Savitri- A Legend and a
Symbol. By Sri Aurobindo.
Savitri is entirely in verses and consists of three parts
comprising twelve books and forty-eight cantos. The
earliest known manuscript of Savitri is dated 1916.
Separate cantos started being published from 1946. The part
one of the first edition was
brought out in 1950. The rest
of the epic was brought out in 1951 after Sri Aurobindo’s
passing.
Savitri is the magnum opus of Sri Aurobindo. The author was
conscious of the fact that the book should not be a
legend only. He wanted it to be a symbol also. Savitri is blank
verse without enjambment (with rare exceptions) after the
Upanishadic and Kalidasian movement-as far as it was
practicable in English.
The creator of Savitri did not want to just compose poems
for poetry’s sake. It was the result of experimentation
with poetry being a medium of creativity.
No purposeful introduction to Savitri can be attempted in
these few lines. It is only the beginning. It came long
before ‘The Mother’ by the same author and underwent
thorough revision several times before coming out in print
finally. The current issue is the thirteenth impression of
the treatise, which saw the light of the day in 2003 to
illuminate those who eventually read it.