Private dispute should always be avoided; but shrink not from
public battle; yet even there appreciate the strength of thy adversary. ~ Sri
Aurobindo
Prof Manoj
Das writes: “I was for a while representing the Ashram in the courts where
several cases were filed against the Trust because it brought out a revised
version of the Master’s epic, Savitri. It was ‘revised’ in the sense
that errors (typographical, punctuation, omission, words not properly
deciphered in corrected proofs, etc) were removed through years of study and
scrutiny.I was convinced that the Revised Edition of the epic is the most
authentic one.” [Refer to Bireshwar Choudhury's reply to Manoj Das.]
In response
to this we have the following on the website: “The Savitri revision controversy has rocked the Ashram for a decade or
two. RY Deshpande was part of the team that finalised the Savitri revisions and he says that even Nirodbaran expressed his
unhappiness over some of the revisions. The late Jugal Kishore Mukherjiwrote a
fifty page letter to Amal on these revisions. … I will throw a challenge which Deshpande
has long been insisting upon: Make all the Savitri
manuscripts public. Put them up on the Net for all to see and judge for
themselves the legitimacy of the revisions of the Archives editors.”
Prof
Manoj Das says, “I was
convinced that the Revised Edition of the epic is the most authentic one.” He
also writes to the same effect to Dr Karan Singh.
Here
my concern is to ask one or two immediate questions to Prof Manoj Das. If I get
direct and non-evasive answers I would like to continue the dialogue further. The
technical dialogue will be on this website. It is up to him to say yes or no.
