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SRI AUROBINDO

Early Cultural Writings

(1890 — 1910)

AVAILABLE EDITIONS:

 

Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in  30  volumes.- Vol. 3

Sri Aurobindo. The Harmony of Virtue: Early Cultural Writings // Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in  30  volumes.- Volume 3.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1972.- 489 p.

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo: set in  37  volumes. Vol. 1

Sri Aurobindo. Early Cultural Writings // The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo: Set in 37 volumes.-  Volume 1.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2003.- 784 p.- ISBN 81-7058-496-5

   

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo
Set in  37  volumes
Volume 1

— ALL BOOK IN A SINGLE FILE

 

 

PDF-file

 

—SET OF HTML FILES

Notes

Publisher’s Note

 

Note on the Texts

 

Note on this e-publication

 

Part One. The Harmony of Virtue

The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence

18912

The Harmony of Virtue: [a Play]

c. 18921

Beauty in the Real

18921

Stray Thoughts

18921

Part Two. On Literature

Bankim Chandra Chatterji

His Youth and College Life

16-07-18941

The Bengal He Lived in

23-07-18941

His Official Career

30-07-18941

His Versatility

06-08-18941

His Literary History

13-08-18941

What He Did for Bengal

20-08-18941

Our Hope in the Future

27-08-18941

On Poetry and Literature

Poetry

c. 1898-19012

Characteristics of Augustan Poetry

c. 1898-19013

Sketch of the Progress of Poetry from Thomson to Wordsworth

c. 1898-19012

Appendix: Test Questions

c. 1898-19012

Marginalia on Madhusudan Dutt’s Virangana Kavya

 

[1. A Virgilian elegance and sweetness...]

c. 1894-19004

[2. The Epistle of Tara is perhaps less satisfactory...]

c. 1894-19004

Originality in National Literatures

c. 1906-19083

The Poetry of Kalidasa

A Proposed Work on Kalidasa

c. 1898-19031

The Malavas
[Once in the long history of poetry]

c. 1900-19031

The Age of Kalidasa

c. 1898-19021

The Historical Method

c. 1900-19031

The Seasons
[The Seasons of Kalidasa is one of those...]

c. 1900-19031

Hindu Drama

 

[1. The origin of the Sanscrit drama...]

c. 1901-19035

[2. Deftness and strength in dialogue...]

c. 1901-19031

Vikramorvasie: The Play
[Vikram and the Nymph is the second, in order of time...]

c. 1900-19031

Vikramorvasie: The Characters

 

[1. Pururavus is the poet’s second study...]

c. 1898-18991

[2. In nothing does the delicacy and keen suavity...]

c. 1898-18991

[3. And now wonderful things began to arise...]

c. 1898-18991

[4. There is nothing more charming, more attractive...]

c. 1898-18991

[5 We see then the appropriateness of the Hetaira...]

c. 1898-18996

[6. But in the Opsaras the beauty and allurements...]

c. 1898-18996

[7. When Naraian, the primeval and dateless sage...]

c. 1898-18996

[8. The legend is characteristic of the Hindu mythopoeic...]

c. 1898-18996

[9. And yet the work of the philosophic mind...]

c. 1898-18991

[10. Such then is Urvasie, Naraian born...]

c. 1898-18991

[11. In dramatic tone and build therefore this is an admirable creation...]

c. 1898-18991

[12. Nothing more certainly distinguishes the dramatic artist...]

c. 1898-18991

[13. The age of childhood, its charm and sportive grace...]

c. 1898-18991

[14. Kalidasa like Shakespeare seems to have realised...]

c. 1898-18991

[15. Ayus and Urvasie in this play were certainly...]

c. 1898-18991

[16. Manavaca on the other hand is an element...]

c. 1898-18991

The Spirit of the Times

c. 1898-1901N

On Translating Kalidasa

 

[1. Since the different tribes of the human Babel...]

c. 19037

[2. The choice of meter is the first...]

c. 19037

[3. The mere quantities are but the most mechanical...]

c. 19037

[4. All these are essential before really...]

c. 19037

[5. But just as the body of a man is also soul...]

c. 19031

[6. The life and surroundings in which Indian...]

c. 19031

[7. The prose of Kalidasa’s dialogue...]

c. 19031

Appendix: Alternative and Unused Passages and Fragments

1. An early fragment
[Kalidasa does best in more complicated...]

c. 19005

2. Alternative opening to “The Historical Method”
[Of Kalidasa the man we are fortunate...]

c. 1900-1903N

3. [Passages from the manuscript of “The Seasons — I: Its Authenticity” that Sri Aurobindo did not include in the published version.]

[3.1. Early and immature work of a great poet...]

c. 1900-1903N

[3.2. Kalidasa’s authorship of his earliest extant poem...]

c. 1900-1903N

[3.3. The old criticism was cautious and quiet...]

c. 1900-1903N

[3.4. The Seasons is the only production...]

c. 1900-1903N

[3.5. The imagination of the West...]

c. 1900-19036

4. [Alternative and unused passages from the manuscript of “Vikramorvasie: The Characters”]

[4.1. We shall now understand why the Opsara...]

c. 1898-18991

[4.2. Vishnu, the Almighty Spirit, incarnate in Naraian...]

c. 1898-18996

[4.3. According to this story Naraian...]

c. 1898-18996

[4.4. The grace of childhood seems to have...]

c. 1898-18996

[4.5. Urvasie seems at first sight...]

c. 1898-18996

[4.6. Urvasie sends Ayus away from...]

c. 1898-18996

Notes on the Mahabharata

1. Notes on the Mahabharata [Title list]

c. 09.1901-19021

2. [It was hinted in a recent article of the Indian Review...]

c. 09.1901-19021

3. [Vyasa is the most masculine of writers]

c. 19021

4. Vyasa; some Characteristics
The Mahabharata, although neither...

c. 19021

5. Mahabharata
[The problem of the Mahabharata]

c. 09.1901-19021

6. Notes on the Mahabharata [Detailed]

6.1 Udyogapurva

c. 19021

6.2 Adi Purva, Adhyaya 1

c. 1902N

6.3 Dronapurva

after 1902N

Part Three. On Education

Address at the Baroda College Social Gathering

22-07-18991

Education [1]

c. 1902N

Education [2 Intellectual]

c. 19021

The Brain of India

 

[1. The time has perhaps come for the Indian mind...]

09-10-19091

[2. A new centre of thought implies a new centre of education...]

16-10-19091

[3. The practice of Brahmacharya is the first...]

06-11-19091

[4. We have stated, as succinctly as is consistent...]

13-11-19091

A System of National Education

 

Publisher’s Note to the 1924 Edition

 

I. The Human Mind

12-02-19108

II. The Powers of the Mind

19-02-19108

III. The Moral Nature

26-02-19108

IV. Simultaneous and Successive Teaching

05-03-19108

V. The Training of the Senses

12-03-19108

VI. Sense-Improvement by Practice

19-03-19108

VII. The Training of the Mental Faculties

26-03-19108

VIII. The Training of the Logical Faculty

02-04-19108

Message for National Education Week (1918)

08-04-19187

National Education

c. 1916-19184

A Preface on National Education

 

[1. The necessity and unmixed good of universal education...]

19208

[2. These preliminary objections made to the very idea...]

19218

Part Four. On Art

The National Value of Art

 

[1. There is a tendency in modern times...]

20-11-19099

[2. The activity of human thought divides itself...]

27-11-19099

[3. The work of purifying conduct through outward form...]

04-12-19099

[4. We now come to the kernel of the subject...]

11-12-19099

[5. The value of art in the training of intellectual faculty...]

18-12-19099

[6. The enormous value of Art to human evolution...]

25-12-19099

Two Pictures

17-07-19091

Indian Art and an Old Classic

02-10-19091

The Revival of Indian Art

16-10-19091

An Answer to a Critic

after 08.19104

Part Five. Conversations of the Dead

Dinshah, Perizade

12-02-19101

Turiu, Uriu

19-02-19101

Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi

c. 19101

Shivaji, Jaysingh

c. 19101

Littleton, Percival

c. 19101

Part Six. The Chandernagore Manuscript

Passing Thoughts [1]

 

Religion in Europe

19103

Religion In India

19103

The Real Minimum

19103

The Maximum

19103

Passing Thoughts [2]

 

The Object of Government

19101

The European Jail

19101

European Justice

19101

Passing Thoughts [3]
[Acar – Vicar – Vivek – Jñanam]

19101

Hathayoga

19101

Rajayoga

19101

Historical Impressions: The French Revolution

19108

Historical Impressions: Napoleon

19108

In the Society’s Chambers: [A play]

19101

At the Society’s Chambers: [A play]

19101

Things Seen in Symbols [1]
[There are four who are Beyond...]

19101

Things Seen in Symbols [2]
[What is dhyana? Ordinarily...]

19101

The Real Difficulty

19108

Art

19101

Part Seven. Epistles / Letters From Abroad

Epistles from Abroad

 

[1. Dearly beloved, You, my alter ego, my second existence...]

19101

[2. Friend and brother, I am as yet among the unregenerate...]

19101

[3. Dear Biren, Your list of questions is rather a long one...]

19101

Letters from Abroad

 

[4. Dear Biren, The idea that the Europeans have organised...]

1910-191110

[5.1 Dear Biren, I suspect that it is a malady of your intellect...]

1910-191110

[5.2 No, it is not in the stress of an intolerant patriotism...]

1910-191110

[5.3 They criticise everything subtly rather than well...]

1910-191110

[6.1 Dear Biren, There are moments in the career of peoples...]

1910-191110

[6.2 You have not misapprehended my meaning...]

1910-191110

Part Eight. Reviews

“Suprabhat”

14-08-19091

“Hymns to the Goddess”

05-19158

“South Indian Bronzes”

10-19158

“God, the Invisible King”

07-19178

“Rupam”

04-19208

About Astrology

11-19178

“Sanskrit Research”

03-19168

“The Feast of Youth”

11-19188

“Shama’a”

09-19208

Part Nine. Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda

Rishi Bankim Chandra

16-04-19078

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

19188

A Great Mind, a Great Will

05-08-19208

Dayananda: The Man and His Work

19158

Dayananda and the Veda

19168

The Men that Pass

04-12-19098

Appendix One. Baroda Speeches and Reports

Speeches Written for the Maharaja of Baroda

 

Medical Department

c. 19017

The Revival of Industry in India

15-12-190211

Report on Trade in the Baroda State

190212

Opinions Written as Acting Principal

 

Resolving a Problem of Seniority in the High School

03-05-1905N

On a Proposed Examination for Teachers

09-08-1905N

On a Head Assistant for the High School

13-09-1905N

Opinion

15-09-1905N

Opinion

16-09-1905N

Appendix Two. Premises of Astrology

Premises of Astrology

c. 19108

Note on this e-publication

During the history of publication of Sri Aurobindo’s works, their texts were modified here and there — sometimes by elementary misprints, but more often because of the hard work of editors, who:

(1) discovered and encrypted unprinted manuscripts or their parts (this was a best part of what they could do);

(2) corrected previous misprints or unsound modifications (a sound part of their work);

(3) corrected Sri Aurobondo’s factual or grammatical inexactnesses or mistakes or grammatical characteristics (i.e. s / z) (what would be appropriate only in footnotes, but not in the text itself);

(4) made innumerable “improvements” of the texts, when original words were replaced by more “appropriate” ones; articles changed most freely; the tenses of verbs and the singular and plural of nouns were often modified (and all these “improvements” deform in some degree — even if in hardly notable — the meaning, intonation, nuance, manner, style and therefore are inadmissible; and, after all, we need Sri Aurobindo’s words, not editor’s);

(5) combined  (using sometimes invented insertions or modifying texts) different texts (or some parts of them) as if it were one solid work (this also deforms meaning and context of originals and often brings strange feeling when one style or tone is strangely jumped to another. It would be too licentious even in someone’s work based on Sri Aurobindo’s writings, but it is absolutely inadmissible in a book pretended to be a collection of HIS works);

(6) cut off parts of the texts (especially of the letters) under pretext that they are not of “general interest” — although, rather, to fit the remains to a subject of a book or its section (and this is the most disgusting spoilage and uncorrectable and grievous loss).

So now we have Sri Aurobondo’s works with varied places — when one of variants, perhaps, is authentic, while other — not quite. May be some day we will see realy Complite Works of Sri Aurobindo without prenominate defects. But now, what can we do, when we have not originals at hand to check alternatives against them?

(1) Sometimes we can correct situation No 5 — i.e. separate different texts, joined together.

(2) Sometimes we can correct situation No 6 — whenever we find full version, we can provide fragment of the text by footnote with full version or even replace this fragment by full version.

(3) We can evince most of the cases of situations Nos  3 and 4. For this purpose we compared the texts of different editions and provide differing places with appropriate footnotes in our files. (By the way, this symbol by symbol comparison allowed us also to avoid misprints of scanning and OCR procedures.) And when this comparison does not make us sure which variant is authentic, we, at least, become aware of the fact and details of such variations.

To distinguish numerous footnotes of this kind we used special style: (1) colour of numbers of footnotes are dark red; (2) when cursor is placed over differing piece, its background is changed to light red (also it allows readers to compare easily differing place in a text with a pop-up hint that contains alternative variant).

During this comparison, to avoid overloading of the texts by footnotes, we ignored differences of register, punctuation, paragraphs, variants of languages or transliterations of the same word (for example, in one edition the word is printed in English transliteration, in another – in Devanagari), sometimes — variants of proper names (especially solid or separate spelling). Also we did not made any footnotes in cases of distinct misprints — just corrected them.

In the footnotes of every file we added a link to another edition of current work (if it exists).

In the Contents above, opposite every work (to the right) we indicated compared edition:

1 Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 3.- The Harmony of Virtue: Early Cultural Writings — 1890-1910.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 489 p.

2 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.— Volume 1, No2 (1977, December)

3 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.— Volume 1, No1 (1977, April)

4 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 7, No1 (1983, April).- 97 p.

5 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 2, No1 (1978, April).- 108 p.

6 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 5, No2 (1981, December).- 112-212 p.

7 Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 27.- Supplement.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 511 p.

8 Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 17.- The Hour of God and other writings.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 406 p.

9 Compared with text of earlier publication (we have not exact bibliography information on this publication — text was found in Internet).

10 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 3, No2 (1979, December).- 123-233 p.

11 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 14, No1 (1990, April).- 115 p.

12 Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 8, No1 (1984, April).- 124 p.

N The work was not compared with other editions.