SAIIER Annual Report 2014-2015: Savitri Bhavan - Publications

Savitri Bhavan - Learning Materials		Savitri Bhavan - Research Projects
Savitri Bhavan - Publications

Activities of the year

During the financial year of 2014-15 the Entity::Savitri Bhavan team produced 5 different publications, all of which have been published and released:

1. Invocation: Study Notes on Savitri (2 issues, April and November 2014)

2. Prarthana - journal in Tamil on Savitri (2 issues, August 2014 and February 2015)

3. The Traveller and the Worlds: an overview of Part One of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (July

2014)

4. Glimpses of the Mother (December 2014)

5. The English of Savitri: The Book of Beginnings (February 2015)

A brief summary and description of each of them is given below:

1. Invocation: Study Notes on Savitri is Savitri Bhavan’s regular journal which has been appearing since November 1998. Its readership consists of students and lovers of Savitri, mainly from India, but also from 45 other countries around the world. Issue no. 40 (April 2014) contained 48 pages of black and white text and a few photos, with the standard cover of a special blue art-paper printed in gold and black. Issue no. 41 (November 2014) was similar, but contained 60 pages. 1000 copies of each issue were printed, at a total cost of Rs. 93,125 which was covered, as in the past, by a GOI grant.

2. Prarthana is a similar publication in Tamil, aimed particularly at members of Sri Aurobindo Centres in Tamil Nadu. The physical appearance is similar to that of the Invocation Issues. Nos. 22 (August 2014) and 23 (February 2015) had 60 pages each. 850 copies of each issue were printed, at a total cost of Rs. 71,904, which was covered, as it has been in the past, by a GOI grant.

The regular production process for both these journals consists first of collecting and compiling suitable materials, which are then sent in digital form to the Auroville unit Prisma for paging and DTP. After proofing and correction, announcements and photos with captions are added to make up the standard format, currently 60 pages for each issue. This takes at least two months, but we aim to start preparation immediately after the previous issue has appeared. Once the DTP work has been finalised, the matter has to be delivered to the Press at least one month before the date when the issue is required for posting. With four issues per year (two in English and two in Tamil), a regular rhythm is maintained throughout the year. The English journal is edited by Shraddhavan, the Tamil one by Dhanalakshmi. The journals are distributed by mailing list and request; current and back issues are also available from the Information desk of Savitri Bhavan. Current and back copies can also be downloaded in pdf format from www.savitribhavan.org.

3. The Traveller and the Worlds is a 42-page booklet published in July 2014 containing the full text of the 4th Dr. M.V. Nadkarni lecture held at Savitri Bhavan in August 2013, along with a DVD of the event. The lecture, delivered by Shraddhavan, gave an overview of the Yoga of King Aswapati as described in Books One, Two and Three of Sri Aurobindo’s epic. The cover of the booklet carries a photo of the event printed in four colours on stiff art card, with plastic pocket glued to the back inside cover to hold DVD. 200 copies were produced at a total cost of Rs. 19,700, which was covered from Savitri Bhavan available resources. The preparation process for this booklet was relatively simple, since the finalised version of the text was already available in digital form, as well as the DVD of the event made by Manohar. DTP work did not take long – most time was spent on the cover, which required a special design as well as the insertion of a pocket in the inside back cover to hold the DVD. Copies are available from the Information desk of Savitri Bhavan.

4. The English of Savitri: The Book of the Beginnings is a hardbound book of 526 pages containing edited transcripts of classes on the poetic language of Savitri held at Savitri Bhavan in 2009-10 and covering all the 5 cantos of the first Book of Sri Aurobindo’s epic. Preparing this book was a much longer process, which began with transcriptions being made from recordings of the weekly classes on which the text was based. These were edited over several years, during which some of them appeared as installments in Invocation issues. These articles met with a great deal of appreciation, and were even translated into Gujarati by an independent translator and published by him in a series of volumes. The success of the Gujarati volumes inspired the decision, in early 2014, to collect all the sessions covering the whole of Book One of Savitri for publication in book form in English. A work of extensive revision and standardisation was then begun. This accelerated in September 2014, when a donor offered to finance the publication on condition that it was released by February 21, 2015. For such a large book, requiring hard binding, the Press asked for all the matter to be provided to them by December 1, 2014. The month of November was to be spent on DTP, so the final text editing had to be completed in just two months. It was a great satisfaction that the book was ready for release on February 19, 2015. Production of this book cost Rs. 1,57,055 for 400 copies, which was fully covered by foreign donations. The book The English of Savitri is currently available for sale at the Information desk of Savitri Bhavan and the Ashram Trustees have granted permission for it to be distributed by SABDA. It is also available in e-book format from the Auroville unit Auro e-books, www.auro-ebooks.com.

The aim of all the above titles is to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri amongst interested people around the world.

5. Glimpses of the Mother is a booklet presentation of an exhibition giving an overview of the Mother’s life and work in short texts, photographs and facsimiles, which was prepared at Savitri Bhavan in early 2014 to celebrate the Centenary of the Mother’s first arrival in Pondicherry and meeting with Sri Aurobindo on March 29, 1914. The exhibition met with so much appreciation that it was decided to make it more widely available in booklet form and as a power-point presentation on the Savitri Bhavan website. The booklet, consisting of 56 pages of black and white text and photos printed on stiff art-card, with a coloured cover of the same art card, was published in December 2014. 300 copies were printed at a total cost of Rs.19,029, covered by Savitri Bhavan available resources. In this case the production process consisted of converting exhibition panels which had been prepared in 60x40cm format for display (as a research project in 2013-14) into the pages of a booklet in landscape format. Again DTP was done with Prisma, this time over a period of several weeks before a fully satisfactory layout was achieved. When the booklet had been printed and released in December 2014, a further conversion into power-point format was undertaken for posting on the website. Many of these booklets were distributed as complementary copies to staff, volunteers, donors and visitors around the Christmas and New Year period; a few remaining copies are now available against a contribution at the Savitri Bhavan Information Desk. The PowerPoint version of Glimpses of the Mother, which is similar to the booklet, can be viewed at www.savitribhavan.org.

All these publications are copyright of SAIIER. The exhibition and booklet Glimpses of the Mother were prepared with the permission and encouragement of the managing trustee of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. All proceeds from sale of these publications are channelled into the SAIIER Publications Fund, as are proceeds from earlier publications.