Between Mental Manufacture and Pure Transcript

Sri Aurobindo’s multifaceted engagements will continue to occupy scholars in different fields. As one who belongs to a country that has begotten eminent theoreticians in the fields of literature, arts, linguistics, and aesthetics, Sri Aurobindo’s contribution deserves a dispassionate assessment. Volume 27 of the Complete Works contains his “Letters on Poetry and Art†which can be examined for the potential for a theory of poetry. As letters, they are informal responses. However, they are also responses to specific and thoughtfully worded questions from individuals who have engaged Sri Aurobindo in serious discussions on the issues concerning poetry and the arts. An Indian academic is forged in a system of education that is more Western, in character, than Indian. Hence, the present concern to explore the potential for a theory of poetry among Indian scholars and theoreticians. There is the large corpus of Indian aesthetic ideas and theories that have been ignored or relegated to a position behind the Western ideas and theories. So much so, the average scholar shows a greater familiarity with Plato, Aristotle, Coleridge, Arnold and is wanting in the knowledge of Anandavardana, Bharatrihari, or, even, Sri Aurobindo. The present article examines the Letters in Volume 27 for the purpose of cataloguing the major concerns, themes, philosophical categories that inform the discussions, and theoretical issues that such a project would generate.