Dictionary of Proper Names
Selected from Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works (1989/1996)
N
Nabha the ruler & his state (situated fourteen miles NW of Patiala) which, with Jind & Patiālā, formed the Phulkian princely states created in 1763 after the capture of Sirhind by the Sikh Confederacy. Their rulers descended from Phul, a Sikh descendant of Jaisal Bhatti, the Rajput founder of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Hamīr Singh became its first ruler (see Jāts). In 1809 Nabha came under the protection of the E.I. Co. For its whole-hearted loyalty to its British masters during the Mutiny of 1857, Nabha was rewarded with a piece of the usurped territories. Hira Singh (b.1843) succeeded his father in 1871 as Raja of Nabha. As reward for joining the British in the Afghan wars of 1878-80, he was made Hon. Colonel in British Army; G.C.I.E. (Knight Grand Commander of the Indian Empire) in 1903, & G.C.S.I (Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India) 1904. This qualified him for the Advisory Council of Notables. In 1911 he was made Maharaja by King George at his Grand Durbar in Delhi. Hira Singh built one Nabha House in Delhi & another opposite Sannihit Sarovar in Kurukshetra (q.v.). Later Nabha became a constituent state of PEPSU (Patiala & East Punjab States’ Union). [Buckland & other sources]
Nachiketas/ Nachicatus son of Vaja-shravasa Gautama; his dialogue with Yama occurs in the Katha Upanishad.
Nadir (Shah) (1688-1747), Shah of Iran (1736-47) invaded India in 1739 & advanced up to Delhi, & ordered a plunder & massacre of its citizens.
Nag, Hardayāl (1853-1942) of Chandpur, Bengal, a Moderate & Gandhian leader.
Nāgānanda Sanskrit drama written Harshavardhana, depicting the self-sacrifice of Jimutavāhana to save the life of a Naga named Sankhachuda.
Nāgas see Ananta
Nāgen Nāgen Nag, a cousin of Bijoy Kumar Nag. On his doctor’s advice, he came to Pondicherry sometime in 1913, & stayed with his cousin in Sri Aurobindo’s house. The money he provided enabled Sri Aurobindo to move from 59 Rue des Missions Etrangères (rent Rs.15/-) to 41 Rue François Martin (rent Rs.30/-).
Nagendra(nath) Nāgendra Nath Gupta, one of the two innocent Kaviraj brothers to whose house Ullāskar had removed a packet of bombs without telling them what was in it. During the trial, to save his friends, Ullāskar made a confession, but the police did not release the brothers.
Nag Mahashaya Durga Charan Nag (1846-99), a prominent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He was an embodiment of humility & self-sacrifice.
Nahusha son of Ayus & father of Yayāti. By sacrifices, austere self-restraint, & valour he acquired sovereignty of the three worlds. He then became very proud, & had himself carried through the air in his palanquin by the Saptarishis, spurring on shouting sarpa, sarpa (move quickly). By the curse of Agastya, one of those seven Rishis Nahusha to the earth & became a snake. Thanks to Agastya’s concession after some thousands of years he was redeemed from the curse by Yudhishthīra.
Naiad(s) daughter(s) of Zeus; they preside over freshwater streams, lakes, wells & fountains as water nymphs.
Naidu, Sarojini (1879-1949), Gandhian politician, poet, writer, & orator.
Naimisha Naimisharanya, a forest near river Gomati where the Mahabharata was recited by the sage Sauti to assembled Rishis including Saunaka.
Nais a Greek river goddess.
Naka son of Mudgala.
Nala/ Nul king of Nishādhas & husband of Damayanti. Naladamayanti, the legend of their romance forms “Nalopakhyanam” in the Mahabharata.
Nālandā Buddhist monastic centre (5th–7th centuries), believed to have been an open university. Located north of Rājagriha, the original name of Pātaliputra, capital of Magadha, it was founded by the Gupta emperor Narasimhagupta Bālāditya who had converted to Mahayana Buddhism; he installed there an 80ft high copper Buddha in an ornamental temple. Young & old Buddhist scholars from Tibet, China & Java studied at Nālandā. [Bhattacharya]
Nalodaya Sanskrit poem by Kālidāsa, it describes the restoration King Nala.
Namasudra caste of cultivators & boatmen in Bengal, formerly known as Chandālas.
The Name & Nature of Poetry by A.E Housman (1933), containing his Leslie Stephen Lecture given at Cambridge University.
Nammalwar Vaishnava saint poet of South India, considered greatest of the Alwārs.
Namuchi in Rig-Veda, a demon associated with Vritra. He personifies man’s weaknesses & is slain by Indra with the foam of water. The legend of Namuchi is amplified by Vedic commentators, in the Shatapatha Brāhmaṇa & the Mahabharata.
Nana Fadnavis (1742-1800) was the name under which Bālāji Janārdan became known. By 1740, when Bāji Rao I died, the great Mahratta Confederacy that he had created had begun to weaken due to internecine squabbles. Nana Fadnavis was then the chief advisor of Bāji Rao’s son & successor, Bālāji Bāji Rao. His consummate statesmanship managed to hold together the weakened Confederacy until his Peshwa was sucked into the 3rd Battle of Pāṇīpat in 1760 & soon thereafter died heart-broken. His second son & successor Madhavrao I, not only maintained their territories in the south but added to it in the north but suddenly died in 1772. He was succeeded by his brother Nārāyana Rao who was murdered by his uncle Raghoba in 1773 in his bid to become the Peshwa. But Fadnavis forestalled him by supporting the cause of Nārāyaṇa Rao’s posthumous son Madhavrao II, whom he installed as the 6th Peshwa in 1774 & thereafter practically ran the affairs of the Confederacy until his death. From 1775 to 1783 he carried on the Anglo-Mahratta war & concluded it by the treaty of Salbai by which Raghoba was pensioned off & the Mahrattas lost no territory except Salsette. In 1784, he fought Tipoo Sultan, the son of Hyder Ali & regained territories Tippoo had annexed. In 1789, he fought alongside the British-Nizam alliance against Tippoo & obtained a portion of Tipoo’s territory. In 1794, the sudden death of Mahādāji Sindhia, his strongest opponent, brought him undisputed authority over the Confederacy. In 1795, he employed the combined strength of the Confederacy against the Nizam & obliged him to cede important territories to the Mahrattas. In 1796, his protégé, the Peshwa Madhavrao committed suicide & the Peshwaship went to his enemy Raghoba’s son Bājirao II giving rise to an unseemly hostility. However, as long as Nana Fadnavis was alive he managed to hold together the Mahratta Confederacy. “With his death,” writes the British historian Grant Duff, “departed all the wisdom & moderation of the Mahratta Confederacy”. One after the other, Bājirao II, the Bhonsle, the Sindhia, the Holkar & the Gaekwad signed fatal bi-lateral-treaties upon treaties with the British octopus which by 1818 reduced them to its pitiable feudatories with not even an iota of the freedom they had under the great Bājirao I. [Buckland & Bhattacharya]
Nanak founder of the Sikh religion was born in 1469 in a Khatri family of Talwandi near Lahore. He considered all men as equal before God & preached universal toleration free from all dogmatic religious practices that set humans against each other to the extent of willingness to kill “the others”. He spent his whole life in preaching a religion based on all that was beneficial to man in Hinduism & Islam, & succeeded to a large extent. His sayings & songs make up the Sacred Book of the Sikhs, known as the Grantha Sahib.
Nanak Charit biography of Nanak in Bengali by Krishna Kumar Mitra.
Nandas a dynasty founded c.362 by Mahāpadma who belonged to a rich & very powerful family which with a low origin. It ruled Magadha in northern India between c.343-321 BC when it was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya c.321 BC.
Nandi, Ashok Ashok Chandra Nandi (d.1909), a yogi & bhakta, contracted tuberculosis due to exposure & neglect as undertrial prisoner in Alipore Bomb Trial.
Naoroji, Dadabhai/ Nowroji (1825-1917), son of Parsi priest, educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay: Prof there of Mathematics & Natural Philosophy 1854: when he started editing Rast Goftar the annexation of Punjab was a fresh event: went to England as partner in the Parsi firm Cāmā & Co. London 1855: Prof Gujarati, University College, London: worked for East India Association: advocated admission of Indians to ICS 1870: accepted to be Dewan of Baroda in late 1873; but failed to temper M’s assertion of his rights or the Viceroy’s hatred of the Gaekwad; fed up by his financial reforms meeting with opposition & lack of cooperation from the British, & lack of faith & cooperation from Baroda’s officers, against 1874’s income of 94 lakhs, Malhar Rao’s wanton expenditure running up to 171 lakhs, the Viceroy’s unjustifiable deposing & exiling Malharrao, his queens & son to Madras, resigned on 7 Jan.1875: Member, Bombay Corporation & Town Council 1875-6: Member Legislative Council, Bombay 1885: President Indian National Congress 1886: elected to British Parliament from Central Finsbury on a Liberal ticket to the British Parliament 1892: Member of Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure 1895: President Indian National Congress 1893: authored Poverty & un-British Rule in India 1901, England’s Duties to India, Financial Administration of India, etc., Govt. made him Justice of Peace: INC popularised him as “the Grand Old Man” for active participation in its affairs & in 1906, afraid of its losing its moderate-loyalist face with the Govt., forced his election as its President at the 1906 Calcutta Congress to thwart the election of Tilak. [Buckland; History & Culture of the Indian People, R.C. Majumdar et al, Calcutta, 1963, Vol. X, part II, p.398; &c.]
Narac/ Naraka the condition of misery in the subtle body; Hell; a place of torture to which the souls of the wicked are sent. Authorities vary greatly as to the number & names of such places. Manu enumerates twenty-one.
Nārad(a) one of the Prajāpatis, Nārada Muni, is depicted as carrying a Veena & singing the glories of Vishnu in his forms of Nārāyaṇa & Hari. He is welcome & revered as much by the Devas as by the Asūras for his divine wisdom & powers as well as a sense of mischief which often creates humorous situations but always bringing about events according to the Divine Will. He “stands for the expression of the Divine Love & Knowledge.” [SABCL 22:392]
Nara-Nārāyaṇa “expresses the relation of God in man to man in God” [SABCL: 13:11] A legend about their incarnations as Sri Krishna & Arjūna goes thus: To break their intense tapasyā to please Brahma at Budaricāshram (q.v.), Indra sent his Apsarās to get the two to marry them. When he was going to curse them but Nara pacified him, Nārāyaṇa told them, “In the 28th Dwāpara Yuga I will incarnate on earth as Krishna in the Yadu dynasty & marry all of you.”
Narasingha/ Man-lion fourth of the ten Avatāras of Vishnu in this Chaturyuga. He killed Hiranyakashipu & saved his son Prahlāda from his persecution. Since the Asura had obtained Brahma’s boon that he would not die inside or outside his palace, by a man or a god, on the ground or above it, Narasingha emerged from a pillar in his palace as half-Man & half-Lion, sat on the threshold of the entrance, pinned the Asura on his lap & tore out his heart with his claws.
Nārāyaṇa one of the two Rishi brothers who performed austerities at Budaricāshram. Urvasie was produced by the sage Nārāyaṇa by thumping on his thigh.
Narayan(a) Bengali monthly, chiefly devoted to Vaishnavism & national liberation. Hem Das Gupta: “C.R. Das’s deep personal faith found expression in his lyrics poems, his concern with social & political affairs led him to the service of Bengali literature through journals. He brought out in 1914 the famous Bengali monthly Nārāyaṇa. Apart from essays, stories, poems & songs by the editor, the journal published contributions from renowned writers like Brajendra Nath Seal, Bipin Chandra Pal, Hara Prasad Shāstri, Rākhāldās Banerjee, Suresh Chandra Samājpati, & many others. It was, however, a little unfortunate that Nārāyaṇa came to be regarded as a kind of counterblast to Shobujputra. This latter journal was conducted by Pramatha Choudhury, under the pen name Birbal. Conducted under the inspiration of Rabindranath Tagore, it reflected the mood at the time which was influenced to a large extent by Ibsen. Some of the stories of Tagore like ‘Bostami’ & ‘The Wife’s Letter’ provoked more conservative elements of Bengal. Nārāyaṇa was intended to be a reply to these new ideas propagated through literature. [Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, “Builders of Modern India” Series, Govt. of India, 1960, 1969, 1977]
Barindra & Upendranath Banerji were put in charge of Nārāyaṇa when they were released from Andamans in the General Amnesty announced in 1920.
Nārāyana author of a commentary on the Sarvopanishad.
Narayan Jyotishi Narayan Chandra Jyotir-bhusan Bhattacharya, astrologer who predicted, without any reference to a horoscope, some events in Sri Aurobindo’s life, including his three political trials & acquittals. He published Horabijan Rahasyam a book on astrology.
Narmada/ Narbada/ Nurmada one of the seven holy rivers of India; it rises in the Maikhala Range, Madhya Pradesh, & flows into the Gulf of Khambhāt in Gujarat.
Nasata father of the Vedic gods Nāsatyas or Ashwins.
Nāshik on the banks of the holy Godavari (q.v.) is one of twelve sacred cities containing the Jyotirlinga; it hosts Kumbha Melas. On 24th & 25th December 1907, Sri Aurobindo visited this city after INC committed hara-kiri at Surat in Dec. 1907.
Nāshik Wrata Marathi nationalist paper published from Nāshik
Nassau Frederick Henry (1584-1647), prince of Orange, & count of Nassau, general, politician, & Stadtholder (chief executor of Holland). He led military campaigns against Spanish outposts throughout the Low Countries. (See Netherland)
National Council of Education Taking privilege leave from Baroda College, Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal on March 2, 1906. He was present at the founding of the National Council of Education on 11 March 1906 at a public meeting presided over by Satyendra Nath Tagore (see Tagores, s/a Proshnokumar). The meeting resolved that the object of the Council was to be “to impart an education, literary as well as scientific & technical on national lines & exclusively under national control, not in opposition to, but standing apart from the existing systems of primary, secondary, & university education”, & to open ‘national schools’ within & even outside Bengal. But as an ICS officer stationed in Bombay Presidency, Satyendra was well informed on the founding & flourishing the New English School (q.v.) started by Tilak & his colleagues in Pune in 1881 to counter the denationalising education imposed by Govt. & Christian schools & colleges; Satyendra was also aware of Sri Aurobindo’s work at the Baroda College. This must have been the reason – whatever other reasons offered by the Bengal branch of the INC, for the election of Rāshbehari Ghose (q.v.) as president of the National Council of Education. That Moderate-dominated Council must have been most annoyed to find that the very next day Sri Aurobindo attended the launching of his brother Barindra’s Yugantar; then, on April 14 he attended the action-packed ‘Extremist’ conference held at Barisal & afterward toured East Bengal with Bepin Pal to propagate the unvarnished Nationalist Party they launched; then on August 6th, he witnessed Bepin Pal registration of his ‘Extremist’ paper Bande Mataram, & became its assistant editor. Upon inaugurating the Bengal National College & School, its first educational institution on August 14, Rāshbehari’s Council, constrained by Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick’s awesome donation of one lakh appointed his fiery friend Sri Aurobindo as its Principal.
Sri Aurobindo published the following in the Bande Mataram of August 22 under the title ‘National Education & the Congress’: “National Education received the seal of approbation from united Bengal at the Barisal Conference. It should be the aim of the nationalists to elicit from the Congress this year a solemn expression of the national will recognising the new movement & recommending it to all India. It is possible that there may be some difficulty in carrying the motion, for the small-minded & fainthearted figure largely in the Congress ranks. At Benares [Congress 1905] this element disgraced the nation by excluding Swadeshi, the universal national movement, from the purview of the national assembly….
Inevitably, the Moderate bosses ran to the motherly apron of the Govt.’s top echelons & naturally the two together worked a strategy that prevented the New Party or the Nationalists led by Tilak & Sri Aurobindo by watering down the inevitable resolution on undiluted Swaraj. Inevitably therefore from 11th to 23rd April 1907, he published a series entitled “The Doctrine of Passive Resistance” filled with ‘seditious’ broadsides that set off panic-buttons in the highest echelons of the British Government, especially with such passages in its Introduction itself: “In a series of articles, published in this paper soon after the Calcutta session of the Congress, we sought to indicate our view both of the ideal which the Congress had adopted, the ideal of Swaraj or Self-Government as it exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies, & of the possible lines of policy by which that ideal might be attained. There are, we pointed out, only three possible policies: petitioning, an unprecedented way of attempting a nation's liberty, which cannot possibly succeed except under conditions which have not yet existed among human beings; self-development & self-help; & the old orthodox historical method of organised resistance to the existing form of Government. We acknowledge that the policy of self-development which the New Party had forced to the front was itself a novel departure under the circumstances of modern India. Self-development of an independent nation is one thing; self-development from a state of servitude under an alien & despotic rule without the forcible or peaceful removal of that rule as an indispensable preliminary, is quite another. No national self-development is possible without the support of rājaśakti, organised political strength, commanding, & whenever necessary compelling general allegiance & obedience. A caste may develop, a particular community may develop, by its own effort supported by a strong social organisation; a nation cannot…. Industrially, socially, educationally, there can be no genuine progress carrying the whole nation forward, unless there is a central force representing either the best thought & energy of the country or else the majority of its citizens & able to enforce the views & decisions of the nation on all its constituent members…. We have fumbled through the nineteenth century, prattling of enlightenment & national regeneration; & the result has been not national progress, but national confusion & weakness. Individuals here & there might emancipate themselves & come to greatness; particular communities might show a partial & one-sided development, for a time only; but the nation instead of progressing, sank into a very slough of weakness, helplessness & despondency. Political freedom is the life-breath of a nation; to attempt social reform, educational reform, industrial expansion, the moral improvement of the race without aiming first & foremost at Political freedom, is the very height of ignorance & futility. Such attempts are foredoomed to disappointment & failure; yet when the disappointment & failure come, we choose to attribute them to some radical defect in the national character; as if the nation were at fault & not its wise men who would not or could not understand the first elementary conditions of success. The primary requisite for national progress, national reform, is the free habit of free & healthy national thought & action wh1ch is impossible in a state of servitude. The second is the organisation of the national will in a strong central authority. How impossible it is to carry out efficiently any large national object in the absence of this authority was shown by the fate of the Boycott in Bengal…. Never indeed has the national will been so generally & unmistakably declared; but for the want of a central authority to work for the necessary conditions, to support by its ubiquitous presence the weak & irresolute & to coerce the refractory, it has not been properly carried out. For the same reason national education languishes. For the same reason every attempt at large national action has failed. It is idle to talk of self-development unless we first evolve a suitable central authority or Government which all will or must accept. The Japanese perceived this at a very early stage & leaving aside all other matters, devoted their first energies to the creation of such an authority in the person of the Mikado & his Government, holding it cheaply purchased even at the price of temporary internal discord & civil slaughter. We also must develop a central authority, which shall be a popular Government in fact though not in name... But Japan was independent; we have to establish a popular authority which will exist side by side & in rivalry with a despotic foreign bureaucracy – no ordinary rough-riding despotism, but quiet, pervasive & subtle – one that has fastened its grip on every detail of our national life & will not easily be persuaded to let go, even in the least degree, its octopus-like hold. This popular authority will have to dispute every part of our national life & activity, one by one, step by step, with the intruding force to the extreme point of entire emancipation from alien control. This & no less than this, is the task before us.” Inevitably, with almost continuous such ‘sedition’ pouring out of the paper, on 8th June the Government issued a warning its editor to desist from such utterances to no avail as nothing could legally be proved to be treasonable.
On July 30, 1907, the police search the Bande Mataram office & lodged a complaint against Sri Aurobindo. He resigned from the Bengal National College on August 2nd, & was arrested on the 16th on charge of sedition, & released on bail. During the period of the trial Sri Aurobindo resigned his Principalship of the College in order to save embarrassment to the Council & to enable them to run the institution. There were differences with the College Council – the Council, under the weak-kneed Moderate Rāshbehari Ghose did not dare make the National College anything more than imparting a place of learning that Govt. would approve; Sri Aurobindo wanted to make it a cradle of national regeneration. After his acquittal on 23rd September, the Council could not but recall him to his post, but he seems to have preferred to be just one of the professors of the College. That day he gave a special address to the students (see Bengal National College). At the same time ‘came forward’ in public as the leader of the Nationalist Party in Bengal which allowed him to gradually cut himself off from the Moderate controlled Bengal National College.
Natus/ Natu Brothers “two prominent Poona Brahmins arrested in 1897 & deported under suspicion of being behind the murders of Rand (q.v.) & Ayerst in Poona.
Navagwas Nine-rayed Vedic Rishis, descendants of Aṇgiras, who sacrificed for nine months. They are often associated with the Dashagwas (ten-rayed) whose session of sacrifice lasted for ten. The Navagwas themselves might well have become Dashagwas by extending the period of sacrifice. The two are not different classes of Angirasa Rishis, but rather seem to be two different powers of Aṇgirashood.
Navakishan Navakrishna Deb (1733-97): born in Gobindapur: father died while he was still young: at 18 he was Persian Munshi to Warren Hastings: he early entered the service of Lokhhi (Lakshmi) Kānta (alias Naku Dhur), Baniā of Clive: subsequently became a Munshi to Clive who had made a fortune after the Battle of Plassey (23Jun1757) & founded the Sobhabazar Deb House in Calcutta: in 1765 Clive procured from Emperor Shah Alam the title of Raja Bahadur for him, besides appointing him Political Diwan to the E.I. Company: in 1766 he was made Maharaja Bahadur & began to preside over Caste Tribunals: his appointments were continued under Warren Hastings, who, in 1780s, appointed him manager of the Burdwan zamindari. [Buckland; s/a Horu Thakur] A report of Sri Aurobindo’s speech on “Bande Mataram” in Amraoti on 29th Jan.1908: “The song, he said, was not only a national anthem to be looked on as the European nations look upon their own, but one replete with mighty power, being a sacred mantra, revealed to us by the author of Ananda Math, who might be called an inspired Rishi. He described the manner in which the mantra had been revealed to Bankim Chandra, probably by a Sannyasi under whose teaching he was. He said that the mantra was not an invention, but a revivification of the old mantra which had become extinct, so to speak, by the treachery of one Navakishan.” [SABCL Vol.1:666]
Nava Shakti/ Nabasakti Bengali daily started in May 1907 with a certain Manmohan Ghose as printer & publisher. It was conducted & owned by Manoranjan Guhā Thākurtā.
Nayak Bengali daily of Calcutta, edited by Panchcowri Banerji. It was one of the two most popular dailies; the other was Sandhyā, edited by Brahmabāndhav Upādhyāya.
Nazarene Jesus Christ as born in or from Nazareth.
Neaera name of various nymphs in classical poetry. It appears in Milton’s Lycidas.
Neleus son of Poseidon & the father of Nestor.
Nelson Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), 1st Viscount Nelson, British naval commander who defeated Revolutionary & Napoleonic France in the battle of Nile & Trafalgar.
Nemesis personified law & order, Greek goddess of Fate & Punishment.
Neoptolemus son of Achilles & Deidamia. In Homer’s Iliad, he is sent for by the Greeks after Achilles’ death, as his presence is necessary, according to an oracle, for the taking of Troy. “Neoptolemus” in Greek means “new in war” (young warrior).
Neptune Roman god of fertility, later times identified with Poseidon, god of the sea. (2) The planet named Neptune was discovered in 1846.
Nereid(s) daughters of the sea-god Nereus & of Doris: They preside over the Ocean, & protect sailors in distress in the form of nymphs.
Nereus a kindly god of the Ocean, son of Pontus & Gaea.
Nero Nero Claudius Caesar was the title of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus as the 5th Roman emperor (54-68). His fervent admiration of Greek culture & efforts to be a poet & artist, made no impression of the common people who suffered under his unstable character & bizarre cruelty.
Nestor son of Neleus; an aged statesman & counsellor, he was the lord of West Messenia, his home being Pylos.
The Netherlands also called Holland, a kingdom in north-western Europe, bounded by the North Sea in the north & west, by Belgium in the south, & by Germany in the east. Much of the country lies below sea-level & is protected by dikes. Amsterdam is the constitutional capital. The Hague is the royal residence & the seat of government. The Revolt of the Spanish Netherlands led to the collapse of Spain as a major European power. By 1618 (the start of the Thirty Years War) no Catholic country saw Spain as a useful ally.
Sri Aurobindo: “The mistake which despots, benevolent or malevolent, have been making ever since organised states came into existence & which, it seems, they will go on making to the end of the chapter “is that… [a] feeling or a thought, Nationalism, Democracy, the aspiration towards liberty, cannot be estimated in the terms of concrete power; in so many fighting men, so many armed police, so many guns, so many prisons, such & such laws, ukases, & executive powers…. It was a thought that overthrew the despotism of centuries in France & revolutionised Europe. It was a mere sentiment against which the irresistible might of the Spanish armies & the organised cruelty of Spanish repression were shattered in the Netherlands which… loosened the iron grip of Austria on Italy.” [“The Strength of the Idea”, SABCL 1:411]
Spanish Netherlands was the collective name of the Imperial States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, held by the Spanish Crown (called Habsburg Spain) from 1581 to 1714. This region comprised most of modern Belgium & Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France & western Germany. The capital, Brussels, was in the Duchy of Brabant. The population of the Spanish Netherlands was 3 million with about 300 cities. There was immense local patriotism in the area which was split by language. There were seventeen provinces. The fourteen Northern provinces spoke Dutch dialects while the three Southern ones spoke Walloon. The nobles spoke French though more so in the South than in the North. A common administration of the provinces, centred in the Duchy of Brabant, already existed under the rule of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good with the first convocation of the States-General of the Netherlands in 1437. His granddaughter Mary had confirmed a number of privileges to the States by the Great Privilege signed in 1477. In 1519, Charles V became the Holy Roman Emperor – he was King of Spain as Charles I from 1516. Though as Duke of Burgundy he spoke Flemish, he nonetheless burdened the region with heavy taxes. In 1522, he concluded a partition treaty with his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand I whereby the House of Habsburg split into an Austrian & a Spanish branch. By the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, Charles declared the Seventeen Provinces a united & indivisible Habsburg dominion. The division was consummated when he resignedly announced his abdication in 1556. The Seventeen Provinces, de jure still fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, from that time on de facto were ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs as part of the Burgundian heritage. While Archduke Ferdinand I succeeded his brother Charles as the Holy Roman Emperor, the Spanish branch was inherited by Charles’ only surviving son Philip II of Spain who was neither a Burgundian nor spoke Flemish. Philip needed the region for its wealth. Antwerp was the centre from which bullion from the New World was distributed & its financiers were experts in raising loans – a point not lost on him. His regent in Spanish Netherlands was Margaret of Parma, an illegitimate daughter of Charles V. She was advised by a Council of State which comprised of the great magnates & leading officials within the region. The real power lay with the Council’s president, an Erasmian-influenced Burgundian called Anthony Perrenot, Lord of Granville. In 1559 Philip appointed Granville Cardinal, three new archbishops & fourteen new bishops for Spanish Netherlands including new Low Countries Sees. The bishops were also to sit on the Estates-General which would increase Philip’s power, create an ecclesiastical organisation & a more centralised administration which would take power away from the Stadtholders. Fearful those appointments would lead to greater religious persecution & that the Inquisition would start to assert itself, all three sectors of society were angered – the rich, the merchants & the general population. The three leading magnates, William of Orange, the Count of Egmont, & the Duke of Aerschot, though not consciously revolutionary called for Granville’s dismissal, persuaded the Estates-General to grant Philip a 9-year subsidy if he granted the liberties required by the Spanish Netherlands & pulled out Spanish troops stationed there. This took arrangement place in 1561. By then spread of Calvinism in the Low Countries had taken hold. It found support from the lower classes, lesser nobles & town leaders. In 1566, Calvinism within the region was based in Antwerp. The religion spread rapidly. As a strong Catholic, Philip determined to rid the region of Calvinism. He appointed wealthy & powerful magnates as provincial governors or Stadtholders. William of Orange became Stadtholder of Holland, Utrecht, & Zeeland, while the Count of Egmont took charge of Flanders & Artois. The Stadtholders were to control the Estates-General & rule Spanish Netherlands on Philip’s behalf. This control did not happen. Philip’s despotism & his stern Counter-Reformation measures sparked the revolt of mainly Calvinist Netherlandish provinces, which led to the outbreak of the Eighty Years’ War in 1568. In January 1579 the seven Northern provinces formed the Protestant Union of Utrecht, which declared independence from the so-called Spanish branch of the Habsburgs as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands by the 1581 Act of Abjuration. The Spanish branch of the Habsburgs could only retain the rule over the partly Catholic Southern Netherlands, completed after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585. ― The Habsburg Netherlands passed to the Austrian Habsburgs after the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. Under Austrian rule, the ten provinces’ defence of their privileges proved as troublesome to the reforming Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor as it had to his ancestor Philip II two centuries before, leading to a major rebellion in 1789–1790. The Austrian Netherlands were ultimately lost to the French Revolutionary armies, & annexed to France in 1794. Following the war, Austria’s loss of the territories was confirmed, & they were joined with the northern Netherlands as a single kingdom under the House of Orange at the 1815 Congress of Vienna. The south-eastern third of Luxembourg Province was made into the autonomous Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, because it was claimed by both the Netherlands & Prussia. In 1830 the predominantly Roman Catholic southern half became independent as the Kingdom of Belgium (northern half being predominantly Calvinist). In 1839 the final border between the kingdom of the Netherlands & Belgium was determined & the eastern part of Limburg returned to the Netherlands as the province of Limburg. The autonomy of Luxembourg was recognised in 1839, but an instrument to that effect was not signed until 1867. The King of the Netherlands was Grand Duke of Luxembourg until 1890. He was succeeded by his daughter, Wilhelmina but since Luxembourg still followed the Salic law at the time, which forbade a woman to rule in her own right, the union of the Dutch & Luxembourger crowns ended & north-western two-thirds of original Luxembourg remains a province of Belgium.
Nevinson Henry Wood Nevinson (1856-1941), an active journalist from 1897 to 1930 was a special correspondent of the Daily News of London. Prior to his Indian visit in later 1907, he had covered the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the Spanish-American War (1898) & the Russian Revolution (1905). His reportage would continue through the two World Wars, until his death. Before he left England he first met Lord Morley the Secretary of State – the Last Word on Indian administration. Then he interviewed the Committee set up by the INC in 1887 to lobby for its causes in England on an annual budget of Rs.45000/-. It was headed by Hume, Naoroji, Wedderburn, & Henry Cotton. Nevinson’s brief in India was to “discover the causes of the present discontent & to report without prejudice, the opinion of leading Indians as well as officials”. He landed in Bombay on 25 October 1907 & travelled for four months across India. In Pune, he met with & found Tilak & Gokhale equally impressive. In late November he was in Chennai where he visited the temples at Mylapore & Triplicane & a Swadeshi cotton mill, spoke a meeting of the Mahājana Sabhā & was interviewed by The Hindu & Madras Standard. On 23rd evening he attended a large Swadeshi meeting at the Marina Beach called to celebrate the release of Lālā Lajpat Rai & Ajīt Singh after six months of deportation without notice, charge or trial. The meeting began with cries of “Vande Mataram” & the Tamil translation by Bharati. The police report of the meeting mentioned these leaders of the assembly: V. Chakkarai Chettiar, S. Duraiswamy Iyer & G.A. Natesan. In December he attended the Surat Congress & his account is considered among the most reliable ones. His reports were also carried by Manchester Guardian, Glasgow Herald, & Daily Chronicle. The Indian Review, March 1908, carried an article by H.W. Nevinson contributed on the completion of his Indian tour. The irritating suppression which he had noticed everywhere had appeared to him more exasperating & degrading than savage persecution. He had not failed to notice the arrogance of English officials in India & the superiority-complex which upset the balance of the mind even of English jurors & judges. “You can” he remarked, “make apparent gentlemen into ‘bounders’ by setting them up as a superior race in the midst of a polite & gentle people, always too much inclined to submit to insolence with reverential astonishment.” – “Till I came out here, I could not have believed that Englishmen, who talk so much about fair play at home, could be so blinded by prejudice, when they act as judges, magistrates or jurymen in India.” – “The vulgarities of behaviour are only to be reformed by a change of heart; &, at present I see no sign of such a change. To some extent, Indians have the reform in their own hands; & they should remember that every time they resist vulgarity & refuse to bow to arrogance, every time they strike insolence full in the face, manfully disregarding the cost, something at least is gained for both the races.” – “If in addition to the double armour of having justice on your side, you feel the power of breaking the other man’s bones, you have triple armour.” His book The New Spirit of India containing edited versions of his reports during the tour appeared in the autumn of 1908. It makes it clear that despite his sympathy for Nationalists led by Tilak & Sri Aurobindo he put his money on the gradualism of the Moderate leaders Mehta, Gokhale, Wacha, & their counterparts in the rest of the country. Evidently he was told the Moderates were Govt.’s protégés – a fact proved by the arrests & convictions of Tilak & Sri Aurobindo, V.O.C. Pillai & scores of nationalist leaders all over the country, & the self-imposed exile of Lajpat Rai & Pal. Bharati translated those parts of his book in Tamil which appreciated the nationalist aspirations & positions, especially Nevinson’s comments on Tilak & Sri Aurobindo, omitting those to Gokhale. [A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s “A British journalist & the Tamil poet”, The Hindu, 11 Dec., 2012; s/a Karandikar’s Lōkamānya]
New English School Seeing how the education system, controlled & directed by the Govt. & Christian Missionaries was perverting India’s future generations, but English education itself could become the surest foundation of national progress & solidarity, Tilak, G.G. Agarkar & V.K. Chiplunkar started the New English School on 1st January 1880 in Poona, charging less than the Govt. High School & exempting the poor. Within the first four months a large number of students migrated from the Govt. High School to it & by 1881 they had 336 students of which 20% were poor. In 1884, Sir James Fergusson, Governor of Bombay presided over the School’s prize distribution ceremony. Emboldened, the founders decide to start a college by first forming the Dakshīna (Deccan to non/anti-Indians) English Society to manage the college & the institutions that might spring up in the future. The college named Fergusson College, after Sir James was opened by him on 2nd January 1885. [Karandikar]
New India (1) English weekly started by Bepin Chandra Pal in 1904; (2) In July 1915, Annie Besant, proprietor, publisher, printer & editor of the English daily Madras Standard (started in August 1914) renamed it New India.
Cardinal Newman John Henry Newman (1801-90), English theologian & writer.
The New Statesman & (the) Nation English weekly issued from London.
Newton Sir Isaac (1642-1727), English physicist & mathematician, best known for his formulation of the Law of Gravitation & of the Laws of Motion.
New Ways in English Literature essays by James Cousins [Ganesh & Co., Madras, 1917]
Nibelungenlied title of a Middle High German epic written c. 1200 by an unknown Austrian. Nibclungen, an evil family possesses a magic hoard of accursed gold.
Czar Nicholas Nicholas II of Russia (1868-1918), he & his family were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Nicias (d.413 BC), Athenian statesman who opposed Cleon after Pericles’ death.
Nidah ‘Restrainers or Censurers’; considered Stronger than Vritras.
Nidhu Babu Rām Nidhi Gupta (1741-1839), writer of musical verse & light melodies, introduced Hindustani Tappa in Bengal. A collection of his songs ‘Gitāratna’ came out in 1832 & two larger collections posthumously.
Nietzsche Friedrich (1844-1900), German classical scholar, philosopher, & critic.
Nightingale, Florence (1820-1910), born at Florence; founded an institute for nursing as a profession for women. Her genius for administration was displayed in 1854 in the Crimean War; first woman to receive (1907) the British Order of Merit.
Night Thoughts/ Night’s Thoughts The Complaint: or Night Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality (1742-45), monologue by Edward Young, in nine parts or “Nights”.
Nilakantha commentator on Mahābhārata, Devibhāgavata & other works.
Nīla Rudra Upanishad belonging to the Atharvaveda.
Nineteenth Century monthly review founded in 1877 by Sir J.T. Knowles. When the 19th century ended, the review added to its old title “And After”.
Nirāpada Nirāpada Roy, accused in Alipore Bomb Trial; sentenced to transportation for 10 years by the Sessions Court, which High Court reduced to 5 years’ R.I.
Nirukta one of the Vedāṇgas. The term means etymology & glossary. It is devoted to the explanation of difficult Vedic words. The only work of this kind now known to us is that of Yaska, though 17 writers of Nirukta preceded him.
Nishādha mentioned in the Mahābhārata: its ruler was Virasena, father of Nala.
Nishkriti Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya.
Nitishataka a century of Sanskrit epigrams on morality by Bhartrihari. Sri Aurobindo freely rendered it into English verse, entitling his translation “The Century of Morals”, a literal translation of the original title. Later he changed the title to “The Century of Life”.
Nivedita, fille de l’Inde biography in French by Lizelle Raymond (Paris in 1945).
Nivedita, Sister name given to Miss Margaret Noble (1867-1911) by Swami Vivekananda. An Irishwoman, she was the closest European disciple of the Swami. She devoted herself to social service & was an ardent supporter of India's struggle for independence. In 1902, “Khāserao Jādhav & I”, Sri Aurobindo confided to a few disciples in Pondicherry, “went to receive Nivedita at the Baroda station. When she saw the Dharamshāla on the station, she said: ‘How beautiful!’ & seeing the new College buildings, she exclaimed: ‘How ugly!’” [Purani, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 2007] And when he left for Chandernagore in Jan-Feb. 1910, it was to her that he entrusted the editing of his journal Karmayogin.
‘No Compromise’ “Sri Aurobindo held up always the slogan of 'no compromise' or, as he now put it in his Open Letter to his countrymen published in the Karmayogin, ‘no co-operation without control’.” [SABCL Vol.26, p.35]
Abinash Bhattacharya: “…When Lord Curzon (q.v.) decided to carry out the partition of Bengal (first announced in 1903, carried out in October 1905), Aurobindo-babu wrote: “A golden opportunity has come. Lay special stress on the Anti-Partition movement. Many workers will come from this movement.” He sent us a little pamphlet he had written entitled No Compromise. No press would print it. With no other course open, we bought types, sticks, lead, case, etc., & got the matter composed at our house by a young Marathi man named Kulkarni [cf. P.B. Kulkarni in “Life [or The Life] of Sri Aurobindo” by A.B. Purani]. Needless to say this Kulkarni used to stay with us. One night we got a press to print about a thousand copies of the pamphlet. It was distributed among all the newspaper editors & among the respectable educated classes. Barin & I took a copy to the venerable Surendranath Banerjee. At first he asked us to leave the pamphlet & go, but as we stood there obstinately, he took it up to glance at it – & could not put it down. He read the entire thing with great concentration, utterly stunned. He asked who the author was. No Indian, why, not even a Bengali, could write such English, & present the facts so cogently – such was his opinion. When he was told that Aurobindo Ghose was the author, he said: “Yes, he is the only person who could write in this way.” No copy of this pamphlet escaped the swoop of British CID which destroyed everyone it laid its hands on.” [“Sri Aurobindo”, Mother India, July 2012, pp.528-39]
Noailles, Comtesse de Anna Elisabeth de Brancovan (1876-1933), Rumanian noble who wrote French poetry & a number of short stories, a novel, & an autobiography.
Nodha (Gautama) a Vedic Rishi, descendant of Gautama & Kakshivan.
Nolinie an apsarā.
Northbrook Hall public hall in Dhaka, named after Thomas George Baring Northbrook (1826-1904): Private Secretary successively to Mr Labouchere (Lord Taunton) at the Board of Trade, Sir George Grey at Home Office, Sir C. Wood (Lord Halifax) at India Office & Admiralty: Junior Lord of Admiralty 1857-8: Under Secretary for India 1859-1 & 1861-4: Under Secretary for the Home Dept. 1864-6, & for War 1868-72: Viceroy & Gov.-Gen. (1872-76), during which he refused the prayers of the Amir of Afghanistan for assistance & protection: “controlled with vigour & success” the Bengal famine of 1874, by refusing to prohibit British looter-farmers in India from exporting Indian grains to England & importing enormous quantities of rice to sell to poverty & famine-stricken natives forcing upon them “as relief work”, the low-paying labour of building railways & canals over which the heaven-born British always had control: had Malharrao, the Gaekwad of Baroda, tried & exiled on a trumped up charge of trying to poison the perverse Resident Col. Phayre: entertained the British Prince of Wales at Indian expense by abolishing Income Tax on British businessmen making the packets: “the business of the Govt. was never better performed than in his time”: for all of the charitable works listed here, grateful natives erected his statue in Calcutta & he, at their expense, “founded & presided over the Northbrook Indian Club in London”. [Buckland sieved]
Norton Pattabhi Sitāramayyā: Mr Eardley Norton…was the son of John Bruce Norton who was a well-known public man in South India & whose portrait is hung in the Pachaiyappa’s Hall, Madras. The younger Norton spent the best part of his life in India & laboured like his father for India’s uplift. In 1894 [at the 10th INC Session at Madras, under Mr A. Webb], he moved the Resolution on the abolition of the India Council & formulated the conundrum: “If the Secretary of State is to be controlled by the Council, then abolish the Secretary of State. If the Council is to be controlled by the Secretary of State, then abolish the Council…. The dual existence is useless, dangerous, expensive & obstructive.” And on the subject of Lord Ripon’s repealing of Lord Lytton’s Vernacular Press Act of 1878, he quoted a statement of the P.M. Gladstone, the great friend of India, “Suddenly in the dark, in the privacy of the Council Chamber, I believe in answer to a telegram, without the knowledge of Parliament, without the knowledge of the country, a law was passed totally extinguishing the freedom of the Native Press. I think a law such as that is a disgrace to the British Empire. [History of INC (1885-1935), 1935, pp.80-81]
Buckland: Norton, John Bruce (1815-1883) son of Sir John David Bruce, Puisne Judge of the Madras Supreme Court: educated at Harrow & Merton College, Oxford: called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn 1841: Sheriff of Madras 1843-5: Govt. pleader: Advocate-General 1863-71: Member of Legislative Council, Madras: Fellow & Lecturer of Madras University: an ardent advocate & supporter of native interests & education: Patron of Pachaiyappa’s school at Madras: appointed first lecturer on Law to Indian students at the Temple, London, July 1873.
M.V. Ramana Rao: The speech of Mr Eardley Norton, at Madras in 1887 (at 3rd session of INC) under subtitle Tenor of Discussions was remarkable. A British barrister practicing at Madras, Mr N was a staunch friend of India. His espousal of the Indian view-point was galling to his fellow countrymen & they described him as a ‘veiled seditionist’. Mr N said: “If it be sedition, gentlemen, to rebel against all wrong; if it be sedition to insist that the people should have a fair share in the administration of their own country & affairs; if it be sedition to resist tyranny, to raise my voice against oppression, to mutiny against injustice, to insist on a hearing before sentence, to uphold the liberties of the individuals, to vindicate our common right to gradual but ever advancing reform – if this be sedition I am glad to be call a seditionist & doubly glad, aye, trebly glad when I look around me today, to know & feel I am ranked as one among such a magnificent array of seditionists.” It was a remarkable exhibition of courage & honesty & love of democratic principles…. At the 5th Congress (Bombay, 1889) presided over by Sir William Wedderburn, Mr N., the intrepid fighter, moving a resolution, said, “The existing councils were shams & that half of them should be elected. If the element of election to half the seats was conceded, we shall have the right to criticize the budget, we shall have the glorious privilege of interpellation, a right which if properly applied will lead to the enormous benefit both of the rulers & ruled. [A Short History of the I.N.C., S. Chand & Co., 1959]
Suresh Balakrishnan …at the Bombay Congress of 1889 he introduced the Madras scheme for the reform of the Indian Legislative Councils, which metamorphosed into the Indian Councils Act, 1892. The Madras scheme was prepared under his leadership, & this was one of his deeds as a Congressman which is hardly mentioned in hitherto published books on the history of the INC or the Indian national struggle.... At the next Congress at Madras in 1894, he held the audience spellbound with a stirring speech demanding the abolition of the Indian Council. …. In 1906, he wound up his Madras practice & residence & moved to Calcutta…. He had always wanted to practise in Calcutta where he felt the Bar was stronger than Madras & he preferred to compete with equal or better talent. Calcutta witnessed his appearance in many sensational cases, including the historic trial against revolutionaries known as the Alipore Bomb Case (1908-09), in which he led the prosecution. …. Having worked for nearly fifty years at the Indian Bar, he retired in early 1920s. His last professional engagement was in 1923 for Nabha in the Nabha-Patiala dispute in the Punjab. He then spent a couple of years in Kodaikanal…left India for good in May 1926…spent the last five years of his life peacefully in Kent & breathed his last on July 13, 1931. [“Eardley Norton, Congressman”, Madras Musing, August 16-31, 2018, p.6]
P. Heehs: Mr Norton was engaged by the Bengal Government as the counsel for prosecution in the Alipore Bomb Case (1908-09) in all the three courts – the Magistrate’s, the Sessions Judge’s, & the High Court. The Bengal government instructed the inspector general of police to follow every clue that connected Aurobindo with the conspiracy & to make ‘every effort to procure a conviction in court.’ The govt. hired [him], the leading barrister of Madras, to head the prosecution. It was rumoured that his pay was the staggering sum of 1,000 rupees a day. Several members of the Calcutta detective police were assigned full time to the case, sifting through the piles of evidence to piece together an account of the events leading up to the Muzaffarpur murders. Norton was to do the rest. Aurobindo took scant interest in the proceedings of the hearing. He…looked on with amusement as Norton wove the evidence into a grand historical drama. [Later, commenting on it, Sri Aurobindo wrote]: Just as Holinshed, Hall & Plutarch gathered the materials for Shakespeare’s historical plays, so the police had collected the material for this drama of a case. Mr N was its Shakespeare. I noticed one difference between Shakespeare & Norton, however. Shakespeare occasionally would leave out some part of the material that had been collected; but Mr N never left out one jot of what he received By adding plentiful amounts of suggestion, inference & hypothesis from his own imagination, he managed to create such a wonderful plot that Shakespeare & Defoe & the other great poets & novelists would have acknowledged defeat at the hands of this great master. [Lives of Aurobindo, 2008]
Nrsimhottaratāpanīya / Nrsimhatālīya an Upanishad belonging to Atharva-Veda.
Nyāya one of the six Darshanas, Science of Logic, by Rishi Gautama.