XXI   Indian Polity   I HAVE spoken hitherto of the greatness of Indian civilisation in the things most important to human culture, those activities that raise man to his noblest potentialities as a mental, a spiritual, religious, intellectual, ethical, aesthetic being, and in all these matters the cavillings of the critics break down before the height and largeness and profundity revealed when we look at the whole and all its parts in the light of a true understanding of the spirit and intention and a close discerning regard on the actual achievement of the culture. There is revealed not only a great civilisation, but one of the half dozen greatest of which we have a s

  Fragment of a Play  Act I Mathura.   Scene 1   A street in Mathura. Ahuca's house. Sudaman, Ocroor.   SUDAMAN What art thou? OCROOR One that walks the Night. SUDAMAN No Ogre! Thou art Ocroor by thy voice.   OCROOR Whatever name The Lord has given his creature. Thou shouldst be Sudaman.   SUDAMAN If I am? OCROOR Walk not alone When the black-bellied Night has swallowed earth Lest all thou hast done to others should return Upon thee with a sword in the dumb Night   Page – 945 And no man know it. SUDAMAN Care not; I am shiel

  Act II   A room in Eric's house.   Scene 1 Hertha, Aslaug.   HERTHA See what a keen and fatal glint it has, Aslaug.   ASLAUG Hast thou been haunted by a look, O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee, Compelling memory?   HERTHA Then the gods too work?   ASLAUG A marble statue gloriously designed Without that breath our cunning maker gives, One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes! Out of these eyes there looks an intellect That claims us all; this marble holds a heart, The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay This glory of God's making in the dust! Why

  Act II   Scene 1   A room in the palace at Cowsamby. Alurca, Vasuntha.   ALURCA He'll rule Cowsamby in the end, I think. VASUNTHA Artist, be an observer too. His eyes Pursue young Vuthsa like a hunted prey And seem to measure possibility, But not for rule or for Cowsamby care. To reign's his nature, not his will.   ALURCA This man Is like some high rock that was suddenly Transformed into a thinking creature.   VASUNTHA There's His charm for Vuthsa who is soft as Spring, Fair like a hunted moon in cloud-swept skies, Luxurious like a jasmine in its leaves.   ALURCA When will this Vuthsa grow to man? Hard-b

  Act II   Scene 1   The woodlands as at first. Foresters and girls. Melander leans against a tree absorbed in thought: in one group Marcion and Ermenild are talking: in another Iamblichus and Myrtil: Myrtil comes forward.   MYRTIL What passion, dear Melander, numbs thy voice? Why wilt thou cherish humorous peevishness, The nursling of a moment and a mood? Now kernelled in the golden husk of day Pale night with all her pomp of sorrow sleeps, And stinted of soft-clinging melancholy The elegiac nightingale is hushed.   MELANDER Sweet friend, my spirit is too deeply hued With sombre-sweet Imagination's brush

  The Birth of Sin   A Drama   LUCIFER, the Angel of Power. SIRIOTH, the Angel of Love. GABRIEL, the Angel of Obedience. MICHAEL, the Angel of War. RAPHAEL, the Angel of Sweetness. THE ELOHIM. BELIAL, the Angel of Reason. BAAL, the Angel of Worldly Wisdom. MOLOCH, the Angel of Wrath. SUN. ASHTAR, the Angel of Beauty. MEROTH, the Angel of Youth.    Prologue _____ _____   Act I   LUCIFER Master of light and glory, lift thy rays Over the troubled flood; lift up thy rays. Obey me. SUN Lucifer! who gave thee power Over the gods that rule the ancient world? Or why sh

  Act III   Bassora.   Scene 1   Ibn Sawy's house. A room in the outer apartments decorated for a banquet. Doonya, Anice, Balkis.   DOONYA Lord, how they pillage! Even the furniture Cannot escape these Djinns. Ogre Ghaneem Picks up that costly chair between his teeth And off to his castle; devil Ayoob drops That table of mosaic in his pocket; Zeb sweeps off rugs and couches in a whirlwind. What purse will long put up with such ill-treatment?   BALKIS It must be checked.   DOONYA 'Tis much that he has kept His promise to my uncle. Oh, he's sound! These villains spoil him. Anic

  Act V   Scene 1 A room in Vasavadutta's apartments. Vasavadutta, Munjoolica.   VASAVADUTTA So thou hast dared to come.   MUNJOOLICA I have. Thou, dare To look me in the eyes. Thou canst not. Then?   VASAVADUTTA Hast thou no fear of punishment at all?   MUNJOOLICA For shutting thee in with heaven? none, none at all.   VASAVADUTTA How didst thou dare?   MUNJOOLICA How didst thou dare, proud girl, To make of kings and princesses thy slaves? How dare to drag Sourashtra's daughter here, To keep her as thy servant and to load With gifts, caresses, chidings and commands, The puppet of thy sweet imperious will?

  Act III   The forest near Dongurh.   Scene 1   Comol, Coomood, meeting in the forest.   COOMOOD Where were you hidden, Comol, all this morning?   COMOL I have been wandering in my woods alone Imagining myself their mountain queen. O Coomood, all the woodland worshipped me! Coomood, the flowers held up their incense-bowls In adoration and the soft-voiced winds Footing with a light ease among the leaves Paused to lean down and lisp into my ear, Oh, pure delight. The forest's unnamed birds Hymned their sweet sovran lady as she walked Lavishing melody. The furry squirrels Peeped from the leaves and wav

VOLUME 3 and 4 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1998 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA Collected Plays and Stories Publisher's Note   Collected Plays and Stories comprises all Sri Aurobindo's original dramatic