Some Statistics A false impression has been promoted by the Archives Team by stating that 99.75% of Savitri is unaltered. It is said: “Savitri contained more than 1, 80, 000 words and 99.75% of these are the same in all Editions Between 1951 and 1993 Edition, there are about 1974 differences of which 476 are verbal. The others are punctuation, capitalisation, hyphenation, spelling and others.” To the scientifically and statistically minded people it would mean that 0.25% change is negligible and for practical purposes we may consider it to be zero. But the devil is in the false perspective of taking poetry as a linear form with words as the linear unit. It would be here exposed a

Should “freak” come back? There is a definite freaky history behind “freak”, it undergoing unusual changes from script to script and finally coming back to itself with the suspecting faithfulness of the word in Sri Aurobindo’s own hand. The lines of concern in the Revised Edition are as follows: (p. 455) Eternal Consciousness became a freak Of some unsouled almighty Inconscient And, breathed no more as spirit’s native air, Bliss was an incident of a mortal hour, A stranger in the insentient universe. The history belongs not only to “freak” in the first line, but also to the entire passage which must be seen in the totality of the context. This passage is from

Of “has left” and “had left” In February 2004 issue of Mother India Richard Hartz writes: Here is an instance, "has left" was emended in 1970 to "had left" in lines in Book Three, Canto Three, which were printed in the following form in The Advent, the 1947 fascicle and the 1950 and 1954 editions: Although the afflicted Nature he has left Maintained beneath him her broad numberless fields, ... When the 1954 edition was being prepared, Amal Kiran observed with regard to the first line: The natural and correct grammatical form would be "had left" and not "has left", since everything afterwards as well as before is in the past tense. In fact, Sri Aurobindo

A Matter of Judgement: About Path/Faith One may have faith in the script but see not the path; also one may know the path but follow it not with faith. Which one to accept? to go by the path or by the faith? The best is to have both together. However, that seems to be the conundrum in regard to an entry in the context of editing Savitri. The entry appears in a passage on page 146, The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds, The Kingdoms of the Little Life, Book Two Canto Four, Section 41 in the series of 159 sections making up the epic. In the earlier drafts, in Sri Aurobindo’s own hand, the word in a line is distinctly “path”; but in the draft in which the re

-05_Is Sri Aurobindo^s Savitri a Fictional Creation.htm Is Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri a Fictional Creation? How weird to call Savitri a fictional creation! But what did the elderly Hoopoe tell? “The spiritual way is not for those who are wrapped up in supercilious life.” [The Conference of the Birds ~ Farid al-Din Attar] The Lives of Sri Aurobindo authored by Peter Heehs and published in 2008 by the Columbia University Press dismisses Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri by calling it a “fictional creation”. In the biographer’s view it cannot be a possible source for getting any idea or material about the life of Sri Aurobindo who was essentially a Yogi, and which is what should possibly be seen. Here is

Was not the 1950-51 edition of Savitri approved by Sri Aurobindo? During 1979-86, for eight years, the Archives editors examined all the available drafts of Savitri and, based on certain editorial policies formulated by them, prepared a comprehensive list of changes that should be introduced as new readings in place of the ones present in the earlier printed editions. These readings rather ‘corrections’ are essentially of two types: i) transmission errors arising because of the composition passing through several stages, and through several hands, including the preparation of fair copy, typing, proofreading, and these going bac

Apropos of Savitri The composition of Savitri has a long history; definitely it has a history of thirty-four years, beginning with August 1916 till mid-November 1950. The poem started as a narrative tale picked up from the Mahabharata. It had in the beginning some eight hundred lines. Eventually it grew into a full epic and consists of twelve books running into twenty-four thousand lines. In the process it acquired the significance of a symbolic transformative legend which is also the luminous medium for presenting yogic-spiritual experiences and realisations of the Author. Several versions in the form of manuscripts and typescripts add up to about eight thousand sheets; w

A few Examples of unacceptable Editing Though few, there are factual details about the composition of Savitri which are indeed revealing in many contexts. The first available draft dated 8/9 August 1916 has only 1637 lines which became in the latest printed version 23,837. Part I which was mostly written by Sri Aurobindo himself in his own hand had, in 1944, about 9000 lines; but as the revision by dictation proceeded, it grew to 11,683 in the printed text of 1950. This kept on happening in the fair copy made by Nirodbaran, in the typescripts, proofs, and the printed versions which had come out either in the Ashram journals or as fascicles. The very first l

-02_Publisher^s Note.htm Publisher’s Note The composition of Savitri has a long history, starting from August 1916 till mid-November 1950. The epic began as a short narrative based on the Mahabharata tale and grew from about eight hundred to twenty-four thousand lines. In the process it developed into a symbolic transformative legend which is also the luminous medium for presenting experiences and realisations of the Yogi-Author, his prophetic vision. While the first part of Savitri is essentially in Sri Aurobindo own hand, the other two appear mostly by dictation. There are now some eight thousand sheets of manuscripts and typescripts. During the period of composition these drafts went back and