{"id":3463,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3463"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:45","slug":"03-the-authority-for-the-new-edition-vol-07-on-the-new-edition-of-savitri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/07-on-the-new-edition-of-savitri\/03-the-authority-for-the-new-edition-vol-07-on-the-new-edition-of-savitri","title":{"rendered":"-03_The Authority for the New Edition.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nThe Authority for the New Edition <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nOn what authority were changes made in<\/i> Savitri? <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo’s manuscripts are the main authority for the
\nchanges. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     What Sri Aurobindo wrote has not been changed anywhere
\nin the new edition. What have been corrected are mistakes of
\nvarious kinds that occurred when his lines were copied, typed
\nand printed. Our idea was that Savitri<\/i> should consist of Sri
\nAurobindo’s own words as far as possible. Some people may
\ndisagree with this, but it is the principle on which the work has
\nbeen based. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     Corrections have been made in every edition of Savitri,<\/i>
\nso there is nothing alarmingly new about what has been done in the Revised
\nEdition. The complete epic first appeared in two volumes in 1950-51. But this
\nedition was soon found to contain mistakes. When the University Edition (1954) was being
\nprepared, Nirod asked the Mother if he could take Amal’s help
\nin detecting errors. She gave her approval. Several dozen corrections were carried out in that edition. In the Centenary Edition
\n(1970), another hundred or so corrections were introduced. But
\nthere were also typographical errors in both these editions. Some
\nsuch mistakes in the Centenary Edition were corrected in the
\n1976 reprint. When people say "Savitri<\/i> should not have been
\nchanged", it is not clear which edition should not have been
\nchanged. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     The preparatory work for the Revised Edition of Savitri
\n<\/i>was done by the Archives. But its chief editors were Nirod and
\nAmal, who have been responsible for all editions of Savitri<\/i> up
\nto the present. The Revised Edition (1993) may be considered
\nthe continuation and culmination of Nirod’s and Amal’s effort
\nto eliminate errors from the text of Savitri.<\/i> The difference is <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-1<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthat this time they have had the help of the Archives. The result
\nhas been the most meticulously prepared and error-free edition
\nto date. It is also the first time a list of the changes has been
\npublished. This is perhaps the main reason for the controversy. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     The Archives’ work on Savitri<\/i> began in the late seventies under Nirod’s supervision. Before that, Sri Aurobindo’s
\nmanuscripts of the poem had been consulted now and then to
\ndecide doubtful points that came up. But nobody had thought
\nof systematically comparing the manuscripts with the various
\ncopies, typescripts and printed texts. This was the exacting and
\ntime-consuming procedure that now began. After one phase of
\nthis work was finished, I asked Nolini-da if corrections could
\nbe made in view of certain discrepancies that had been noticed. His reply was simple and straightforward: "You can make the
\nchanges if Nirod approves of them." <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     Those who have read Savitri<\/i> only in a printed form can
\nhave little idea of the complexity of the process that led from
\nSri Aurobindo’s last handwritten version to the published text.
\nNirod had first-hand experience of all this. Being well aware of the numerous
\npossibilities of error, he readily agreed to the Archives’ idea of checking the
\ntext. This meant tracing the history of each line, sometimes through six or seven stages. It was
\nsuggested that mistakes that were found to have occurred at one
\nstage or another should be corrected, unless Sri Aurobindo’s
\nlater revision made it inadvisable to do so. Nirod approved of
\nthis principle, as did Amal. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     After the Archives had been working on Savitri<\/i> for about
\nseven years, a list of proposed changes in the printed text was
\npublished in the December 1986 issue of the Archives and Research<\/i> journal. Both Nirod and Amal saw and approved of this
\nlist before it was published. But their confidence in the Archives
\nwas such that at this stage they did not take the time to look
\nclosely at the specific reasons for each change. They did so only
\nin the next phase. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     The list of suggested corrections aroused strong opposition
\nin some quarters. In order to resolve the controversy, a series
\nof discussions took place during the period 1988-92 at Amal’s <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-2<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nplace. Nirod, Amal, Jugal and Deshpande took part initially. Later, Richard from the Archives was invited to join and Jugal
\ndiscontinued. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     This group went into all the points in minute detail. Richard
\nbrought the manuscripts and other documents to the meetings
\nand submitted reports on the more complicated questions. Nirod
\nand Amal examined the manuscripts before making the final decision on each point. Deshpande recorded the proceedings of the
\nmeetings. Occasionally when Amal and Nirod disagreed, Tehmi
\nwas asked to give her view, though she did not attend the meetings. But in fact there were very few substantive disagreements
\nbetween Nirod and Amal. Long hours were spent discussing
\npunctuation. But on more significant points, the evidence of the
\nmanuscript was almost always decisive and there was little room
\nfor differences of opinion. In doubtful cases, the text was left as it was. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     Weekly meetings went on like this for about four years.
\nEventually a new list of changes was finalised, similar to the
\noriginal list but slightly longer. Nirod and Amal gave their written permission, as reproduced on the next page, to carry out
\nthese corrections in a new edition. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n     A new edition incorporating the approved changes was
\nbrought out in 1993 and reprinted in a deluxe format the following year. A Supplement listing and explaining the differences
\nbetween this edition and previous ones was issued separately. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\nAugust 1998<\/font><\/td>\n\n

JAYANTILAL PAREKH<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-3<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-4<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Authority for the New Edition   On what authority were changes made in Savitri?   Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts are the main authority for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-07-on-the-new-edition-of-savitri","wpcat-79-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}