VOLUMES 33 and 34

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1997

Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department

Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry

PRINTED IN INDIA

Savitri

a Legend and a Symbol

Publisher's Note

The writing of Savitri extended over much of the later part of Sri Aurobindo's life. The earliest known manuscript is dated 1916. The original narrative poem was recast several times in the first phase of composition. By around 1930, Sri Aurobindo had begun to turn it into an epic with a larger scope and deeper significance.

Transformed into "A Legend and a Symbol", Savitri became his major literary work which he continued to expand and perfect until his last days. In the late 1940s, when his eyesight was failing, he took the help of a scribe and dictated the extensive final stages of revision.

Separate cantos started to appear in print in 1946. Part One of the first edition was published in 1950. The next year, after Sri Aurobindo's passing, the rest of the poem was brought out in a second volume.

In the second edition (1954), Sri Aurobindo's letters on Savitri were added. They are omitted from the present edition and included in Letters on Poetry and Art.

The present text is that of the fourth ("revised") edition which came out in 1993. Each line has been checked to eliminate any unintentional discrepancies between the final manuscript or dictation and the printed form of the poem.