Anandamath

A Note

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss) was first published in 1882. A quarter-century later it gained great popularity as the source of the song “Bande Mataram” and as a masked revolutionary statement. A translation of the Prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I of the novel were published in the Karmayogin between August 1909 and February 1910 over the name Aurobindo Ghose (Sri Aurobindo). The chapters contain a number of unidiomatic expressions that make one wonder whether he was solely responsible for the translation. During the 1940s, a full translation of Anandamath was published by the Basumati Sahitya Mandir, Calcutta. A note to this edition states: “Up to 15th Chapter of Part I translated by Sree Aurobindo. Subsequent pages translated by Sree Barindra Kumar Ghosh.” Chapters fourteen and fifteen were certainly not translated by Sri Aurobindo. The rest is translated by Sri Aurobindo’s brother and revolutionary freedom fighter Barindra Kumar Ghosh.

Sometime during the early period of his stay in Pondicherry (1910-14), Sri Aurobindo made a handwritten translation of the first two chapters of Anandamath, apparently without reference to the Karmayogin version. This translation is published here in an appendix.