Savitri

      PREFACE TO THE

       SECOND EDITION

        Long out of print, A Study of Savitri now comes out again, and I am grateful to Sri M.L. Himatsingka, the indefatigable and dedicated spirit behind All India Books and VAK: The Spiritual Bookshop for it. Doubtless several books on Savitri have appeared during the last two decades, notably by M.P. Pandit, Rohit Mehta, Syed Mehdi Imam, and Rameshwar Gupta; but I have also been receiving all these years repeated queries regarding the reissue of my work. I therefore venture to think that it has, perhaps, a place of its own in the growing critical literature on Savitri, and deserves this new lease of life.

      I may add that, following this work and helped by a UGC postdoctoral Senior Fellowship for three years (1967-70) at Andhra University, I completed a comparative study of Dante's The Divine Comedy and Sri Aurobindo's Savitri. It appeared first serially in Sri Aurobindo Circle Annual'(1972-78) and later in book form (1981).

      But Savitri remains inexhaustible, embodying in its nectarean message "an immortal Sunlight radiating over the future". And our 'critiques'are no more than humble approaches and offerings. In the end one surrenders to the poem itself, and its alchemic power and glory.    

Prema Nandakumar