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A morn that seemed a new creation’s front,

Bringing a greater sunlight, happier skies,

Came, burdened with a beauty moved and strange

Out of the changeless origin of things.

An ancient longing struck again new roots.

— Sri Aurobindo, Savitri


Arrival in India

Sri Aurobindo returned to India in early February, 1893. Unfortunately his arrival in India was preceded by his father Dr. Krishnadhan’s death in peculiarly tragic circumstances. Even as late as 2 December 1892, as may be inferred from his letter of that date to his brother-in-law Jogendra, Dr. Krishnadhan was feeling almost certain that his son Aurobindo would be entering the Indian Civil Service and making his mark as a brilliant administrator. Sometime later information seems to have reached Krishnadhan of Sri Aurobindo’s failure to get into the Service and of the Baroda appointment. He also heard from Grindlays, his bankers, of Sri Aurobindo’s departure from England by a particular boat which, however, went down off the coast of Portugal near Lisbon and many lives were lost. When the news was telegraphed to Krishnadhan by Grindlays (who didn’t know that Sri Aurobindo actually left by a later boat), it came as a stunning blow; he concluded that his beloved son Aurobindo was lost for ever, and as he suffered from a weak heart he collapsed the same night and died uttering Aurobindo’s name in lamentation. A slightly different recital of events occurs in Brajendranath De’s Reminiscences of an Indian Member of I.C.S. that appeared in 1954 in The Calcutta Review.

"Dr. Ghose believed up to the very end, that his son had been admitted into the Indian Civil Service, and was in fact , coming out. He, in fact, took a month’s leave to go and meet him in Bombay and bring him back in triumph, but he could not get any definite news as to when he was coming out and returned from Bombay in a very depressed frame of mind. At last one afternoon he got a wire from his agents in Bombay to the effect that his son’s name did not appear in the list of the passengers by the steamer in which he had been expecting his son to come out to India.

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"It so happened that, that very night he and the Superintendent of Police were coming to dine at my house. The dinner was ready, the Superintendent came, but there was no sign of the doctor, although his bungalow was quite close to my house. After waiting for some time I sent an orderly to remind him of the fact that he had agreed to dine at my house that night. The man came back and informed us that the doctor was very ill. I at once went round, heard of the telegram and found the doctor very ill and quite unconscious. The other medical men in the station were assiduous in their attentions. I did all I could. But it was all of no avail. The poor man lingered on for a day or two and then passed away…. I had to take the body to the cremation grounds and to attend the cremation."¹ 

As a matter of fact, Sri Aurobindo left England not by the Roumania but by the mail steamer Carthage and, though it encountered a violent storm in the Mediterranean, he reached India quite safely on 6 February 1893 at Apollo Bunder, Bombay, at 10.55 a.m.

And how did India receive her beloved child? What gifts, what presents had she kept ready for him? She bestowed upon him, as an unsolicited grace, one of .the brightest gems of her immemorial heritage a high spiritual experience, "a vast calm descended upon him… this calm surrounded him and remained for long months afterwards." This is one of the experiences that came to him unasked:²

That was the characteristic way in which India greeted her son when he returned to her bosom after a long sojourn in a foreign land. This greeting was at once a symbol and a prophecy. It was an index to the glory of his life’s mission.

¹ The Calcutta Review. Vol. 132, No. 3 (September 1954), p. 181.

²  For details, please see chapter on ‘Spiritual Life Experiences’.

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Apollo Bunder

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Steamer Carthage

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 Baroda Service

The Gaekwar of the State of Baroda, one of the most enlightened rulers of the Indian states of that period, happened to be in England when Sri Aurobindo was there. One James Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton (for some time Lt. Governor of Bengal), had been taking interest in Sri Aurobindo and his brothers and was well-acquainted with them. He negotiated with the Gaekwar on behalf of Sri Aurobindo. The result of the negotiation was that Sri Aurobindo "obtained an appointment in the Baroda Service…" The Gaekwar offered to pay him Rs. 200/per month and, shrewd man that he was, felt glad that he had been able to engage a brilliant young man of the I.C.S. calibre for such a paltry remuneration. But Sri Aurobindo was indifferent to money matters.

Sri Aurobindo served in the Baroda State from 8 February 1893 to 18 June 1906. His age was twenty-one when he joined, thirty-four when he left. The period of his service was 13 years 4 months and 11 days.

During this period Sri Aurobindo often stayed with Khaserao Jadhav in his house at Dandia Bazar. In his absence he stayed with Khaserao’s brother Madhavrao Jadhav. Several other houses also were occupied at different times in Baroda.

Houses in Baroda

Sri Aurobindo came to Baroda in February 1893. His "first friend" there was Bapubhai Majumdar, a young man he had known in England. "He took me to his house and I stayed there for some time," Sri Aurobindo once remarked. (Purani, Evening Talks, Series One, pp. 305-06.) During the next thirteen years, the period of his active service in Baroda State, Sri Aurobindo lived at one time or another in as many as a half-dozen houses in the city of Baroda. One of these was in the Camp near the bazaar and another

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Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar of Baroda

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Khaserao Jadhav’s House

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behind the College on the way to the Camp (Government Quarters). There was also Mir Bakarali’s wada, near Shiapura, and Kiledar’s wada, on the way to Makerpura Palace. Sri Aurobindo seems to have stayed in the latter house during the first outbreak of plague in Baroda (1896-97). Another house occupied for some time was a certain bungalow on Race-course Road. It was probably to this place that Sri Aurobindo was referring when, in September 1903, in response to a request from King’s College, Cambridge, he gave his address as "Racecourse Road, Baroda, or the Baroda Officers Club, Baroda Gymkhana."

But the house where Sri Aurobindo seems to have spent most of his time at Baroda was the bungalow of his friend Khaserao Jadhav. This place. Bungalow 15 in Dandia Bazar, was built especially for Khaserao by the Maharaja and was completed in 1896. It was around this time that Sri Aurobindo first made Khaserao’s acquaintance. The following passage, which includes a description of the bungalow, is taken from an unpublished biography of Sri Aurobindo by his younger brother, Barindra Kumar.

"One morning I took a rickshaw at Baroda railway station of G.I.P. line and with my cheap canvas valise and in travel-stained clothes appeared before the red brick-built two-storied house of Khaserao Jadhav, Naib-Suba (Chief Collector)¹of Navsari in Guzrat.

"The butler of the house met me at the door and dubiously ushered me into the fine drawing room near the portico. He was hard put to it to believe me and take such a loafer in dirty clothes as the brother of the great Ghose Saheb of the Maharaja Sahib of Baroda. He disappeared somewhere upstairs to announce my arrival. Almost immediately after, Sri Aurobindo came hurriedly down the grand staircase and spirited me away to a bath-room before his friends could find his youngest brother in that sorry plight.

¹  Naib-Suba means Assistant Collector; Khaserao was in fact Sar Suba or Chief Collector. [Ed.]

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After a refreshing bath, [in] new clothes borrowed from him and a shirt too long at the sleeves, I came out a shy callow juvenile youth and had to meet Khaserao at the table the wittiest tormenter in Baroda society. Khaserao’s house was a sweet nest of repose and culture after my arduous and sordid life at B. Ghose’s tea stall near the College gate, which I had started in Patna along with a small stationery shop.

"Madhavrao Jadav, Khaserao’s younger brother, a lieutenant in the army, was just then getting ready to go to Japan for his military education.

"A rather big hall, facing the lawn, beyond which ran the main street from the railway station to Luxmi Vilash Palace, two rooms on its right and a covered inner courtyard, with a dining-room on one side and servants’ quarters on the other, this was how the house was built. The same number of rooms were repeated upstairs, of which the hall was Sri Aurobindo’s study. A table, a sofa, a number of chairs, all heaped pell-mell with books and a revolving book-case groaning under their weight all thinly covered with dust; a quiet small unassuming man buried there for hours in a trance of thought and very often writing page after page of poetry, that was the habitual picture I became accustomed to daily.

"Aurobindo was a late riser, waking up at nine in the morning. He used to sit down to his study after a cup of tea and toast. My room downstairs, nestling in the remote corner of the lawn, was the rendezvous of the family for gossip and merry talk. There used to come at noon my sister with her austere, silent face, Sri Aurobindo with his far-off detached look and absent-minded smile and his wife Mrinalini with her timid eyes and shy half-veiled face."

A picture of Khaserao’s bungalow, taken some years ago, before it was presented to the Sri Aurobindo Society, Baroda, is reproduced.

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 Services in Various Departments

He was first put in the Survey Settlement Department, not as an officer, but to learn the procedural formalities of the administration; he then moved to the Stamps and Revenue Departments; and he also worked for some time in the Secretariat drawing up important despatches. From 1897, he became part-time lecturer in French at the Baroda College, and presently other work was also added, and in 1900 he was appointed, on the strong recommendation of Principal Tait, as permanent Professor of English on a pay of Rs. 360 per month. In 1904, he was appointed Vice- Principal on Rs. 550 per month, and he acted as Principal from March 1905 to February 1906 on a consolidated salary of Rs. 710 per month. This steady advancement at the Baroda College notwithstanding, Sri Aurobindo’s services seem to have been utilised, from time to time, partly in the Government Departments and partly by the Maharaja himself in a confidential capacity. Whenever he thought fit, he would send for Sri Aurobindo for writing letters, composing speeches or drawing up documents of various kinds which needed special care in phrasing. At one time, the Maharaja asked Sri Aurobindo to give instruction in English grammar by giving exact and minute rules for each construction! On another occasion, he was asked to advise on travel after consulting the time-tables of European railways. But all this was quite informal, Sri Aurobindo being usually invited to breakfast with the Maharaja and staying on to do the work entrusted to him, like the writing of an order, or a letter to the British Government, or some other important memorandum.

Sri Aurobindo once was called to the South Indian hill-station of Ootacamund (or "Ooty") in order to prepare a precis of the Bapat case for the Maharaja. Bapat was a land settlement officer of the Baroda State who was defended in this celebrated and long-drawn-out trial by B.G. Tilak. Recent research in the Central Record Office, Baroda, has

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established the dates of Sri Aurobindo’s visit. Contemporary documents show that he was called to Ooty on 24 May 1895 and arrived there on the twenty-sixth. He was at that time twenty-two years old.

Also on two more occasions, Sri Aurobindo joined him on his holidays in the summer of 1901 at Naini Tal and in May 1903 in Kashmir. In a letter from Naini Tal to Bhuvan Chakravarty, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The place is a beautiful one, but not half so cold as I expected. In fact, in daytime it is only a shade less hot than Baroda except when it has been raining." During the Kashmir trip, Sri Aurobindo was appointed Secretary to the Maharaja, but there was much friction between them during the tour and the experiment was not repeated. It is said that, on one occasion, the Maharaja sent for Sri Aurobindo twice in the course of a morning; not meeting with any response, the Maharaja went himself to Sri Aurobindo’s room, found him asleep, and returned without disturbing him. Another interesting sidelight on the relations between Sri Aurobindo and the Maharaja is given by Nirodbaran. The Maharaja had once issued a circular requiring all officers to attend office even on Sundays and other holidays. But Sri Aurobindo seems merely to have said, "Let him fine as much as he likes, I am not going." The Maharaja had to give up!

The following extract from Sayaji Rao Gaekwar Yancha Sahavasat by Govind Sakharam Sardesai (the famous Marathi historian) referring to Sri Aurobindo, affords contemporary evidence about his Baroda state service and life:

"Sri Aurobindo and myself were together with Sayaji Rao very often…. Sometimes men like Sri Aurobindo would pen out lectures for him.

"Once the Maharaja had to address a social conference. Sri Aurobindo prepared the speech. We three [i.e., the Maharaja, G.S. Sardesai, and Sri Aurobindo] sat together and read it. The Maharaja after hearing it said: ‘Can you

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not, Arabind Babu, tone it down? It is too fine to be mine.’

"Sri Aurobindo replied smiling: ‘Why make a change for nothing? Do you think, Maharaja, that if it is toned down a little, people will believe it to be yours? Good or bad, whatever it be, people will always say that the Maharaja always gets his lectures written by others. The main thing is whether the thoughts are yours. That is your chief part.’ "

Sardesai also states that Sri Aurobindo carried on the major part of the correspondence that passed between the Indian government and the Baroda state about the insult which Curzon felt when the Maharaja, who was in Paris, was called by the Indian government (as Curzon was visiting Baroda in 1900), and the Maharaja did not come.

Notwithstanding these stresses and strains. Prince and Professor seem to have entertained high mutual regard and respect. On the whole, Sri Aurobindo was brilliant and quick and efficient in work, though he was not exactly the ideal servant for an Indian Maharaja. On his part, the Maharaja gave Sri Aurobindo a certificate for ability and intelligence, but also for lack of regularity and punctuality. With the Maharaja’s Court as such, however, Sri Aurobindo had hardly anything to do during the whole course of his stay at Baroda, though very occasionally he may have participated in a function in the Palace itself.

Different aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s personal and family life are presented in the following chapter.

Certificate of the Maharaja of Baroda

HUZUR ORDER

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been graciously pleased to order that

(1) A monthly increase of Rs 90. Ninety British is given to Mr. Aravind Ghose.

(2) His Highness is pleased to note that he has found Mr. Ghose a very useful and capable young man. With a little

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more of regularity and punctual habits he can be of much greater help; and it is hoped that Mr. Ghose will be careful in future not to injure his own interests by any lack of these useful qualities.

(3) The Minister should try to make a good use of Mr. Ghose’s abilities in entrusting him with the compilation of Annual Administration Reports and other important compilations. He is a man of great powers and every use should be made of his talents.

(4) The Minister should also suggest from time to time the different uses to which Mr. Ghose’s abilities can be advantageously put. The Huzur will also occasionally direct the uses to be made of Mr. Ghose’s services.

(5) If convenient Mr. Ghose’s services can be utilised in the Baroda College; only care should be taken that his interests do not suffer in any way by his services being lent to the College for some time.

Sayaji Rao Gaekwar

6 August 1902

Camp Coonoor.

N.B. This is the order referred to by Sri Aurobindo in the letter to his wife and also on page 10 of Centenary Volume 26. The Huzur is the Crown, i.e. the Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwar, under whom Sri Aurobindo worked for many years. From Baroda College papers, English Education Department, Huzur File, 1902-03.

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ARCHIVAL NOTES

RETURN TO INDIA

I

The Date of Sri Aurobindo’s Arrival in India

A letter from Miss F.M.M. Beall, International Relations Division, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London, to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library. 25 September 1972.

Thank you for your letter of 22 September.

I am extremely sorry that we have misled you concerning the date of CARTHAGE’S arrival in Bombay in January 1893. The entry in the Nautical Reports, dated 1892, led us to believe this referred to the month of December, but in fact we discovered it referred to the month of January and we therefore gave you the itinerary for the previous year. The following itinerary is the true one, which seems to fit in more neatly with your presumed date of Sri. Aurobindo’s arrival about 8 February 1893:

London 12 January 1893
Gibraltar 17   "        "
Port Said 26    "       "
Aden 1 February "
 Bombay 6    "        "

Lloyd’s was able to give us some information on a ship wrecked off Portugal towards the end of 1892. She was a vessel of the Anchor Line (owned by Henderson Brothers) named ROUMANIA, which was wrecked in heavy weather at the mouth of the river Arelho, near Peniche (about 50 miles from Lisbon), on 27 October 1892 while on passage from Liverpool to Bombay. There were 55 passengers and

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67 crew on board. A total of 113 people were lost — only two passengers and seven seamen being saved.¹

We have not yet heard from the Public Record Office on the results of their search, but in order not to delay sending you the information we have so far managed to find, any supporting evidence they may unearth that Sri Aurobindo was on board CARTHAGE will be forwarded to you later.

2

An examination of the relevant Board of Trade Passenger Lists (B.T. 27/135) has revealed that a person by the name of Mr. A. Ghose appears on the list of passengers who embarked on the S.S. Carthage at London on January 11,² 1893.

Part of a letter from A.R. Ford, Public Record office,

London, to the Archives, 19 February 1975.

HIGHLIGHTS OF SRI AUROBINDO’S SERVICE IN BARODA  

His Highness the Maha Raja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Arvind A. Ghose who had been recently employed in the service of this State on a salary equivalent in Baba Shai currency³ of British Rupees (200) two hundred, per mensum, should be instructed to work as an attaché in the Settlement Department and also to learn the

¹It was after hearing a report of this disaster that Dr. K.D. Ghose, Sri Aurobindo’s father, thinking his son had set sail on the Roumania, died with the name "Aurobindo" on his lips. — Ed.

 ² Perhaps Sri Aurobindo boarded the Carthage on the eleventh, and the ship departed from London on the twelfth (see Document 1). Ed.

³  Money minted by the Baroda state: worth slightly less than British rupees.

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Gujarati language within six months.¹

His salary will commence from the 8th instant.

Memo of Dewan in Huzur Cutcherry Book dated 18 February 1893.

2

Mr. Ghose should be given Rs. 50 more from the first of this month and the Dewan should take responsible work from him and inform this office accordingly.

Huzur Order² dated 10 October 1895 (translated from Marathi).

3

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Aravind Ghose should be appointed as attaché in the Dewan Office and should do the important cases given to him. 

Huzur Order dated 19 November 1895 (translated from Marathi).

4

His Highness was kind enough to say that Mr. Ghose might teach in the College for one hour a day. Also that he was

¹Sri Aurobindo was rather remiss about learning Gujarati. Although he picked up a little of this language and also of Marathi during his stay at Baroda, he was reprimanded in 1895 and again in 1898 for not attending the vernacular language examination. Threats of a cut in his salary were to no avail, and finally the matter was dropped. Sri Aurobindo, apparently, was more interested in Sanskrit and Bengali literature than in papers written in the two official languages of the Baroda state.

 ² Crown Edict, signed by the Maharaja (Huzur) himself, "or by the Dewan (Prime Minister) or another high officer in his place.

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wanted in the afternoons by His Highness. Accordingly I made a time-table that would leave Mr. Ghose free in the afternoons. He was to have begun work on Monday at 1, but was telephoned for to go out to Makerpura¹ to His Highness instead. Naturally the students are greatly disappointed. They see a gift made with one hand and taken away with the other. Mr. Ghose has not come, as he says (quite reasonably) that until hours are fixed it will be impossible for him to guarantee regularity of attendance. I think it very desirable that Mr. Ghose should [be] lent to us for an hour a day. But after all it is the Baroda State that gets the credit of having a well-equipped or badly-equipped College, and I can only ask for equipment, it is for Government to grant or withhold it.

Letter Principal. Baroda College to Dewan dated 27 January 1897.

5

His Highness the Maharajah is willing to share the services of Mr. Ghose for the present for employment in the College. His Highness at the same time states that it is possible that Mr. Ghose may have to be employed a couple of months hence in another capacity and in that case he will have to be withdrawn from the College for some months.

Letter Dewan to Principal dated 8 January 1898.

6

This tippan ² for continuing the services of Prof. A.A. Ghose in the Baroda College until further orders having been

 ¹Makerpura Palace, a residence of the Maharaja on the outskirts of the city of Baroda.

² Formal proposal.

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submitted to H.H. the Maharaja Sahib he has been pleased to order that the proposal of the Department is sanctioned until a successor is appointed to Mr. Littledale or until the Sirkar¹ sees it fit, even within that time, to order otherwise.

Huzur Order dated 12 March 1900.

7

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been pleased to order that Mr. Aravind Ghose, who works with His Highness the Maharaja Saheb at his [Ghose's] leisure time, should be given Rs. 60 over and above his pay for the additional work he does.

Huzur Order dated 11 April 1900

 (translated from Gujarati).

8

I have just sent in a tippan to the Dewan Saheb pointing out that for various reasons it is essential to retain Mr. Ghose as a Professor in the College, and requesting him to obtain the orders of His Highness to that effect. What I have stated I herewith append for your information. You know as well as I do how necessary it is that the College staff should be strengthened in order that it may emerge from second class rank. I therefore trust that you will mention this matter to His Highness, and ask him to be kind enough to assist me in making the College a better Institution than it has hitherto been. At the same time you may add any more arguments of your own that occur to you in favour of my proposal.

Letter Principal to Dewan dated 6 September 1900.

¹I.e. the Maharaja.

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9

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb approves of Mr. Tait’s suggestion for the present and Mr. Ghosh should continue in the College as an Extra Professor.

In case a change is required His Highness will duly communicate his desire to Mr. Tait after his return to Baroda.

Huzur Order dated 26 September 1900.

10

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has an idea of getting the memoirs of his life and of his reign, together with a Review of the last twenty years’ Administration in Baroda written soon after his return to Baroda. For this purpose the services of Professor Aravind A. Ghose of the Baroda College will be required for about a year or so. Arrangements should therefore be made to relieve Mr. Ghose from his college duties soon after the return of His Highness.

By the above arrangement Mr. Ghose will not lose his lien upon the college appointment, which he may have at present, nor would he be prevented from reverting to the college after his temporary work is finished.

Confidential Huzur Order dated 30 November 1900.

11

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb has been pleased to order that -

(1) During the absence of Mr. French on duty in Europe, Professor Aravind A. Ghose will be in charge of the tuition of the younger Princes; and will superintend over their education.

(2) This special work, Mr. Ghose will do, over and above

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the work of compiling a Report on the Twenty Years’ Administration of the Baroda State, entrusted to him.

From a Huzur Order dated 19 April 1901.

12

A tippan No.19 dated the 30th December 1902 having been submitted to the Huzur with the request to spare the services of Mr. Ghose for about 6 hours a week for the purpose of lecturing on French books assigned for the University Examinations, His Highness the Maharaja Sahib has been pleased to pass the following order

Huzur Order

(1) The proposal is sanctioned.

(2) The services of Mr. Ghose should be utilized in the College for other subjects also for more than the 6 hours in a week proposed.

Memo by Principal dated 30 January 1903 citing Huzur Order dated 21 January 1903.

13

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb was, in the Huzur Order No. 12 dated 21.1.03, pleased to place the services of Mr. Ghose at the disposal of the College for the purpose of lecturing on the French Books assigned for university Examinations. He moreover ordered that his services should be utilised for other subjects also, so as to occupy him in the College for a longer period. Accordingly he reported himself to the Principal on the 3rd February, and worked upto the 17th February as directed. Since then he has not put in an appearance and the undersigned knows nothing whatever about him.

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Of course it is obvious that no French lectures or any work whatever can be carried on under such a system. The undersigned therefore brings the matter to the notice of the Dewan Saheb and requests that due orders may be issued discharging Mr. Ghose from all work in connection with the College or else causing him to return there for regular and systematic duty.

"Concise History” in Tippan of Principal dated 26 March 1903.

14

1. From the 22nd February I was absent on leave for a month. I had written to the Principal reporting my departure, but it appears the letter was not received.

2. Previous to that for two or three days I was called to the Palace on urgent work.

3. Subsequent to my return from leave I was taking the classes in the afternoon at my own house, as three-quarters of an hour in the morning were insufficient. I may mention that I was always in the habit of making my own arrangements with the students, which was the more necessary as I had several branches of work to attend to.

4. As I am now attached to the Swari¹ in charge of the Secretary’s work during the Cashmere trip, 1 shall not be able to take the French classes this term.

From a letter Aravind A. Ghose (Sri Aurobindo) to Principal dated Srinagar, 4 June 1903.

15

 

In the interests of the College I may also remark that Mr. Ghose had acquired a reputation in the College when he

¹ I.e., was part of the staff attending the Maharaja during his Kashmir tour.

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was Professor of English, about 4 years back. If his services could be wholly spared to the College, he may be advantageously entrusted with the work that I have chalked out above for a new Oxford man. With the University also, he will carry as much weight as another Englishman.

From the opinion of the Vidyadhikari (Minister of Education) dated 5 August 1904, to a Tippan of the Vice-Principal dated 2 August 1904 requesting the Huzur "to appoint an English graduate in the College to carry on Mr. Tail’s [the Principal's] work after his retirement.”

16

His Highness the Maharaja Saheb after being shown the Tippans No.1 dated 2.8.04 and No. 51 of 14.7.04 of the English Educational Department has been pleased to order that with regard to the proposal in the first, the services of Mr. Arvind A. Ghose can be spared for English work in the College, as suggested in the opinion of the Vidyadhikari. Mr. Ghose’s work should be so arranged that he may be able to spare two hours in the day to attend for work in the Huzur whenever required by His Highness. When he finds that this double work is becoming more than he can manage, he must inform His Highness so that he may either be entirely spared to the College or replaced by someone else. The Principal will make whatever readjustment of the College work may be required as a result of the appointment.

2. Mr. Ghose’s official designation will be that of Vice- Principal and from the time he takes up the duties of the post, his pay will be increased by Rs.100 British.

From a Huzur Order dated 6 September 1904.

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17

I have been directed by H.H. the Maharaja Saheb to join the College immediately if that were possible so that there might be no delay in my beginning to draw the increment in my salary. In accordance with these instructions I have reported myself to Mr. Clarke today, having forwarded the original order of my appointment in due course. I am also instructed, as there will be vacation for three months, to continue to help Mr. Karandikar in the work of Huzur Kamdar as before.

These directions will, I presume, emend the last paragraph of the Huzur Order of the 26th September 1904 on the tippan for Mr. Clarke’s confirmation as Principal, since in the original order it is directed that the increment shall begin from the day I join the College.

From a letter Aravind A. Ghose, Huzur Kamdar (Crown Secretary), to Dewan dated 28 September 1904.

18

Handed over charge of the office of the Principal, Baroda College to Aravind A. Ghose Esq., Vice-Principal, Baroda College today after office hours.

A.B. Clarke

Principal, Baroda College

Received the above in charge from A.B. Clarke Esq. Principal, Baroda College, today after office hours.

Aravind A. Ghose

Vice-Principal

Baroda College

Notes of 3 March 1905.

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