Sri Aurobindo - Karuna Yoga

Note on the Text 731
The second phase in the composition of Savitri reached its
culmination when the first three books were written out in two
columns on large sheets. Many passages, including the whole of
the first and third books and much of the second, went through
two or more drafts in this form. The last complete manuscript
is dated “May 7. 1944” at the end.
It was while revising this manuscript that Sri Aurobindo
reintroduced the word “canto” which he had not used since an
early stage, applying it to the former “sections” of the books.
At this point the third section of Book One, “The Yoga of the
King”, was turned into Cantos 3-5 with their present titles. The
three opening books were for the first time identified as “Part
One”.
The two-column manuscript is the last continuous version
of Part One in Sri Aurobindo’s hand. But he went on reworking
Book One and passages throughout Book Two. For this purpose
he began using small note-pads whose sheets, containing new or
rewritten matter, could be torn out and pinned to the principal
manuscript at the appropriate places.
By the mid-1940s, Sri Aurobindo’s eyesight was failing and
his handwriting was becoming less and less legible. He needed
the help of a scribe in order to put Books 1-3 into a finished form,
take up the long-neglected later books, and prepare Savitri for
publication. This third phase of its composition saw periods of
rapid and decisive progress. But it was to be interrupted the
month before Sri Aurobindo’s passing, a little short of definitive
completion.
Much had still to be done with the first part. Sri Aurobindo
asked the scribe to read the last version to him. After dictating
changes, insertions and transpositions, he had his assistant copy
it into a large ledger. This copy was meticulously revised before
being given to another disciple for typing. The typescript in
its turn was read out to Sri Aurobindo and similarly revised.
Heavily revised pages were often retyped. The same process was
sometimes repeated, especially in the later cantos of Book Two,
where three typed copies exist.
Savitri now began to appear in print, though not yet in its