On Savitri
THEME/S
IV
THE TALE AND THE EPIC:
A COMPARATIVE ANALYS1S
It is this poem in seven cantos, making a total of about 700 lines in the original Sanskrit, that Sri Aurobindo has expanded and transformed into a modern English epic in twelve Books, of forty-nine cantos, spread over nearly 24,000 lines. What is omitted in the original is supplied by Sri Aurobindo in luxuriant detail (for example, the details of Savitri's 'quest' and the first meeting of Savitri and Satyavan); what is seminal or vaguely implied is elaborated with almost overwhelming effect (for example, Aswapati's Yoga and Savitri's Yoga); and what is seemingly a personal victory is invested with the overtones and undertones of spiritual significance so as to chime with the current psychological idiom and gain a sure access to men's souls.
A comparative tabular analysis of the action of the Upakhyana and of the epic may prove rewarding, and is therefore attempted below:
Vyasa's Upakhyana (Tale)
Sri Aurobindo Mahākāvya (Epic)
Canto 1.
Aswapati's eighteen- year long austerities; the Goddess Savitri's promise of the birth of a daughter.
Book I, Cantos 3-5; Book II, Cantos 1-15; and Book. Ill, Cantos 1-4: all these describe Aswapati's yoga, the Vision of the Divine Mother and the promise that, "One shall descend and break the iron Law."
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Birth of Savitri, her girlhood, and her being sent by her father in quest of a husband. (Not covered in Vyasa's tale).
Book IV, Cantos 1-4; Savitri's birth, her girlhood, and her starting out on her quest.
Canto 2.
Aswapati with Narad; Savitri's return from her quest; Narad's warning, Savitri's resolution, and Narad's acquiescence; preparations for the marriage.
Book V, Cantos 1-3: The Book of Love'. Savitri meets Satyavan, and they recognise, each in the other, the destined soulmate. Book VI, Cantos 1-2: The Book of Fate. Aswapati, his queen, Narad and Savitri; Narad's foreknowledge, the queen's defiance, Savitri's resolution, and Narad's speech on the way of Fate and the problem of Pain.
Canto 3.
Marriage of Savitri and Satyavan in Dyumatsena's ashram; Aswapati's return to his own Kingdom.
Book VII, Canto 1: Savitri returns to Satyavan's hermitage to begin her wedded life.
Canto 4.
Approach of the fateful day: Savitri begins the three-nights' vow and, at its conclusion, still fasting, she goes with Satyavan to the forest, with inward expectancy of peril.
Book VII, Cantos 1-8; Book I, Cantos 1-2; and Book VIII, Canto 3 (pp. 561-564): Savitri's Yoga, the 'symbol dawn', the issue to be faced; Savitri goes with Satyavan to the forest on the fatal morning.
Canto 5.
Satyavan gathers fruits and fells branches; his headache; he rests with his head on Savitri's lap, and falls asleep.
Yama's arrival, his taking away Satayavan's prana; Savitri follows her husband; Yama grants five boons, and finally releases Satyavan.
Book VIII, Canto 3: 'Death in the Forest' (pp. 564-566)
Book IX, Cantos 1-2; Book X, Cantos 1-4; and Book XI, Canto 1: Death (Yama) appears, and walks away with Satyavan's prana; Savitri's 'symbolic struggle' with Night, Twilight and Everlasting Day; victory for Savitri.
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Savitri returns to Satyavan; he wakes up; his anxiety about his parents; arm in arm, the young couple return to the ashram finding their way through the darkness.
Book XII, 'Epilogue' (pp. 715- 724)
Canto 6.
Dyumatsena recovers his eyesight; the parents' anxiety, the return of Satyavan and Savitri, and the latter's explanation.
Book XII,'Epilogue'(pp.721-724) As Savitri and Satyavan return, they are met by Dyumatsena who has already recovered his eyesight and crown.
Canto 7.
In the morning, the people of Shalwa come in deputation and offer the crown to Dyumasena. Return to Shalwa and coronation. All five boons granted by Yama are fulfilled in due course.
Part of this is anticipated in Book XII (Epilogue), and the rest is implied, and is to be taken for granted.
It will be seen that although the modern epic in English is about thirty-five times as long as the ancient Upakhyana in Sanskrit, although they are separated by two or three millennia of historic time, yet they are grounded on more or less that same base and seem to rise and stand in the same solitary grandeur against the contemporary literary landscape. The main lines of the human story remain unaltered, in spite of the successive revisions or recasts of the epic in Sri Aurobindo's hands. There are minor differences: neither Aswapati's wife nor Dyumatsena's is given speaking parts in the original poem; Aswapati in Sri Aurobindo's poem doesn't follow his daughter to her husband's place but merely sends her away, acquiescing in her decision; many of the details in cantos 3,5,6 and 7 in the poem have no parallels in the epic. To an even greater extent than in the short Upakhyana, the massive epic concentrates on the principal character, Savitri.
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