COLLECTED PLAYS

SRI AUROBINDO

Contents

PART TWO

THE VIZIERS OF BASSORA

Act One	Act Two	Act Three
SCENE I	SCENE I	SCENE I
SCENE II	SCENE II	SCENE II
SCENE III	SCENE III	SCENE III
SCENE IV	SCENE IV	SCENE IV
		SCENE V
		SCENE VI
		SCENE VII

	Act Four		Act Five
	SCENE I		SCENE I
	SCENE II		SCENE II
	SCENE III		SCENE III
	SCENE IV		SCENE IV
			SCENE V
			SCENE VI
			SCENE VII

PRINCE OF EDUR

Act One	Act Two	Act Three
SCENE I	SCENE I	SCENE I
SCENE II	SCENE II
SCENE III	SCENE III
SCENE IV	SCENE IV
SCENE V	SCENE V
	SCENE VI

THE MAID IN THE MILL

	Act One		Act Two
	SCENE I		SCENE I
	SCENE II
	SCENE III
	SCENE IV
	SCENE V

THE HOUSE OF BRUT	THE PRINCE OF MATHURA	THE BIRTH OF SIN
Act Two	Act One	Prologue
SCENE I	SCENE I	Act One

VIKRAMORVASIE

Act One	Act Two	Act Three	Act Four	Act Five
Invocation	SCENE I	SCENE I	SCENE I	SCENE I
		SCENE II	SCENE II

FRAGMENT OF A DRAMA

Bibliographical Note

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The VIZIERS OF BASSORA is one of the early works of Sri Aurobindo on a major scale. Written in Baroda, it has a curious history attached to it. Sri Aurobindo seems to have had especial fondness for this early creation of his. He particularly mentioned it in the Introduction to Collected Poems and Plays as one of the two works, lost—the other being a translation of Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Cloud-Messenger).

By a strange turn of destiny the drama was recovered from the Government Archives in 1951 along with other manuscripts which had been exhibits in the Alipore Conspiracy Case.

This play was published in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1959, and also issued in book-form in the same year.

PRINCE OF EDUR was written, as noted in the manuscript, in 1907, that is to say, in the very thick of Sri Aurobindo's political activity. It is not complete as it has only three acts and not five. THE PRINCE OF MATHURA, available as a fragment and printed here for the first time, is a different version of the same theme.

PRINCE OF EDUR was first published in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1961.

THE MAID IN THE MILL and THE HOUSE OF BRUT are both incomplete and belong to Sri Aurobindo's early Baroda period. They were printed in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1962, for the first time.

THE BIRTH OF SIN printed here as a play seems to be the first version of what appeared as a dialogue in poetic form in Collected Poems and Plays of Sri Aurobindo in 1942.

VIKRAMORVASIE or THE HERO AND THE NYMPH, translated from Kalidasa's play in Sanskrit, was written in Baroda and it was first published in book-form in 1911. The second edition appeared in 1941 and the third was published in 1952 with "On Translating Kalidasa" as an Introduction and "The Character of the Hero" as an Appendix, both being studies written in Baroda.

SHORT STORIES: The three stories—THE PHANTOM HOUR, THE DOOR AT ABELARD and THE DEVIL'S MASTIFF — the last two of which are incomplete—belong to a projected series called IDYLLS OF THE OCCULT. The fourth story, THE GOLDEN BIRD, seems to be symbolic. All these stories belong to the early period in Pondicherry. They have been printed in Ashram journals. THE PHANTOM HOUR was also published in book-form in 1951.

JUVENILIA: Just as the printing of Volume 7 was brought to an end one incomplete play and one fragment of a play came to light. They belong to Sri Aurobindo's student days in London. THE WITCH OF ILNI bears the date: October, 1891.

SHORT STORIES
IDYLLS OF THE OCCULT

JUVENILIA
THE WITCH OF ILNI

THE PHANTOM HOUR

Act.....Scene....

THE DOOR AT ABELARD

THE DEVIL'S MASTIFF

THE GOLDEN BIRD