A Savitri Encyclopedia

A draft overall concept

When we study the text of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, it is often interesting to know what has been said about particular words or passages, by Sri Aurobindo himself, by the Mother, by disciples such as Nolini, Purani, Amal Kiran, Nirodbaran, teachers such as Tehmi, Jhumur, Shraddhavan and others, or information from other sources. We may also like to be able to compare different editions or versions of the text, or to know which passages have been illustrated by Huta in the Meditations on Savitri series, and thus recorded by the Mother. It might be helpful sometimes to listen to her recorded readings of those and other passages.

The computer makes it possible to have a full text of the poem, annotated in such a way that a user could easily access, by clicking on a link, any such information which is available in digital form.

This possibility has inspired us to initiate the compilation of a ‘Savitri Encyclopedia’ in digital form, which could be contributed to by many researchers, and added to over time indefinitely.

The starting point would be a digital version of the text of the poem (some of which exist already). Then various contributors could choose the materials which they would like to make available from the various sources.

In each case, it seems, it would be important to choose as a base one particular digital version of the poem (several now exist). All future contributors should use that version as a base.

Then they must see that the material they wish to add is made available in digital form.

A way has to be found to link the relevant materials with the corresponding word, lines or text in the poem.

One could envisage a series of ‘footnotes’ giving a reference to the text of the original material, including a link to a digital source of that material, so that a single click could take the user to that source, wherever it may be stored on the internet (or in ‘the cloud’). Since much of the material already exists in digital form, in many cases this would be not the last, but the first step to be created.

But meanwhile – until there is an editor, or an editorial team – and a central database linking the various materials, a start can simply be made by digitising any suitable material and saving it in an easily accessible and easily convertible form, ensuring that each Comment is clearly connected to the text of the poem by a heading or reference indicating the particular word, line or passage to which it refers, either verbally or using line numbers.

Creating an online platform for the Savitri Encyclopedia Project

Auroville, 22. February 2018

In the past Savitri Bhavan published a concept paper on the vision of a Savitri Online Encyclopedia, an online platform providing not only a digital version of the text, but also online references and links to all kinds information and interpretation available online and offline, referring to the different levels of the poem like the book as a whole, the books, cantos, sections, sentences, lines and words.

This project is meant to provide a powerful platform for the future to gather, organize and publish the work of several researchers, collecting the various levels of information by Sri Aurobindo and Mother themselves as well as by all the students and scholars on Savitri in the past, making them accessible directly liked to the relevant parts of the book. In this way the Savitri Online Encyclopedia could become a tool providing readers and researchers of different levels of knowledge a help in reading and understanding Sri Aurobindo’s amazing work.

To bring this project one step closer towards reality, Sebastian, one year volunteer at Savitri Bhavan since mid-January 2018, started to put up a draft for an appropriate online framework which is meant to provide the described features. The webpage is based on WordPress CMS and Avada Theme and published under the URL:

https://encyclopedia.savitribhavan.org/

The vision of the page is to provide information about background of the book, the original Mahabarata story, a summary of the book in general and the different cantos, information on the main lines of interpretation found in the literature as well as links and references to all kinds of online and offline resources. The core of the project will be a digital version of the 1993 Revised Edition of Savitri with the possibility to add pop-up comments on the level of cantos, sections, sentences, lines and words. On the level of words an easy-to-read pop-up definition of all more advanced English words will be integrated. A news section and maybe a newsletter are considered, to keep readers informed about recent developments and share interesting insights on Savitri. A first draft of the ongoing work is already online, not yet providing a ready-to-use system, but giving a good first impression on the vision of the webpage and its facilities.

When finished, Savitri researchers from all over the world are invited to contribute to the Encyclopedia. New materials will be selected, edited and put online by one or a few central editors taking care of the project. Our wish is to establish a cooperative collaboration between researchers and editors to make the process effective and satisfying for both sides.

Anybody who is interested to support and join the ongoing work or wants to give feedback or suggestions is very welcome to contact us by the contact form.