Sri Aurobindo

Early Cultural Writings

(1890 — 1910)

Note on the Texts

Early Cultural Writings consists of essays on literature, education and art, as well as dialogues, biographical and historical sketches, and other short prose pieces. Most were written between 1890 and 1910, a few between 1910 and 1920. A little more than half the pieces (comprising about three-fifths of the bulk) were published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime; the rest of the pieces have been transcribed from his manuscripts.

The contents of the volume are arranged by topic in nine parts. Two appendixes, consisting mostly of material not written for publication, come at the end.

Part One: The Harmony of Virtue (Cambridge 1890 – 1892)

Sri Aurobindo wrote all these pieces while an undergraduate at King’s College, Cambridge, between 1890 and 1892. He did not publish any of them during his lifetime.

The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence. 1891. Editorial title. Published in Sri Aurobindo. Archives and Research, 1977, No 1-2 under the title A Dialogue. Found in Sri Aurobindo’s earliest surviving manuscript notebook, this fragment seems to have been written by him at Cambridge in 1891, that is, about a year before he began work on The Harmony of Virtue, the dialogue inspired by Plato (and Oscar Wilde) to which this one is related in form and theme. Several versions of the piece exist. There is an occasional inconsistency as regards the characters' names. The editors have given all names exactly as they appear in Sri Aurobindo's manuscript. The piece obviously is incomplete. Sri Aurobindo left alternatives to several passages. These are reproduced in the Reference Volume and in footnotes of this e-publication.

The Harmony of Virtue. Dated “May 1892” towards the middle of the manuscript. The entire piece was probably written during 1892, Sri Aurobindo’s second and last year at Cambridge. He was referring to The Harmony of Virtue when he wrote late in his life: “It is true that under his [Plato’s] impress I rashly started writing at the age of 18 [more likely 19] an explanation of the cosmos on the foundation of the principle of Beauty and Harmony, but I never got beyond the first three or four chapters.” The name of the principal character, “Keshav Ganesh Desai”, recalls that of Keshav Ganesh Deshpande, one of Sri Aurobindo’s friends at Cambridge and subsequently in India. Sri Aurobindo left alternatives to several passages in Book One. These are reproduced in the Reference Volume.

Beauty in the Real. 1892. Written after The Harmony of Virtue, in narrative rather than dialogue form.

Stray Thoughts. 1892. Editorial title. These “thoughts” are jottings from the notebook that Sri Aurobindo used at Cambridge for writing The Harmony of Virtue and other pieces.

Part Two: On Literature (Baroda 1893 – 1906)

Bankim Chandra Chatterji

This series of essays was published in seven instalments in as many issues of the Indu Prakash, a weekly Marathi–English newspaper of Bombay: 16 July 1894, 23 July 1894, 30 July 1894, 6 August 1894, 13 August 1894, 20 August 1894, 27 August 1894. The pieces were not signed: the phrase “By a Bengali” was printed above the texts and the word “Zero” at the end in place of a signature.

In 1950, when the series was rediscovered and shown to Sri Aurobindo, he wrote:

I have not intended to republish these articles as they were written when I had just recently come from England and they contain some very raw matter such as the remarks about Indian art which I no longer hold.

He added that it might be necessary for him “to revise and possibly to omit or alter some passages” before publication. He did not find time for this revision, and when the essays were published as a book in 1954, the Indu Prakash text was reproduced as it stood. The same text is reproduced here.

On Poetry and Literature

Sri Aurobindo wrote these pieces on literary subjects between 1898 and 1906 (or somewhat later). He did not publish any of them during his lifetime.

Poetry. Circa 1898 – 1901. Editorial title. This piece was written in the same notebook as the lecture on Augustan poetry (see the next note).

Characteristics of Augustan Poetry. In the manuscript, “First Lecture” is written above the title. This piece and the following one were written by Sri Aurobindo while he was working as a professor of English literature at Baroda College between 1898 and 1901. The authors and periods covered by the two lectures were those assigned by the Bombay University for the “voluntary” section of the English B.A. examination in 1898 and 1899. Sri Aurobindo wrote additional passages for this lecture on blank pages of the manuscript. These passages have been printed as footnotes. A long passage that seems to expand ideas presented in the third paragraph of the lecture is published separately under the title “Poetry” (see above).

Sketch of the Progress of Poetry from Thomson to Wordsworth. See the note to the previous piece for dating information. Additional passages are treated as in that piece.

Appendix: Test Questions. Sri Aurobindo evidently wrote these questions to prepare his students for the university examination.

Marginalia on Madhusudan Dutt’s Virangana Kavya. Circa 1894 – 1900. Editorial title. These two pieces were written by Sri Aurobindo in his copy of the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Virangana Kavya (Calcutta: Vidyaratan Press, 1885). The first was written above the text of Epistle One, the second above the title of Epistle Two. The line of Sanskrit is from the Bhagavad Gita (2.16) and may be translated as follows: “that which is not, cannot come into existence; that which is, cannot go out of existence”.

Originality in National Literatures. Circa 1906 – 8. Editorial title. This piece, unlike the others in this section, may have been written by Sri Aurobindo after his departure from Baroda in March 1906.

The Poetry of Kalidasa

Sri Aurobindo wrote the material published in this section between 1898 and 1903. All but one of the pieces were meant for inclusion in a planned book-length study, the contents of which he sketched out in “A Proposed Work on Kalidasa” (see below). He used four notebooks for writing the material that was to make up this book, apparently working on two or more pieces concurrently. On the first page of one of the notebooks he wrote the title “The Poetry of Kalidasa”; the editors have used this as the title of the section. Sri Aurobindo brought only two of the pieces to a satisfactory conclusion. One of them, “The Age of Kalidasa”, was revised and published in The Indian Review (Madras) in 1902. The other, “The Seasons”, was revised and published in Sri Aurobindo’s own weekly review, the Karmayogin, in 1909. The other pieces were left in varying states of completeness in the manuscript notebooks. In reproducing them here, the editors have followed the order of “A Proposed Work”. Certain passages that could not be included in the final texts have been published in an appendix at the end of the section.

A Proposed Work on Kalidasa. Circa 1898 – 1903. Editorial title.

The Malavas. Circa 1900 – 1903. Title taken from Chapter II of “A Proposed Work”.

The Age of Kalidasa. Circa 1898 – 1902. See Chapter II of “A Proposed Work”. This piece was published in The Indian Review of Madras in July 1902, and reprinted as a booklet by Tagore and Co., Madras, around 1921. Sri Aurobindo revised the text and republished it along with Kalidasa’s Seasons in a booklet entitled Kalidasa in 1929.

The Historical Method. Circa 1900 – 1903. Manuscript title: “Kalidasa — the historical method”; corresponds to a phrase in Chapter II of “A Proposed Work”. Sri Aurobindo broke off work on this piece abruptly; he did not put a full stop after the last word written.

The Seasons. Circa 1900 – 1903. Manuscript title: “The Seasons”; corresponds to Chapter III of “A Proposed Work”. Sri Aurobindo published this essay in his weekly journal, the Karmayogin, in three instalments in July and August 1909. It was reprinted as a booklet entitled Kalidasa’s Seasons by Tagore and Co., Madras, around 1921. The text was revised by Sri Aurobindo and published along with “The Age of Kalidasa” in Kalidasa in 1929.

Hindu Drama. Circa 1901 – 3; manuscript revised, probably after 1910. Title taken from Chapter VI of “A Proposed Work”. There are two separately written drafts dealing with this subject among Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. The one printed first here seems to have been intended to be the opening of the piece. Sri Aurobindo broke off work on this draft abruptly.

Vikramorvasie: The Play. Circa 1900 – 1903. Editorial title, suggested by the title of Chapter VIII of “A Proposed Work”.

Vikramorvasie: The Characters. Circa 1898 – 99 (note the phrase “till late in the present century”). Editorial title, suggested by the title of Chapter IX of “A Proposed Work”: “The Characters”. Sri Aurobindo wrote separate passages (some of them incomplete) on the characters of the play without indicating exactly how he intended to put the passages together. The editors have followed manuscript evidence, the flow of the argument and common sense in assembling the present text. White spaces indicate that the passages above and below are not physically continuous in the manuscript.

The Spirit of the Times. Circa 1898 – 1901. Editorial title. It is possible that this piece was intended for use in “Hindu civilisation in the time of Kalidasa”, Chapters XVI– XVII of “A Proposed Work”. This essay was written by Sri Aurobindo on a sheet of letter paper headed “The College./ Baroda.”. He served as professor of English of Baroda College between 1898 and 1901. The essay was one of many documents seized by the police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in May 1908. It was not rediscovered and recognised as his until 1997.

On Translating Kalidasa. Circa 1903. Editorial title. This piece does not form part of “A Proposed Work”. It apparently was intended to accompany Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Kalidasa’s Cloud Messenger (Meghadūta), which has been lost. The bulk of the text consists of passages written in a single notebook. The editors have arranged these passages according to the flow of the argument. White spaces indicate that the passages above and below are not physically continuous in the manuscript. The passage published at the end containing examples from Shakespeare was written separately in another notebook. For the most part the editors have followed Sri Aurobindo’s idiosyncratic transliterations of Sanskrit words in this as in other pieces. When, however, Sri Aurobindo quotes entire lines or passages of Kalidasa’s poetry or comments on words from such lines, the editors have made use of the standard international system of transliteration.

Appendix: Alternative and Unused Passages and Fragments. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first of these passages in isolation around 1900. He wrote the others as parts of three of the chapters described above. The editors have not incorporated these passages in the final texts of the chapters in question either because Sri Aurobindo himself excluded them from the revised version of the piece, or because he wrote another passage that covers the same ground and the editors have chosen to use that passage in the text.

On the Mahabharata

Sri Aurobindo wrote these essays and notes on the Mahabharata around 1902. He did not publish any of them during his lifetime.

Notes on the Mahabharata. Circa 1902. Sri Aurobindo wrote this essay shortly after September 1901, when the “recent article” mentioned in the first paragraph, Velandai Gopala Aiyer’s “The Date of the Mahabharata War”, was published in The Indian Review of Madras. The text of Sri Aurobindo’s essay consists of: (1) an elaborate title page with “proposita”; (2) an introductory passage headed “Vyasa; some Characteristics”; (3) a longer passage mostly on the same subject beginning “Vyasa is the most masculine of writers”; (4) a long passage beginning “It was hinted in a recent article in the Indian Review”, dealing, among other things, with the political story of the Mahabharata; and (5) a short incomplete passage headed “Mahabharata”, concerned mainly with linguistic matters. Passages (1) to (4) were written in that order in one notebook; passage (5) was written independently in another notebook around the same time. (Note that in passage (5) Sri Aurobindo wrote that the date given by Aiyer in the The Indian Review was “known beyond reasonable doubt”, indicating that this passage, like passages (1) to (4), was written after September 1901.) It is clear from indications in the manuscript that (4) was intended to replace (2) as the opening of the essay. Most of (2) was to be incorporated in (4), which was to be followed by (3). The present text of the essay has been printed in accordance with these guidelines. Since some interesting paragraphs of (2) were not marked for inclusion in the recast essay, all of (2) has been reproduced after the main text (4 and 3). The independent piece (5) has been placed at the end, while the title page (1) remains at the beginning.

Sri Aurobindo never prepared this material for publication; this explains its unfinished appearance. There are signs that he looked at it again around 1909, but he never gave it a thorough revision. In 1932 the manuscript was uncovered by his secretary Nolini Kanta Gupta, who wrote to Sri Aurobindo of his intention to copy it out. Sri Aurobindo replied on 23 April 1932: “Is this essay still in existence; if so, you can rescue it and I will see what can be done with it.” Nolini made a transcript, but Sri Aurobindo did not work on it then or later.

Notes on the Mahabharata [Detailed]. Circa 1902. Around the time that Sri Aurobindo worked on the above essay he made a set of detailed but not altogether systematic notes on the first adhyāya and one verse of the second adhyāya of the Udyoga Parva, as well as some stray notes on the Adi Parva. He gave the notes on the Udyoga Parva the same title that he used for the above essay: “Notes on the Mahabharata”. Some years later he wrote some isolated notes on the Drona Parva.

Part Three: On Education (1899 – 1920)

Sri Aurobindo wrote these pieces during three different periods: 1899 – 1904, in Baroda; 1909 – 10, in Calcutta; circa 1916 – 20, in Pondicherry. All but two of the pieces were published shortly after they were written.

Address at the Baroda College Social Gathering. Editorial title. Sri Aurobindo delivered this talk to those attending the annual social gathering of Baroda College on 22 July 1899. At that time he was working as professor of English at Baroda College. The talk was published in The Baroda College Miscellany, vol. 5, no. 2 (September 1899) under the title The Address Delivered by Professor Ghose at the College Social Gathering, and reprinted in The Life of Sri Aurobindo by A. B. Purani (1958 and subsequently).

Education. This piece consists of two separate fragmentary passages written in notebooks used also for Notes on the Mahabharata (see above). The passages thus were probably written around 1902. Between 1901 and 1904 Sri Aurobindo worked in a secretarial capacity for the Maharaja of Baroda, and was sometimes asked to write speeches for him (see note to Appendix One, below). As the present piece is addressed to the Maharaja (“your Highness”), it cannot have been intended for delivery by him. It may have been meant for delivery by an officer of the State or by Sri Aurobindo himself.

The Brain of India. This series of essays was published in the Karmayogin in four instalments between 9 October and 13 November 1909. It seems to have been, at least in part, a reply to “The Bengali Brain and its Misuse”, an essay by Dr. P. C. Ray that is mentioned by Sri Aurobindo in his review of Suprabhat (see page 567). The essays were republished as a booklet in 1921, 1923, 1944, 1948 and subsequently.

A System of National Education: Some Preliminary Ideas. This series of essays was published in the Karmayogin in eight instalments between 12 February and 2 April 1910. Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore in the middle of February 1910, at which time he broke off his connection with the journal (see the note to Part Six for details). He evidently left the manuscript of A System of National Education behind, and eight chapters of the work were published in the Karmayogin by his associate Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble), whom he had asked to look after the journal in his absence. The eighth chapter was published in the journal’s last issue. Other chapters, if they were written, have been lost. The eight essays were published as a booklet in 1921 by Tagore and Co., Madras. This apparently was a pirated edition; in 1924 the “only authorised edition” was published by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta. In this edition, Sri Aurobindo added the subtitle “Some Introductory Essays” as well as the publisher’s note that is reproduced here on page 381. The book was reprinted by the same publisher in 1944, 1948 and 1953, and by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1970. In 1948 the subtitle was changed to “Some Preliminary Ideas”.

Message for National Education Week (1918). Editorial title. Sri Aurobindo wrote this message at the request of Annie Besant, a leader of the Home Rule movement and the editor of New India, a newspaper of Madras. It was published in New India on 8 April 1918, under the heading: “MESSAGES FROM SONS OF THE MOTHERLAND TO THEIR BROTHERS”. Sri Aurobindo’s was the longest of nine messages contributed by India’s “leading patriots”.

National Education. Circa 1916 – 18. Editorial title. An isolated paragraph from a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry.

A Preface on National Education. These two essays were published in the Arya, a philosophical journal edited by Sri Aurobindo between 1914 and 1921, in its last two issues, November/December 1920 and January 1921. Other instalments evidently were planned, but were never written.

Part Four: On Art (1909 – 1910)

Sri Aurobindo wrote these pieces in 1909 and 1910 and published all but one of them in his journal, the Karmayogin.

The National Value of Art. This series of essays was published in the Karmayogin in six instalments between 20 November and 25 December 1909. The essays were republished as a booklet in 1922, 1936 (revised), 1946 and subsequently.

Two Pictures. This essay was published in the Karmayogin on 17 July 1909.

Indian Art and an Old Classic. This essay was published in the Karmayogin on 2 October 1909.

The Revival of Indian Art. This essay was published in the Karmayogin on 16 October 1909.

An Answer to a Critic. Editorial title. This incomplete essay was written shortly after August 1910, when the article it refers to, “Comment and Criticism. The Indian Fine Arts Critics”, was published in The Modern Review of Calcutta (vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 207 – 13). The author of this article, identified by The Modern Review as “A student of Mr. Ravi Varma, the famous Indian Artist”, made disparaging remarks about such critics as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita.

Part Five: Conversations of the Dead (1910)

The first two of these dialogues were published in the Karmayogin, appearing in the last issues known to have been edited by Sri Aurobindo. (Two other dialogues published in later issues of the Karmayogin under the heading “Conversations of the Dead” were written by Sister Nivedita.) Drafts of the last three pieces form part of the Chandernagore Manuscript (see the note to Part Six). There are also typed versions of all five dialogues.

Dinshah, Perizade. Published in the Karmayogin on 12 February 1910.

Turiu, Uriu. Published in the Karmayogin on 19 February 1910.

Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi. Chandernagore Manuscript, gathering I, pp. 5 – 6. The typed copy, which is subsequent to the manuscript, has been used as the text. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 7 November 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue (1972).

Shivaji, Jaysingh. Chandernagore Manuscript, II: 6 – 7. The typed copy, which is subsequent to the manuscript, has been used as the text. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 26 December 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue (1972).

Littleton, Percival. Chandernagore Manuscript, III: 6 – 7. The typed copy, which is subsequent to the manuscript, has been used as the text. A defective version of this piece (Sri Aurobindo once referred to it as “much mangled by mistakes”) was published in The Standard Bearer on 29 May 1923, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue (1972).

Part Six: The Chandernagore Manuscript (1910)

The pieces that make up this section form the bulk of a 51-page handwritten manuscript originally consisting of three gatherings of foolscap paper numbered by Sri Aurobindo I: 1 – 16, II: 1 – 17 and III: 1 – 18. Each of the gatherings appears to be matter for one issue of a journal. Each begins with an essay entitled “Passing Thoughts” and contains an instalment of “Conversations of the Dead”, an instalment of “Epistles from Abroad”, one or more essays, including those entitled “Historical Impressions”, one or more other pieces, including those entitled “In /At the Society’s Chambers”, and a blank-verse poem. Several facts suggest that the journal these pieces were intended for was the Karmayogin. “Passing Thoughts” was the heading of the Karmayogin’s opening column of opinion in the issues of 12 and 19 February 1910. After being warned that he was about to be arrested for sedition, Sri Aurobindo departed from Calcutta for Chandernagore sometime towards the end of February 1910, and remained there incognito for about six weeks before voyaging to Pondicherry. Several sheets of the 51-page manuscript bear notations in another hand indicating that it was sent from somewhere to Calcutta and then returned. In addition, all of Sri Aurobindo’s signatures on the manuscript were cut out or obliterated, a necessary precaution if it was in transit at a time when Sri Aurobindo was wanted by the police. Finally, a number of pieces that had been copied out from the manuscript were published in The Standard Bearer, a journal brought out from Chandernagore, in the 1920s. On the basis of this evidence, it would be natural to assume that Sri Aurobindo wrote the manuscript while in Chandernagore in February and March 1910 with the intention of having the pieces published in the Karmayogin, that the manuscript was sent from Chandernagore to Calcutta but returned without being published, and that some pieces were copied out from it in Chandernagore at that time and later published in The Standard Bearer. Against all this, however, stands a statement made by Sri Aurobindo in 1944 that his “active connection with the two newspapers [the Karmayogin and the Dharma] ceased” from the moment of his departure for Chandernagore (On Himself [1972], p. 57). Taken by itself, this statement would seem to rule out the possibility that Sri Aurobindo wrote the manuscript in Chandernagore for use in the Karmayogin. It is possible that he wrote the manuscript in Calcutta before his departure for Chandernagore, took it with him and sent it back from there to Calcutta. But it is also possible, and perhaps more likely, that he wrote the manuscript during his stay in Chandernagore and subsequently forgot about it, as he forgot about several other of his early writings.

To enable the reader to visualise the original structure of the 51-page Chandernagore Manuscript [CMS], the gathering and pages of the pieces are given.

Passing Thoughts [1]: Religion in Europe; Religion in India; The Real Minimum; The Maximum. 1910. CMS I: 1 – 2. A defective version of parts of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 13 March 1922 under the title “Hints and Clues”.

Passing Thoughts [2]: The Object of Government; The European Jail; European Justice. 1910. CMS II: 1 – 2. Around 1912 Sri Aurobindo revised and enlarged “European Justice” under the title “The Balance of Justice”. That piece is published in Essays Divine and Human, volume 12 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. A version of the 1910 text, badly edited and with the matter rearranged, was published under the title “Academic Thoughts” in The Standard Bearer on 2 January 1921, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue (1972).

Passing Thoughts [3]: Achar; Vichar; Vivek; Jnanam. 1910. CMS III: 1 – 2. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 26 September 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Hathayoga. 1910. CMS II: 3 – 5. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 12 December 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Rajayoga. 1910. CMS III: 3 – 5. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 19 December 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Historical Impressions: The French Revolution. 1910. CMS I: 7 – 10. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 28 November and 5 December 1920, and subsequently in The Hour of God and Other Writings (1972).

Historical Impressions: Napoleon. 1910. CMS III: 8 – 11. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 21 December 1920, and subsequently in The Hour of God and Other Writings.

In the Society’s Chambers. 1910. CMS I: 13 – 14. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 24 July 1922, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

At the Society’s Chambers. 1910. CMS II: 13 – 15. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 31 July 1922, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Things Seen in Symbols [1]. 1910. CMS II: 16. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 28 November 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Things Seen in Symbols [2]. 1910. CMS III: 16. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 29 August 1920, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

The Real Difficulty. 1910. CMS II: 8. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 15 August 1920, and subsequently in The Hour of God and Other Writings.

Art. 1910. CMS III: 12 – 13. A defective version of this piece was published in The Standard Bearer on 27 March 1921, and subsequently in The Harmony of Virtue.

Part Seven: Epistles / Letters from Abroad (c. 1910 – 1912)

The first three of these fictional letters form part of the Chandernagore Manuscript (see Part Six). The other three, entitled “Letters” and not “Epistles”, were written in Pondicherry a year or so later. Sri Aurobindo numbered the first two of the Letters “IV” and “V”, in sequence to the three Epistles. The final number, VI, has been given by the editors.

Epistles from Abroad I – III. 1910. CMS I: 11 – 12, II: 11 – 12, III: 14 – 15. Defective versions of these three pieces were published in The Standard Bearer on 20 March 1922, 3 April 1922 and 10 October 1920. All three were subsequently published in The Harmony of Virtue.

Letters from Abroad IV – VI. Circa 1911. These three pieces were not published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. In establishing the texts of Letter V and Letter VI, the editors have followed an early version of the pieces, but have inserted the author’s revised versions of certain passages in the appropriate places. A white space indicates that the passages above and below are not physically continuous in the manuscript. Another version of the opening of Letter IV and an additional passage of Letter V have been printed as footnotes.

Part Eight: Reviews (1909 – 1920)

Sri Aurobindo published the first of these reviews in the Karmayogin in 1909 and the others in the Arya between 1915 and 1920. The first five of the Arya reviews are printed here in the order in which they appeared when published in the book Views and Reviews in 1941. Sri Aurobindo revised these five to some extent before this publication.

“Suprabhat”. Published in the Karmayogin on 14 August 1909 under the title “Suprabhat: A Review”.

“Hymns to the Goddess”. Published in the Arya in May 1915 and in Views and Reviews since 1941. The following note in the Arya concerning the “series of publications” mentioned in the first sentence was deleted from the first edition: “We propose to deal hereafter with the most important of these publications, the translation of the Mahanirvana Tantra.”

“South Indian Bronzes”. Published in the Arya in October 1915 and in Views and Reviews since 1941.

“God, the Invisible King”. Published in the Arya in July 1917 and in Views and Reviews since 1941.

“Rupam”. Published in the Arya in April 1920 and in Views and Reviews since 1941. The footnote on page 593 was added by Sri Aurobindo when an extract from this review was included in the compilation Lights on Life-Problems (Second Series), published in 1951.

About Astrology. Published in the Arya in November 1917 and in Views and Reviews since 1941.

“Sanskrit Research”. Published in the Arya in March 1916.

“The Feast of Youth”. Published in the Arya in November 1918.

“Shama’a”. Published in the Arya in September 1920.

Part Nine: Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda (1907 – 1920)

The articles making up this section, all of them biographical sketches or obituary notices, were published in various journals between 1907 and 1920. In 1940 five of them, “Rishi Bankim Chandra”, “Bal Gangadhar Tilak”, the two pieces on Dayananda, and “The Men that Pass”, were published in that order in a booklet entitled Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda, which was reprinted in 1947 and subsequently. (Also included in the booklet was Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Bankim Chandra’s hymn “Bande Mataram”.)

Rishi Bankim Chandra. First published in the Bande Mataram on 16 April 1907, this article was reproduced in a booklet entitled Rishi Bunkim Chandra in 1923, and subsequently in Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak. This article was first published as an introduction to Bal Gangadhar Tilak: His Writings and Speeches (Ganesh and Co.: Madras, 1918), and subsequently included in Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda.

A Great Mind, a Great Will. This obituary notice was written at the request of Bipin Chandra Pal, editor of the newspaper The Independent, in which it was published on 5 August 1920. (Tilak died on 1 August of that year.) The piece was not included in editions of Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime, perhaps because the text was not available when the book was put together in 1940. The present text has been compared with the text published in The Independent as well as with a draft found among Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts.

Dayananda: The Man and His Work. This piece was first published in The Vedic Magazine, Lahore, in 1915. It or the next piece or both were subsequently included in at least five pamphlets between 1921 and 1939. Both articles were included in Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda in 1940 and subsequently.

Dayananda and the Veda. This article was first published in The Vedic Magazine in 1916. See the note to the previous item for reprints.

The Men that Pass. This obituary article on Romesh Chandra Dutt was published in the Karmayogin on 4 December 1909, and included in Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda in 1940 and subsequently. In the 1940 edition it was originally to be placed after the article on Bankim Chandra. Asked “why Romesh Dutt should come after Bankim”, Sri Aurobindo replied, ironically, “I don’t know. I don’t know why he should be there at all.” Later, when correcting the proofs, he indicated that the Dutt piece should come at the end of the book.

Appendix One: Speeches and Reports (Baroda 1901 – 1905)

Sri Aurobindo wrote the documents reproduced in this section while working as an administrative officer and professor in the erstwhile Princely State of Baroda. Then known as Arvind or Aravind or Aurobind Ghose, Sri Aurobindo began work in the state in February 1893, just after his return from England, and continued until February 1906, when he left to join the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal. During the first part of this thirteen-year period he was employed as a trainee in various administrative departments. From 1897 to 1901 he worked as a professor of English and of French in the Baroda College. There followed a period of three years, 1901 – 4, when he served in a secretarial capacity under Sayajirao Gaekwar, the Maharaja of Baroda. (In many of the documents the Maharaja is referred to as “the Gaekwar”.) Finally, in 1905 and 1906, he returned to the College as vice-principal and professor. The documents reproduced in this Appendix are a selection from those that still exist, which are themselves perhaps only a fraction of the written work he produced while employed in Baroda. A selection from the letters he wrote at this time is included in On Himself.

Speeches Written for the Maharaja of Baroda (1901 – 1902)

Between 1901 and 1904, Sri Aurobindo was sometimes asked to write speeches for the Maharaja of Baroda. The first piece reproduced here is a draft from one of Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks for a speech that does not seem to have been delivered by the Maharaja. The second piece is a speech actually delivered by the Maharaja that is known to have been written by Sri Aurobindo.

Medical Department. Circa 1901. This piece, written by Sri Aurobindo in one of his own notebooks, clearly was intended to be a speech (or possibly a written report) presented by the Maharaja of Baroda. (“The year of my accession” [p. 689] refers to the year the Maharaja assumed the throne, 1881.) The Maharaja did give a speech entitled “Medicine and Health of the Community in India” on 29 March 1901, but this does not bear any resemblance to Medical Department. It is possible that Sri Aurobindo’s draft was rejected in favour of another’s.

The Revival of Industry in India. This speech was delivered by the Maharaja of Baroda on 15 December 1902, at the opening of the Industrial Exhibition held in Ahmedabad in conjunction with the 1902 session of the Indian National Congress. It certainly was written by Sri Aurobindo. He identified it as his composition in 1940, when one of his disciples commented: “a speech he [the Maharaja] made at the Industrial Exhibition was marvellous”. After ascertaining that it was the Ahmedabad exhibition that was meant, Sri Aurobindo drew a chorus of laughter by remarking, “That was the speech I prepared for him.” (Talk of 12 December 1940, published in Nirodbaran, Talks with Sri Aurobindo [2001], vol. 2, p. 952.) The text is reproduced from Speeches and Addresses of His Highness Sayaji Rao III, Maharaja of Baroda. Volume One, 1877 – 1910 (Cambridge: Privately Printed at the University Press, 1927), pp. 83 – 117.

Report on Trade in the Baroda State (1902). Editorial title. These “General Suggestions” form the first part of a 72-page report on trade in the state of Baroda that was printed in 1902. Although unsigned, the report almost certainly was the work of Sri Aurobindo (see references below). He seems to have compiled the report from data contained in a four-volume manuscript report written in Gujarati or Marathi, the languages of the Baroda State. In summarising this material, he used his own language and enough of his own thought for the portion reproduced here to be considered his own work. The second part, dealing with “Local Suggestions” at three times the length of the first part, is not reproduced.

Three contemporary documents mention Sri Aurobindo (Arvind Ghose) as the author of what is called variously a “printed report”, an “English book in short” and “Mr. Ghose’s compilation”. All three apparently refer to the report reproduced here. The documents, all in the “Arvind Ghose collection” (AGC) of the Central Record Office, Baroda, are (1) letter Manubhai to Dewan 23 June 1902 (AGC file 5, pp. 141 – 42); (2) Huzur Mulki Department, General Branch File No. 214/F. N. 29 (AGC file 17, which also contains the copy of the report used as our text); (3) Huzur Mulki Department R. No. 111.

Opinions Written as Acting Principal, Baroda College (1905)

Resolving a Problem of Seniority in the High School. 3 May 1905. This opinion was written by Sri Aurobindo as acting principal of Baroda College in response to a representation of certain teachers in the Baroda High School (which was administered by the College) setting forth their objections to a proposal to give a new, highly qualified teacher a post that would normally have gone to one of them.

On a Proposed Examination for Teachers. 9 August 1905. Sri Aurobindo wrote this opinion in regard to a proposal to introduce an examination for secondary school teachers while he was acting as principal of Baroda College.

On a Head Assistant for the High School. 13 September 1905. Another opinion on the running of the High School written by Sri Aurobindo while acting as principal of the College. (At this moment he was also temporarily acting as Minister of Education.)

Appendix Two: Premises of Astrology (c. 1910)

These notes, found in a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo around 1910, seem to have been written more as an aide memoire than as an original contribution to the study of astrology. After the three complete chapters, Sri Aurobindo wrote the title of a fourth, “The Hours”, but did not continue. The title of the second chapter, “The Signs”, is editorial.

Printing History

A little more than half the pieces in the present volume were published in one form or another during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The following pieces first appeared in periodicals or, in one case, a book: Bankim Chandra Chatterji, “The Age of Kalidasa”, “The Seasons”, “Address at the Baroda College Social Gathering”, The Brain of India, A System of National Education, A Preface on National Education, The National Value of Art, “Two Pictures”, “Indian Art and an Old Classic”, “The Revival of Indian Art”, “Dinshah, Perizade”, “Turiu, Uriu”, all the contents of the Chandernagore Manuscript, all the reviews making up Part Eight, and all the contents of Part Nine. See the above notes for details.

Several of these pieces were subsequently reprinted in the form of books during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The two essays on Kalidasa were printed as two separate booklets by Tagore and Co., Madras, around 1921. In 1929, they were published together under the title Kalidasa by the Arya Sahitya Bhawan, Calcutta. Sri Aurobindo saw the proofs and made some revisions. The book was reprinted by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1950 and subsequently. In 1954 the Ashram brought out a posthumous collection of some of the unpublished writings on Kalidasa under the title Kalidasa: Second Series. The Brain of India was published by the Prabartak Publishing House, Chandernagore, in 1921 and 1923, by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in 1944 and 1948, and by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1955 and subsequently. A System of National Education was published by Tagore and Co., Madras, in 1921, by the Arya Publishing House in 1924, 1944, 1948 and 1953, and by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1970. The National Value of Art was published by the Prabartak Publishing House in 1922, by the Arya Publishing House in 1936 and 1946, and by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1953 and subsequently. The second to sixth reviews in Part Eight were included in Views and Reviews, published by the Sri Aurobindo Library, Madras, in 1941. Sri Aurobindo saw the proofs of this book and made some revisions. It was reprinted in 1946 by the same publishers. Subsequent editions were published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The contents of Part Nine were published under the title Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda by the Arya Publishing House in 1940 and 1947, and by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1955 and subsequently. Sri Aurobindo saw the proofs of the 1940 edition and made some revisions.

Bankim Chandra Chatterji was first published in book-form by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1954. Some of the material on the Mahabharata was first published in book-form in Vyasa and Valmiki by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1956 and 1964. In 1989 all the material on the Mahabharata, augmented and reorganised, was published in volume 13 of Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research. In 1991 and 1996 these texts were republished, in a slightly reorganised form, under the title On the Mahabharata by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

The speech “The Revival of Industry in India” was first published in Speeches and Addresses of His Highness Sayaji Rao III, Maharaja of Baroda, Volume One (Cambridge, 1927).

With a few exceptions, the material making up this volume was reproduced in 1971 – 73 in three volumes of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library: Volume 3, The Harmony of Virtue: Early Cultural Writings, Volume 17, The Hour of God and Other Writings, and Volume 27, Supplement. The exceptions, most of which appear here for the first time in a book, are: “The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence”, some of the “Stray Thoughts”, all the contents of the “On Poetry and Literature” section of Part Two, “The Spirit of the Times”, the “Alternative and Unused Passages and Fragments” on Kalidasa, parts of On the Mahabharata, the first paragraph of “Education”, “Message for National Education Week (1918)”, “National Education”, “Epistles/Letters from Abroad” IV – VI, “An Answer to a Critic”, “Passing Thoughts [1]”, and the Baroda speeches and reports in Appendix One. Many of these pieces first appeared in print in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research (1977 – 94).