle which pervades this world. Therefore, whatever
happens to us, once we have started let us carry it forward. If we are defeated it is in order to learn how to conquer. If we are suppressed it is in order to learn how to rise irresistibly; and if we for a moment recoil, it is in order that we may be led forward more swiftly and further on. Therefore 1 trust that even with all these obstacles and even in spite of various rumours we hear on this 16th of October, the landmark of our progress, we will show that we have not receded one step but progressed. Even if it is not so. let us remember the enormous difficulties that we have to face. Let us remember the power that led us on. Whatever happens let us have faith and courage — faith that looks beyond all momentary obstacles and reverses and sees the goal that God has set before us, and the courage that never flinches for a moment but moves forward calmly, wisely, but strongly and irresistibly to that goal.
Speeches were also delivered by Babu Panchcowri Banerjee and Moulvi Dedar Buksh.
With a vote of thanks to the chair and to Mr. Ghose the meeting then separated.
*
[Extract from a report of the Sixteenth October Celebration]
BABU AUROBINDO GHOSE
Then amidst fresh cheers and renewed and prolonged shouts of "Bande Mataram" in came Babu Aurobindo Ghose and the inevitable rush for rakhi bandhan ensued for a few minutes. Babu Aurobindo also spoke a few words in Bengali. He said that he was unwilling to speak in a foreign tongue on such a sacred occasion. He was not on the other hand, accustomed to speak in his mother tongue. But he would only say one thing, Viz., that the rakhi bandhan was not only a bond of thread but it was the semblance of another tie. It was the sign of uniting the hearts of millions of people of United Bengal. The rakhi might be removed in a day or two but that sacred bond of hearts would remain firm through all ages. There was no power on earth which could untie that sacred knot — it was a national bond. They had taken oath. They should stick to it, God helping.
Babu Bhupendra Nath Basu arrived at Beadon Square a little before the meeting dispersed.
I know not
Where I had wandered about and then reached afar this dreamland:
I found myself standing on the brink of a fluent river.
Above, the vast empty pale azure
Firm and high up. Here upon our globe
Twin comrades Earth and Heaven ever
Play their love-game intimate together.
Green earth only looks upward
Towards her lover's face, shivers in intense delight
In the thousand tremblings of the leaves, among the cool grasses.
The blue sky holds in embrace
The whole body of his Beloved enveloping it with delight,
Lifts up his high head, spreads aloft his laughter of love.
This is the play here. In our realm
There is no cruel separation. But there
Earth is dying as though in grief, in fear,
Left alone in an empty universe. Swallowed in that Infinite,
Frightened by the heights, surrounded by nightmare.
Lies the little human life. Limitless expanse of land
Silent vast empty pale grey
Extends the unbroken wideness of the lifelessness
Of the great Void. No tree is there,
No grass, no stone, nor any human habitation
Could one see. The eyes move ever forward, move ever.
No end is there; yet though tired
I am unable to return! A cruel landscape in its cruel pull
Carries away a prisoner as though to an enemy-land
Afar, afar into a bourneless world
In the stilled infinity
I forced my eyes to return
Towards the other shore. It is hard stone
A fierce strength has moulded together, a long labour.
As though the articraft of a titan. During the wild rains
On the banks abroad spreading its body all over the skies
In rude delight the titan has laboured,
Happy at Nature's cruel game.
Fancy dawned in him to make it still more cruel.
Line after line it has carved smilingly on the stone.
Like a huge skeleton lies the wet shore of the river,
The mere bones as it were, bereft of flesh, of dead earth:
It lies immemorially with no solace of last rites done for it,
At that solitary end of things, on that river-verge.
No bend is in view, no grass nor flower. Erect, proud,
Firm, solid, despising all softness
Goes down into the water the lifeless heartless stone.
Beyond afar, the desert land has moved lazily
To unite with the stone. No softness,
No love is there in the union, it is matter's love,
Stone's kiss.
I looked towards the stream.
It flows in silent speed — the stream of dreamland;
Asleep, mighty, calm, as though the violent life-force
Is imprisoned in Nature's arms on the crest of the Himalayas.
Away lies the exit, the way out. Where the meadow
Meets the stone, a narrow space, as though
The throat of hungry death, there
In the land's perilous life-line, Death himself
Lay asleep like a python with his stone-figure
Possessing the universe. With slow wide-moving speed
Proud of its long strides advances the dream-river.
In its winding, the miraculous Vedic steed Dadhikra,
God incarnate as life-force, bridled in his breast and face.
Lifting his proud neck rushes on taking man
On heaven's path to the world of Truth. But on that way
Is this the cataract of Life's river flowing down?
Is this the true consummation?
It hurtles down like a sinner in an unmeasurable speed
Towards a crueller country. The wailing
Of the river adown comes into my ears as though from a thousand sufferers!
Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research
I looked about, my mind lull of sadness.
And thought, "Oh, the dead land! the still world!
In the noise what a silence, in the speed what an immobility!
Will ever man come to live in this inert country.
Pour his own life-force and make it living?
Is there no Purusha for this Prakriti?"
Rejected, as if through fear, thought returns
Into her own dwelling. Motionless is the earth-life as ever.
All on a sudden I woke up and looked within myself.
With a startle I saw the inert realm alive.
Alive the waters, alive the cruel
Endless wasteland, even the sky up above
Conscious, alive the stretched neck of death, —
The stone-figure has assumed the shape of a sleeping python.
And the sound of the waterfalls carries afar
The mourning of a living soul. I understood why it is there
Erect and proud the stone with no softness
No pity, no happiness in it. I understood the hope
The river nourishes in its bosom, flowing towards its vast end
Beyond sight, as if the mighty life-force is in trance
Filled with its own force of speed. And I knew here
None speaks of any other person, they know not each other
They want not each other. Each is engrossed in trifles,
Each is bound to himself, muses all alone,
Each is confined to his own act and own mood.
But when they stumble upon each other, they tremble within,
The body, stunned and bound, thinks, "Lo, this is another I
That falls upon my body, this touch is full of joy!"
That is the end of it. There does not bloom the secret yearning,
Neither in speech nor in movement nor in thought.
In my hopelessness
I see as though the whole world is a prison.
All on a sudden a sweet voice sounded within me:
"Look back, understand the hope of Prakriti,
Understand the dead prison-house is a mother's heart,
The hidden significance understand that is in this game."
I lifted my burning eyes, I saw afar
In the wasteland human figures. A boy and a girl
Embracing each other in mad delight in this expanse of matter.
In this inert dreamland two living beings are there free
With no fetters, rapt in trance in each other's delight.
They disappeared from the sight. And that living matter
With no hope in it, it is bound in its own mood as always.
But my mind freed out of the matter's touch,
I recognised the intent of the veiled conscious Being.
I captured in my spirit Nature's hidden desire.
My eyes capturing the whole landscape, consoled I returned
To the earthly sphere.
(A fragment)
Meanwhile moved by their unseen spirits. led by the immortal
Phalanxes, who of our hopes and our fears are the reins and the drivers, —
Minds they use as if steam and our bodies like power-driven engines.
Leading our lives towards the goal that the gods have prepared1 for our striving.
Men upon earth fulfilled their harsh ephemeral labour.
But in the Troad the armies clashed on the plain of the Xanthus.
Swift from their ships the Argives marched, — more swiftly through Xanthus
Driving their chariots the Trojans came and Penthesilea
Led and Anchises' son and Deiphobus the Priamid hero.
Now ere the armies met, ere their spears were nearer, Apollo
Sent a thought for his bale to the heart of Zethus the Hellene;
He to Achilles' car drew close and cried to the hero:
"Didst thou not promise a boon to me, son of Peleus and Thetis.2
Then when I guarded thy life-breath in Memnon's battle from Hades?
Therefore I claim the proudest of boons, one worthy a Hellene.
Here in the front I will fight against dangerous Penthesilea.
Thou on our left make war with the beauty and cunning of Paris."
But from his heart dismayed Achilles made answer to Zethus:
"What hast thou said, O Zethus, betrayed by some Power that is hostile?
Art thou then lured by the gods for the bale and the slaughter of Hellas?"
Zethus answered him, "Alone art thou mighty, Achilles, in Phthia?
Tyrant art thou of this fight and keepst for thee all of its glory —
We are but wheels of thy chariot, reins of thy courser, Achilles.
What though dire be thy lust, yet here thou canst gather not glory,
Only thy shame and the Greeks', if a girl must be matched with Achilles!"
"Zethus, evil thy word and from death are the ways of its folly.
Even a god might hesitate fronting the formidable virgin.
Many the shafts that, borne in her chariot, thirst for the blood-draught.
Pages ride in her car behind and hand to her swiftly
Death in the rapid spears and she hurls them and drives and she stays not.
Forty wind-footed men of the mountains race with her chariot
Shielded and armed and pluck the spears from their hearts whom she slaughters.
So like the lightning she moves incessantly flashing and slaying.
Not like man's warring her fight who battle for glory and plunder.
Never she pauses to pluck back her point nor to strip off the armour.
Only to slay she cares and only the legions to shatter.
Come thou not near to her wheels; preserve thy life for thy father.
Pity Arithoa's heart who shall wait in vain for her children."
1 Or prefixed
2 Or son of sea-born (foam-white) Thetis.
Wroth at Pelides' scorn made answer Zethus the Hellene:
"Give me my boon I have chosen and thou fight far from my battle
Lest it be said that Achilles was near and therefore she perished.
Cycnus and I [.........] will strike down the terror of Argos."
Moved the mighty Achilles answered him, "Zethus and Cycnus,
Granted your will; I am bound by my truth, as you now by Hades."
So he spoke and cried to his steeds, who the ways of the south wind
Racing outvied to the left where from Xanthus galloping swiftly
Came in a mass the Ilian chariots loud towards the Hellenes.
Phoces was with him and Echemus drove and Drus and Thretaon.
They were like rays of the sun, but nighest him, close to his shadow,
Ascanus, Phrinix' son, who fought ever near to his war-car.
And from the Trojan battle gleaming in arms like the sun-god
Paris beheld that dangerous spear and he cried to the heroes:
"See now where death on the Trojan comes in the speed of that war-car
[ ... ] fight [................................................] Achilles
But where you see him guiding his spear or turning his coursers,
Menace his days and shield the Trojan life that he threatens.
Fighting together hide with your spear-rain his head from the heavens.
Zeus perhaps shall, blinded, forget to cover the hero."
So as he spoke the armies ncared and they clashed in the mellay.
Who first shed the blood [...............................]
Thick with the [ ... ] of the mighty, last of the battles of Troya?
Helenus first. King Priam's son, smote down in that battle,
Phoces, Amarus' son who fought in the front of Pelides.
He by the point twixt his brows surprised left the spear he had lifted
Down he clanged from his car with his armour sounding upon him.
Echemus, wroth let loose [ ... ] at Helenus, grieved for his comrade.
Him he missed but Ahites slew who was Helenus' henchman.
Helenus wroth in his turn at Echemus aimed and his spear-point
Bit through the shield and quivering paused, — by Ananke arrested.
Back avoiding death the Hellene shrank from the forefront.
Nor had Achilles mingled yet his strength with the fighters.
[Eighteen lines follow which are too badly mutilated to he transcribed.]
SKANDHA I, ADHYAYA I
1. On Him we fix our thoughts from whom are birth and being and death, who knoweth the chain of things and their separate truth. King and Free, who [to] the earliest seer disclosed the Veda through his heart, which even illuminated minds find hard to understand,
In whom like interchange of water, earth and light the triple creation stands free from falsehood, for by His inherent lustre He casts out always the glamour of the worlds, — to Him we turn, that Highest Truth of things.
2. Here shall ye find highest religion in which all trickery has been eschewed, here the one substantial thing that is utterly true, that hearts free from jealousy and wickedness may know, that is a fountain of blessing and peace, that is an uprooting of the threefold sorrow of the world,
In this holy Bhagawat that the great Thinker has made. When by its powers even others can imprison the Lord in their hearts so soon, the fulfilled in nature who love to hear it shall seize Him the moment that they hear.
3. This is the fruit fallen from the tree of Veda which giveth men every desire, — come, all you that are lovers of God on the Earth and sensible to His delight, drink from the mouth of Shuka the Bhagawat's delightful juice into which wine of immortality has been poured, drink and drink again until the End of things.
4. In Naimisha, field of the Timeless Lord, the Sages, Shaunaka and the rest, sat down to millennial sacrifice for the bringing of the kingdom of heaven.
5. And one day at dawn the Wise Ones having cast their offerings into the eater of the sacrifice asked with eagerness of the Suta as welcomed in their midst he sat,
6. "By thee, O pure of blemish, have the Traditions and Histories been studied, by thee recited, which are institutes of the Way of life,
7. Those that the Lord Badarayan knoweth, chief of the Veda-Wise; and the other sages to whom these low things and those high are known.
8. Thou knowest it all, O gracious one, in its essential truth by
Vyasa's grace; verily, to the loving disciple the Masters will tell even the secret thing.
9. What thou, O long of life, hast distinguished decisively in this book and in that to be utterly the best for men, we would have thee announce to us.
10. For thou knowest, O cultured soul, that usually in this age of the Kali men are short of days, poor in spirit, poor in sense, poor in fate, assailed by ills.
11-23. And numerous are the scriptures that have to be studied, full of multitudinous laws of conduct and divided into many parts; therefore drawing out from them by thy thought whatever is the essence of all these, tell us as to men of faith that which makes the soul clear and glad. And, O Suta, since thou knowest for what purpose the Lord, the Prince of the Satwatas was born to Vasudeva in Devaki's womb; be pleased to narrate it to our expectant ears, — whose descent into mortal life is for the bliss and increase of created things; whose name if one has fallen into the dread whirl [he] uttereth aloud even without his will, at once he is delivered therefrom, — the name of which Fear itself is afraid; by dependence on whom, O Suta, the seers that follow the way of Peace purify by their first touch, but the waters of the mystic stream only after the soul has bathed in them often and long. For who that longeth after purity would not listen to the glory destroying Kali's darkness of that divine Lord whose actions are adored by souls of virtuous fame? Tell us, for we believe, his noble deeds hymned by illumined seers when by reason of His world-sport He manifests His aspects in the world. Then tell us the blessed incarnations of Hari when the Lord of Creation ordereth variously at His unfettered pleasure and by the play of His own glamour, His sport in human forms. We are not satiated however often we hear the mightiness of that most glorious Being, for at every step sweetness is added to sweetness for those who can feel its beauty when they hear. High were the heroic deeds Keshava did with Rama for His aid and beyond mortal strength, for this was the hidden Lord disguised as a man. Because we knew that Kali had come upon the world, we in this region holy to Vishnu have sat down to long sacrifice and leisure vast have we to hear of the Lord. It is Providence then that has shown thee to us who desire to cross safe over this difficult Kali, destroyer of the pure energy in men. as appears a sudden pilot
to those who would voyage through the difficult sea. Say. when the Master of the Yoga, full of holiness. Krishna, armour of the Dharma. passed to His Divine Summit, with whom did the Dharma take sanctuary then?"
On Sanskrit and Bengali Prosody
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
(1)
I can't agree with your statement about Sanskrit आ [a], ए [e], ओ [o], that they are long by stylisation only. In fact, I don't quite understand what this can mean; for in Sanskrit आ [a] at least is the corresponding long to the short vowel अ [a] and is naturally as long as the devil — and the other two are in fact no better. The difference between ए [e] and ऐ [ai] and ओ [o] and औ [au] is the difference between long and ultra-long, not between short and long. Take for instance the Sanskrit phrase येन तेन प्रकारेण [yena tena prakarena]; I can't for the life of me see how anyone can say that the ये [ye] ते [te] रे [re] or the का [ka] there are naturally short to the ear, but long by stylisation. The classical languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin) are perfectly logical, coherent and consistent in the matter of quantity; they had to be because quantity was the very life of their rhythm and they could not treat longs as shorts and shorts as longs as it is done, at every step, in English. Modern languages can do that because their rhythm rests on intonation and stress, quantity is only a subordinate element, a luxury, not the very basis of the rhythmic structure. In English you can write "the old road runs" pretending that "road" is short and "runs" is long, or "a great hate" — where the sound corresponding to Sanskrit ए [e] (great hate) or that corresponding to Sanskrit ओ [o] (old road) is made short or long at pleasure; but to the Sanskrit, Greek or Latin ear it would have sounded like a defiance of the laws of Nature. Bengali is a modern language, so there this kind of stylisation is possible, for there ए [e] can be long, short or doubtful.
All this, not to write more about stylisation, but only as a protest against forcing modern ideas of language sound on an ancient language. Bengali can go on its way very freely without that, Sanskritising when it likes, refusing to Sanskritise when it doesn't like.
(2)
I have read your account of the tridhara and my mind is now clear about it; I have not yet read Anilbaran's contentions, so there I am still in the dark. But here are certain points that I want to make clear.
(1) Prabodh Sen's rule of the yaugika-vrtta does not agree with what I was taught about the aksara-vrtta. When I first heard of Bengali metre in England, my informant was quite at sea. He confidently described Michael's blank verse as a 14 syllable line (8 + 6), but when asked to give examples we found that the lines as pronounced were of 12, 13, 14 or more syllables and when my brother Manmohan asked him to explain this discrepancy, he could merely gape — no explanation was forthcoming! However, when I took up seriously the study of the literature, it was explained to me by competent people, themselves poets and litterateurs — thus
"The line is strictly a line of 14 syllables, no more, no less (i.e. it is a true aksara-vrtta), but the aksara or syllable here is not the sonant Bengali syllable as it is actually pronounced, but the syllable as it is understood on the Sanskrit principle. In Sanskrit each consonant letter (aksara) is supposed to make a separate sound (syllable), either with the aid of other vowels or by force of the short a sound inherent in it — except in two cases. First, if there is a conjunct consonant, e.g. gandha, the n is not sonant, not separate, but yukta to the dh, and therefore does not stand for a separate syllable; secondly, if there is a virama as in daibat, then also it loses its sonant force, there is no third syllable — it is a dissyllable, not a trisyllable. Bengali has applied this rule, dropping only the last part of it, in disregard of the actual pronunciation. Thus
[dana] or
[dhana] is in Sanskrit (as in Oriya) a dissyllable, in Bengali also it is treated as such in poetry, although in fact it is a monosyllable to the ear. Externally this sounds artificial and false to fact, but rhythmically it is unexceptionable, the cadence of the voice supplying a double metre there.
[gandha] will be a dissyllable as in Sanskrit, because ndh is a yuktaksara.
On the other hand
[daibat] will be a trisyllable because there is no distinction made of a virama, no distinction therefore between
[sarit] and
[nidhana], each is a trisyllable."
According to this explanation and the rule it supplies, it is true that a yugma-dhvani at the close of a word has always two matras.
but the other part of Prabodh Sen's rule is not always true, viz
that in the middle of a word it counts only as one. That would be invariably
true of an indubitable
[yuktaksara] as in
[gandha], but not otherwise. On this principle there is no difficulty at all about
[mahabharater katha ....], the line is of 14 syllables and cannot be reckoned in aksara-vrtta as anything else. There is no difficulty about such lines as Michael's?
[Ravan svasur mama Meghnad svami],—
10 svaras, but 14 aksaras, — because the ™. though in the middle of a word, must be two matras, since the ghn in Meghnad is not a compound consonant, but two separate aksaras. There is a difficulty about
[dikprante]
and
[mrtpatra], but that is because one is undecided whether to treat it as a compound
[kpra]
and a compound
[tpa] or as two separate words joined together,
[dik],
[mrt] being kept apart as with the t of
[sarit] or the k of 
[tvak]. In the latter case
[mrt] and
[dik] are dissyllables, in the former [the words are] trisyllables.
And so on, as regards other doubtful points like
[cao(y)a].
This, I say, was what I was taught and it is according to this rule that I have hitherto scanned the aksara-vrtta. I am quite prepared to adopt a new principle if it is more scientific, but I think that historically this explanation is not unsound, that it represents the idea Michael and Nabin Sen and the rest had of the basis of their verse and shows why it was considered as of a syllabic character.
(2) I did not think or hear that Tagore invented the matra-vrtta — I could not, because I never heard of the matra-vrtta at that time. What I understood was that the svara-vrtta was not recognised as a serious or poetic metre before Tagore, — it was used only for nursery rhymes etc. or in some kinds of loose popular verse. Tagore did not invent, but he popularised the svara-vrtta as a vehicle for serious poetry — it was at least professedly under his banner that a violent attack was made on the supremacy of the aksara-vrtta. I remember reading articles even in which it was reviled as a nonsensical conventional fiction: Oriya Bengali. "If you want to keep it. "thundered the polemist, "let us all learn to read like Oriyas, 'Ravana svasura mama, Meghanada svami,' but let us rather be Bengalis and drop this absurd convention of a pseudo-Sanskritic past." The article
amused me so much by its violence in spite of my prepossession for the aksara-vrtta that I remember it as if I had read it yesterday — and it was only one of a numerous type. At any rate as a result of this campaign, svara-vrtta fixed itself on an equal throne by the side of aksara-vrtta. I mention it only as a point of literary history of which I was a contemporary witness. I suppose, as usually happens, Tagore's share in the revolution was exaggerated and there were others who played a large part in its success.
(3) Matra-vrtta is therefore to me a new development, not as an invention perhaps, but as a clearly understood distinct principle of metre. But it exists, if 1 have understood your explanation, by a thorough extension of the principle which the aksara-vrtta applied only with restrictions. As the Sanskrit limitation about the virama was swept away in the aksara-vrtta, so now in the matra-vrtta
the limitation about conjuncts like
[ndh] is swept away and all yug-madhvanis are reckoned as two matras. In that sense Anilbaran's
description of it as
[sagotra] of the aksara-vrtta would have some meaning, but at the same time it would not diminish the validity of your contention that it is a new opening with endless possibilities in a new principle of metrical rhythm. Two men may be cousins or brothers or near relatives, but one a conservative, the other a revolutionary creating a new world and a new order.
All this is no part of my final formed opinion in the matter. I have not yet gone through either Anilbaran's writing or Prabodh Sen's letter. It is only to put down my present understanding of the situation and explain what I meant in my letter.
(3)
I am quite convinced of the possibilities of the mdtra-vrtta — which would exist even if Anilbaran is right in insisting that it is the
[sagotra] of the aksara-vrtta. Two people may be cousins and yet have different characters, possibilities and destinies — and so may two metres.
(4)
I return you the former letter from Prabodh Sen which I managed to find time to read only today. He has a most acute, ingenious and orderly mind, and what he says is always thought-provoking and interesting:
but I am not persuaded that the form of Bengali matra-vrtta and Sanskrit laghu-guru is really and intrinsically the same. Equivalent, no doubt, in a way. if we substitute Bengali metre for Sanskrit quantity; but not the same because Bengali metre and Sanskrit quantity are two quite different things. It is something like the equivoque by which one pretends that an English iambic metre or any ether with a Greek name is the same as a Latin or Greek metre with that name — an equivoque based on the fiction that a stressed and an unstressed English syllable are quantitatively long and short. There is a certain kind of general equivalence but a fundamental difference — as those who have tried to find an equivalent in the English stress system to the quantitative Latin or Greek hexameter, alcaic or sapphic metres have discovered — they could not be transplanted, because it is only in true quantity that they can live.
(5)
If you can establish laghu-guru as a recognised metrical principle in Bengali, you will fulfil one of my two previsions for the future with regard to the language. When I was first introduced to Bengali prosody, I was told that Madhusudan's blank verse was one of fourteen syllables, but to my astonishment found that sometimes ten syllables even counted as fourteen, e.g.
[Ravan svasur mama Meghnad svami].
Of course, it was afterwards explained to me that the syllables were counted on the Sanskrit system, and I got the real run of the rhythmic movement; but I always thought, why not have an alternative system with a true sonant syllabic basis — and, finally, I saw the birth (I mean as a recognised serious metre) of the svara-vrtta. Afterwards I came across Hemchandra's experiments in bringing in a quantitative element and fell in love with the idea and hoped somebody would try it on a larger scale. But up till now this attempt to influence the future did not materialise. Now perhaps in your hands it will — even apart from songs.
Selected Hymns
THE COLLOQUY OF INDRA, ADITI AND VAMADEVA
Mandala IV, Sukta 18
Aditi to Indra
1. This is the path of old discovered over again by which all the gods rose up and were born. Even by this path must thou be born in thy increase; go not out by that to [lead]1 thy mother to her fall.
Indra to Aditi
2. Not by this path must I go out, for hard it is to tread; let me go out straight from thy side. Many are the things I have to do that have not been done; by that way I would fight; by that way I would question after Truth.2
3. As his mother went before him and he looked after her, "Must3 I not refrain from following her? Nay. I must indeed follow." In the house of the Maker Indra drank the nectar-wine of a hundred riches that was pressed from the stones.
The poet speaks
4. What perverse thing should he do, that his mother bore him4 for a thousand months, for many autumns?5 Nay, there is none who is his counterpart and measure among those who have been born or who have yet to take birth.
5. His mother deemed of it as if a sin and she hid him in her secret being overflowing with might. Then himself he rose up wearing light for a robe and in his birth he filled earth and heaven.
1 This word has been supplied by the editors, the word in the manuscript being illegible.
2 Or with that one I would fight: by another I must question after Truth
3 Or Shall
4 Or whom his mother bore
5 Or years
Aditi to the poet
6. Behold these waters go murmuring on their way; yea, they cry out together as those who have the truth. Ask of them what is it that they say, what encircling rock6 the waters break?
7 What have their mysteries of knowledge spoken to him? The waters went musing on the sin of India. It is my son who with his mighty weapon slew Vritra and loosed them forth.
The poet speaks
8. In the rapture of the nectar-wine, a young goddess, thy mother cast thee forth; in the rapture she brought thee out with difficult labour. In the rapture the waters were kind to the Infant; in the rapture Indra rose up and came forth in his might.
9. In the rapture, O Master of the Riches, the shoulderless demon wounded thee and smote away thy jaws. When thou wert wounded, then thou rosest yet more high and didst crush the head of the Destroyer with thy weapon.
10. The Cow who bore once, bore Indra the firm, the forceful, the mighty Bull; the Mother sent forth her unhurt child to his journeying, since he desired himself a path for his body.
11. Then the Mother coaxed the Mighty One, "Behold, the gods abandon thee, O my Son." Then said Indra, for he meant to slay the Coverer, "O Vishnu, O my Comrade, pace all the width of thy steps."
12. Who made thy mother a widow? Who would have smitten thee in thy lying down and in thy moving or what god was above thee in his grace, that thou draggedst7 thy father by his feet and wasted8 him away?
6 Or mountain.
7 Or hast dragged.
8 Or worest.
Indra speaks to the poet
13. Nought had I to live on, I cooked the entrails of the dog, I found none among the gods who had grace on me and I saw my wife not growing to her greatness. Then the Bird brought to me the honey-wine.
HYMNS OF KUTSA ANGIRASA TO INDRA-AGNI
Mandala I, Sukta 108
1. O Indra and Agni, come in your chariot of many wonderful lights which looks upon all the worlds. Standing in one car when you have come drink of the wine we have made for you.
2. As wide as is this whole world and deep with its vast manifested1 good and bliss, so wide be to your drinking this wine of nectar we give you and sufficient to your mind, O Agni and Indra.2
3. For you have made a twin inseparable blissful name and are slayers of the Coverer close and inseparable. Close united sit, O Indra and Agni, O strong Gods, be strong-copious pourers of the strong might of the nectar-wine.
4. When the fires are kindled high, then you two move busily about the sacrifice and you stretch out the ladle and you strew the sacred seat.3 Come down to us, O Indra and Agni, by the pourings of the keen ecstatic wine, that you may give us the glad and perfect mind.
5. Come, O Indra and Agni, with all the heroisms you have done and all the forms you have shaped and all your strengths and all your happy ancient comradeships, and having come drink of this nectar-wine we have made for you.
6. Come to my true faith by which I said at first when I chose you that this nectar-wine of me must be given among the Mighty Lords. Drink of the wine we have made for you.
7. Whether. O Agni, O Indra,4 you are drinking of rapture in your own house or in priest of the word or king. O masters of
1 Or open 2 Or Indra and Agni 3 Or grass 4 Or O Indra and Agni
sacrifice. thence come, ye Strong Ones, and having come drink of the wine we have made for you.
8. Whether. O Indra. O Agni, you are among the Yadus or the Turvashas or the Druhyus or the Anus or the Purus, thence come, O ye Strong Ones, having come drink of the wine we have made for you.
9. Whether, O Agni, O Indra, you are in the lowest and in the middle and in the highest earth, thence come, O ye Strong Ones. Drink of the wine we have made for you.
10. Whether, O Indra, O Agni, you are in the highest and in the middle and in the lowest earth, thence come. O ye Strong Ones, and drink of the nectar-wine we have made for you.
11. Whether. O Agni. O Indra, you are in heaven or on earth or in the plants or the waters, thence come, O ye Strong Ones, and having come drink of the nectar-wine we have made for you.
12. Whether, O Indra, O Agni, you are drinking of rapture by your nature in the rising of the sun or in the midmost of heaven, thence come, O ye Strong Ones, and drink of the nectar-wine we have made.
13. Thus drinking of the wine we have pressed5 for you, O Indra and Agni, conquer for us all and every kind of riches. This let Mitra and Varuna and the Mother Infinite magnify in me and the Great River and Earth and Heaven.
Mandala I, Sukta 109
1. I hungered after riches of a greater substance and I turned and saw you, O Indra and Agni. I have looked on you as on my own people, even as brothers born with me. This is your mind of wisdom and none other that is in me. and I have carved to shape a thought which gives me the plenitude of your riches.
5 Or made
2. I have heard of you as more lavish in your giving than a daughter's husband or a wife's brother and I am bringing into birth in the delivering of the nectar-wine a new hymn to you, O Indra and Agni.
3. We are making towards our desire and pray that our suns of light may not be broken, we are striving after the energies of our Fathers. By joy of6 Indra and Agni, the Strong Ones drink of the rapture, you are two pressing-stones in the lap of the thinking mind.
4. The goddess Mind longs for the ecstasy, O Agni, O Indra, and she is pressing out with you for her pressing-stones wine of nectar. O twin Ashwins, come running to us with your beautiful happy hands and mix7 the honey in the waters.
5. O Indra and Agni, I have heard of you that you are mighty to slay the Coverer and apportion a rich substance. O you who see, sit on this seat in the sacrifice, and drink the intoxication of the wine that we have made.8
6. Amid the shoutings of the armies for men that see you advance and overflow with your might9 earth and heaven; O Indra, O Agni, your greatness overpasses the rivers and overtops the mountains and your being is outstretched10 beyond all these worlds of creatures.
7. Bring for us. even for us your riches. O you whose arms carry the thunder, increase us. O Indra and Agni by your mights. Behold our reins are the same rays of the Sun by which our Fathers came to the end of their common journey.
8. Renders of the cities, gods with the thunders in your hands. Indra and Agni get for us. increase us in fruitful battles. This let Mitra and Varuna and the Mother Infinite magnify in me and the Great River and Earth and Heaven.
6 These two words doubtful 7 Or brim 8 Or pressed 9 Doubtful reading 10 Or stretches out