Chapter 12Life in Baroda, 1893–1906 · Meetings with His Grandfather at Deoghar

seemed to many, really settled down to a career of meritorious service.

“diligent, serious, etc.” This valuation of Sri Aurobindo’s quali-ties was not the Maharaja’s. He gave him a certificate for ability and intelligence but also for lack of punctuality and regularity. If instead of “diligent and serious” and “a career of meritorious service” it were said that he was brilliant and quick and efficient in work, it would be more accurate. The description, as it is, gives an incorrect picture.

[When he arrived in India, Sri Aurobindo knew no Indian language except a smattering of Bengali, which was one of the subjects he had to study for the I.C.S. examination.]

Bengali was not a subject for the competitive examination for the I.C.S. It was after he had passed the competitive examination that Sri Aurobindo as a probationer who had chosen Bengal as his province began to learn Bengali. The course of study provided was a very poor one; his teacher, a retired English Judge from Bengal was not very competent, but what was learnt was more than a few words. Sri Aurobindo for the most part learnt Bengali for himself afterwards in Baroda.

*

In Baroda, Sri Aurobindo engaged Pundits and started master-ing both Bengali and Sanskrit.

A teacher was engaged for Bengali, a young Bengali litt´erateur — none for Sanskrit.

*

[Sri Aurobindo took regular lessons in Bengali from Dinendra Kumar Roy at Baroda.]

No, there were no regular lessons. Dinendra lived with Sri Aurobindo as a companion and his work was rather to help him to correct and perfect his knowledge of the language and to accustom him to conversation in Bengali than any regular teaching.

[Another version:] Sri Aurobindo was not a pupil of Dinendra Kumar; he had learnt Bengali already by himself and only called in Dinendra to help him in his studies.

Sri Aurobindo . . . engaged a teacher — a young Bengali litt´er-ateur — and started mastering Bengali. . . .

About the learning of Bengali, it may be said that before engaging the teacher, Sri Aurobindo already knew enough of the language to appreciate the novels of Bankim and the poetry of Madhusudan. He learned enough afterwards to write himself and to conduct a weekly in Bengali, writing most of the articles himself, but his mastery over the language was not at all the same as over English and he did not venture to make speeches in his mother tongue.

*

[He studied Hindi at Baroda.]

Sri Aurobindo never studied Hindi; but his acquaintance with Sanskrit and other Indian languages made it easy for him to pick up Hindi without any regular study and to understand it when he read Hindi books or newspapers. He did not learn Sanskrit through Bengali, but direct in Sanskrit itself or through English.

*

In Baroda after making a comparative study of all literatures, history, etc., he began to realise the importance of the Veda.

No. Started study of V. at Pondicherry.

[Five of the poems in the book Songs to Myrtilla, were written in England, the rest in Baroda.]

It is the other way round; all the poems in the book were written