Savitri

   PART III

       SAVITRI:  SIGNIFICANCES

      And thou reachest, O Savitri,

to the three shining "worlds of heaven;

and thou art made manifest

      by the rays of the Sun;

 and thou encirclest the Night

upon either side;

and thou becomest the Lord of Love

by the law of thy actions, O God.

                                                                        Rig Veda

   THE 'LEGEND' AND

      THE 'SYMBOL

      The face of Truth

is hidden

by a brilliant golden lid;

that do thou remove,

O fostering Sun,

 for the Law of the Truth,

 for sight.

O sole Seer, O Ordainer,

marshal thy rays,

draw them together;

 let me see the Lustre,

 thy most blessed form of all.

                                                                Isha Upanishad

      I

Introduction

      It was on 15 August 1946, when Sri Aurobindo was seventy-four, that the opening canto of Savitri was first published.¹ The title-page carried Savitri in bold green lettering, followed by the subtitle, in smaller type, A Legend and A Symbol. For some years previously, there had been references in private talks and even in print² to this poem, this enormous 'work in progress', and the emphasis was on the legend' as well as on the 'symbol'. As further instalments of Savitri appeared more or less regularly once a quarter, the small anxious—almost impatient—public tried to grasp the unfolding dual significance of the poem. The present definitive edition (1954), however, omits the subtitle, not because it is not deemed appropriate any more, but perhaps because the 'symbolic' character of the poem, being obvious, needs no particular emphasis even on the title-page. Savitri remains a 'legend' and a 'symbol', for so Sri Aurobindo wrought it throughout.

      For the 'legend', Sri Aurobindo went to the Mahabharata. In the Vana Parva (The Book of the Forest), Rishi Markhandeya tells many stories to Prince Yudhishtira, partly to instruct him and largely to console him. One of the tales so narrated covers the story of Rama, his exile, the abduction of his wife, Sita, by Ravana, the expedition against the demon-king, and the final rescue of Sita—all this is also

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the subject of Valmiki's great epic, the Ramayana. Even as Rama had been able to triumph over his tribulations ultimately, Yudhishtira too should be able, notwithstanding his present plight, to get back to his own.

      But Yudhishtira is still scalded by the memory of the outrage on his wife Draupadi, following the disastrous game of dice. He therefore asks Markhandeya whether he has seen or heard of Draupadi's peer, in her chastity and strength. In reply, Markhandeya tells the story of Savitri and her pātivrata māhātmya, which may be explained as the 'glorious efficacy of wifely chastity'.

      The efficacy of virgin purity is the theme of many a story, for example Milton's Comus; but a wife's chastity and utter devotion to her husband (even when he doesn't deserve such devotion) are qualities apart and unique, and the Hindu has believed that they can work wonders, even arrest Nature's normal process (as in the story of Nalayani who could prevent the sun from rising), and achieve the impossible. In the Greek story of Admetus and Alcestis (the theme of Euripides' Alcestis), the wife dies so that the husband may live. Although Admetus' father and mother both decline to die in his place, his wife Alcestis agrees to make the sacrifice.

      Yet Alcestis is no Savitri, and Admetus no Satyavan. Alcestis is a simple woman who accepts death as a duty, while Admetus is merely petulant and egoistic. It is Heracles who sets upon Thanatos (the messenger from Hades) and rescues Alcestis and restores her to her husband. Alcestis is a passive character, heroic in her own silent way, who is willing to make the supreme sacrifice for the sake of her husband and children.

      But Savitri's role is essentially dynamic; she braves Fate and fights Death, she saves her husband and redeems his and her father's families. The Savitri upakhyana or episode in the Mahabharata is the most dearly cherished of such stories; indeed it is more than a mere story, for Savitri to this day is deeply imbedded in the Hindu woman's consciousness as the pure virgin awaiting her future husband or as the pure wife, warding off with the armour of her chastity, all evil and danger from her husband.

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