Raihana unborn.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1934 — 1935
Letter ID: 597
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
May 30, 1935
Here is a miracle si vous voulez [if you like]! The Parichay publishing an enthusiastic tribute to Dilip the singer and composer!! I enclose the copy. You need not read all the technicalities, if you don’t feel like it, only read the portion I have selected marked in red pencil.
It is a generous tribute undoubtedly though Dhurjati1 is wrong in opining there is no great difference between me and Tagore. There is and that is fundamental. I stand (whatever my worth) for the Classical style in music viz. that class of music where the singer or executant is a creator at every step in improvisations etc. while Tagore is for fining the cadre of the melody à la European music where the singer, as you know, follows the composer – having no choice. I stand for the free movement in music with all its dangers which are great; Tagore for the safe mediocrity since it is fixed and no liberty is given to the singer to vary the melody.
But truce to technicalities.
What about Raihana? Please –
Working very hard. A little cold today. So read Bhababhuti2.
P.S. Please read Niren’s prose poems. It is against such counterfeits that my gadya & padya [prose and poetry] is directed. Are these not counterfeits? Tell me.
I have not been able yet to go through the whole review – though I shall – but have seen the first two pages and the passages underlined. Well – to Americanise – that is some praise.
Raihana unborn.
Bhababhuti? Didn’t know he was a tonic against cold!
As for Niren’s poems, well, you know my opinion about free verse; I consider that even Whitman and Carpenter have failed to justify the departure. Niren’s achievements do not alter my opinion. But the first two lines or so have the modern epic quality – they transport us to celestial regions.
1 Dhurjati Prasad Mukherji was a Professor of Economy and Social science at Lucknow University. He was a well-known critic on poetry, music, etc., and a close friend of Dilip’s.
2 Bhababhuti was a Sanskrit poet who lived in the seventh century C.E. He was born in Padmapura in the state of Vidarbha, but spent most of his life in the palace of Yashodharma, king of Kanauj. His important works are the three dramas: Mālātīmādhava, Mahāvīracarita and Uttararāmacarita. He was a great devotee of Shiva.