Sri Aurobindo
Autobiographical Notes
and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part One. Autobiographical Notes
2. Sri Aurobindo’s corrections of statements in a proposed biography
Early Life in India and England. 1872–1893
Language Learning [1]1
He may have known a smattering of Bengali till he was five years of age. Thereafter till twenty-one he spoke only English.
In my father’s house only English and Hindustani were spoken. I knew no Bengali.
1 Note was written in reply to a review of Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays published in the Times Literary Supplement (London) on 8 July 1944. The note was incorporated in a letter by R. Vaidyanathaswamy, editor of the Advent (Madras), that was published in the TLS on 6 January 1945.