Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

Acknowledgements

To depict Sri Aurobindo's childhood and his life in England, I have drawn liberally from his own letters, in particular those published under the title Sri Aurobindo on Himself. I also found much information in his talks with disciples, recorded by Purani in Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo and by Nirodbaran in Talks with Sri Aurobindo. My thanks to them for these precious records.

Ambalal Balkrishna Purani (1895-1965) was a revolutionary from Gujarat, who became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo's and stayed with him in his Ashram from 1923. He was also one of Sri Aurobindo's personal attendants from November 1938 to December 1950. Our Purani, eager to provide authentic information on Sri Aurobindo's life, not only recorded his talks, but also wrote two books, The Life of Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo in England, both of which have been of great help to me.

Dr. Nirodbaran Talukdar was also an attendant of Sri Aurobindo's during the same period. He settled in the Ashram in 1933.

I have also made good use of the review Archives and Research which has published many biographical documents, in particular with regard to Annette Akroyd's diary, Sri Aurobindo's school days, his reports at St. Paul's, etc.*

The research on Dr. K. D. Ghose was done by Nirmal Nahar, who found much information in the Bengal Civil List and the Calcutta Gazette, thanks to the kind help of Sri Biswanath Chakrabarty, W. B. C. S.,

* This review, as well as all the books mentioned above, are published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

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The few extracts from K. C. Sen's diary are from Keshub Chunder Sen in England (Writers Workshop, 1980), very kindly lent to us by Mrs. Sushila Das, K. C. Sen's granddaughter.

For academic details on Manomohan at Oxford, the research done by Sunil Bandopadhyay came in useful.

Samsad's Biographical Dictionary of Bengalis (Bangali Charitabhidhan) has been my main source of biographical data on Bengalis.

Other acknowledgements are integrated in the text itself.

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