On Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Compiler's Note

Amal Kiran, (K.D. Sethna), still with us in his 106^th year, is acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities on Sri Aurobindo's revelatory epic poem Savitri: a legend and a symbol. Yet although he has been a prolific author, with 52 published books on a wide range of topics, he has never dedicated an entire book to the poem with which he had such a special relationship. His writings on it have appeared over more than 50 years in various books and journals.

The intention behind this compilation is to make easily available to the general interested reader everything written by Amal Kiran on Sri Aurobindo's epic and published by him during his long active career. To this end a careful search has been made through all his published works, as well as through other collections to which he has contributed and the journal edited by him for 50 years - Mother India. The collection is presented in two parts. The first consists of complete essays, which have appeared in full as chapters or sections of books or as independent articles in journals. The second part contains passages relating to Savitri that have been extracted from articles or letters authored by Amal.

In preparing the text of this collection we did not feel competent or willing to edit in any way the words of such an accomplished and meticulous wordsmith as Amal Kiran. So it has been decided to retain the texts exactly as published by him, including all spellings, quotations, references and notes, even though revised versions of some of these are now available. Where necessary for accuracy and the convenience

of the reader such variations have been clarified in an editorial note, in italics and between square brackets.

While the pieces reproduced in this book have been arranged as far as possible in chronological order of first appearance, different versions of certain texts have appeared in the course of time. In such cases, we have chosen the latest version known to have been revised by Amal personally, considering that this represents the author's final wishes. This means that the texts appearing in this collection have been taken from the following editions:

The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo 2^nd rev. ed. 1974

The Thinking Corner - Causeries on Life and Literature, 1996

Sri Aurobindo - Letters on Savitri, edited by K.D. Sethna, 2000

Sri Aurobindo - The Poet 2^nd ed. 1999

Inspiration and Effort: studies in literary attitude and expression, 1995

The Inspiration of "Paradise Lost", 1994

The Sun and the Rainbow: Approaches to Life through Sri Aurobindo's Light, 2^nd ed. 2008

Aspects of Sri Aurobindo, 2^nd ed. 2000

Our Light and Delight: Recollections of Life with the Mother, 1980

Mother India, Monthly Review of Culture, since 1949

The quotations from Savitri made by Amal came from different versions over the years. In this collection we have kept the text of these quotations as they appear in the editions listed above. But for the convenience of the reader, page references have been given to the Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo version of 1993.

This work was initiated in 2004, Amal's centenary year, but would not yet be available but for the dedicated labour of Tatiana Tasheva who has sought out, checked and arranged all the texts collected here. We are very grateful to one of

Amal's close associates who has gone through the book as it was growing and made many valuable suggestions. Our gratitude also goes to the Trustees of the Clear Ray Trust for sponsoring publication of this collection, which we feel will be of great and lasting value to all students and lovers of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri.

Shraddhavan

Savitri Bhavan

29.05.2010