Savitri

PREFACE TO THE

THIRD EDITION

      The first edition appeared on 24 November 1962 and the second on 24 November 1985. Apparently the Mother has willed a twenty-three-year gap between editions for Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: A Study of the Cosmic Epic (earlier titled A Study of Savitri)] Her grace has sustained me throughout my life. When my father, Prof K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, communicated to her that a panel of three examiners from England had recommended the award of the degree of Doctor of Letters summa cum laude for my thesis, A Study of Savitri, she gave instructions for its publication immediately. Sri K.D. Sethna read the manuscript and suggested some improvements which were carried out. For me it was all too sudden, dream-like, when I received the hard-bound copy, which was followed by several generous reviews in leading magazines. Writing in Modern Language Review, Prof. Vivian de Sola Pinto observed:

      Dr Nandakumur's English style is fluent, always readable and sometimes eloquent. Her book is based on a wide literary culture ... All students of the work of Aurobindo and indeed of the spirit of modern India must be grateful to Dr Nandakumar for this intelligent and sympathetic guide to the masterpiece of a poet whose work is still too little known outside India.

      During the last fifty years, Savitri has been increasingly gaining

its rightful space in Indian academia. Several dissertations have been submitted in various universities with signal success. Eminent orators like Ambalal Purani and M.V. Nadkarni have taken the epic poem all over India and abroad to enthusiastic audiences. Innumerable books on Savitri have been published. There are also websites exclusively devoted to studying the poem. And yet I have been repeatedly asked for copies of my book which apparently continues to be of significant help to the student of Sri Aurobindo's epic. This is how Sri M.L. Himatsingka kindly acceded to my request and brought out a paperback edition in 1985.

      For the last fifteen years and more, the book has remained out of print, though the demand has continued. I am grateful to Sri S.G. Gautam for initiating the idea of this new edition. I was delighted when Sri Vijay of Sri Aurobindo Society came forward to set off the process for its publication. This I do consider as a direct ray of grace from the Mother as the book is being issued during the golden jubilee of the Society. It has also been a joy to work with the young and enthusiastic helpers in the task of production, Krishna, Gita and Vilasni. Nandita Jaishankar s attention to detail as an editor has been of great help. I am deeply thankful to Shobit Arya and Sapna Rangaswamy for publishing the book under the auspices of Wisdom Tree.

      My mother, deeply devoted to Savitri which was her life's companion, was looking forward to this new edition when she merged with the Mother in 2007. Her angelic spirit is sure to be delighted for she was always my first reader and critic and tireless correspondent. My husband Nandakumar, and our children Ahana, Bhuvana and Raja have been the source of light and laughter in my life. It is a special joy to thank them formally.

      Though I have published several books after A Study of Savitri, this work remains very close to my heart. The work gave me the honour of being the first student to take up the epic for doctoral study. I owe to my father all that is in it. I can see and hear my father in the book, as he explained to me the poem, helped me plan the work and guided

me to the right books on literature and philosophy in the Andhra University Library. He patiently corrected my manuscript, cheered me up when I felt despondent and curbed my enthusiasm for a flowery style. When the first edition was in the press, he went through the proofs with me which was in itself a lifetime's education.

      Indeed I see my entire life in this book ever since father read the complete Savitri at home using the one-volume university edition which had been published in 1954. And the two days in November 1959 when Ambalal Purani kept the 1000-strong student-listeners of Andhra University in the Erskine Square mesmerised by his speeches on Sri Aurobindo and Savitri. The audience with the Mother after my thesis had brought me the doctoral degree, the publication of the book, my post-doctoral work on Sri Aurobindo and Dante Alighieri growing out of one section in this book, my days spent in reading Sri Aurobindo and writing about him guided gently by my father are all entwined in its pages. It is all due to Mother's grace and I bow to her in gratitude.

      Merging into the folds of Savitri one can feel spirituality as a tangible experience for the epic never fails us. Every reading opens yet another brave new world! I was a teenager when I used to accompany my father in his daily walks, and listened to him reciting 'The Symbol Dawn'while we watched the sun rise above the Bay of Bengal:

      The brief perpetual sign recurred above.

      A glamour from unreached transcendences

      Iridescent with the glory of the Unseen,

      A message from the unknown immortal Light

      Ablaze upon creation's quivering edge,

      Dawn built her aura of magnificent hues

      And buried its seed of grandeur in the hours.

More than half a century later, I marvel how Savitri has been a guardian "angel of the way" for me, and I have not lost any of the hope, the wonder and the faith instilled in me by my father in those early days of studying the poem. Towards the Greater Dawn then!

      Prema Nandakumar