Prithwindra Mukherjee: In Memoriam by Anurag Banerjee

With the passing away of Prithwindra Mukherjee on 29 November 2024 in Paris, the world of intellectuals and creative geniuses has lost a living legend who was a liaison between the cultures of the East and the West for the past several decades. It is not easy to describe him in a word or two for he was a brilliant historian, a most dedicated researcher, an extraordinary scholar, a musicologist par excellence and a unique translator whose translations from French to Bengali and Bengali to French created formidable links between these two languages and cultures. However, the path he trod on was never a bed of roses; in fact, there were always a hundred and one thorns to hinder his progress. But he remained undaunted and kept on fighting against all odds until he emerged victorious. Not only were his works inspirational but his life too was an inspirational tale.

Prithwindranath Mukherjee was born on 20 October 1936 to Tejendranath and Usharani Mukherjee. His grandfather Jatindranath Mukherjee alias Bagha Jatin was an illustrious revolutionary who was closely associated with Sri Aurobindo so much so that the latter considered Jatindranath his ‘right hand man’. While recalling his association with Jatindranath, Sri Aurobindo had once remarked to his disciples during the course of a conversation: “A wonderful man. He was a man who would belong to the front rank of humanity. Such beauty and strength together I have not seen, and his stature was like that of a warrior.” (Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, p. 561)

Prithwindra was a young healthy boy who was always bubbling with love for life. However, at the age of five, he became a prey to Polio whose vaccine was yet to be invented. Prithwindra’s parents tried every possible treatment under the sun for their son’s recovery but nothing could bring about the expected relief. Since he could not play like other children of his age, he devoted his time to reading and soon became a voracious reader with a rare intellect. While his maternal uncle Prabodhkumar Chatterjee (a double gold-medalist in Physics from the University of Calcutta) looked after his general education, Lalitkumar Raychaudhuri, his aunt’s husband, taught him Sanskrit hymns.

From a very early age, Prithwindra had seen Sri Aurobindo and the Mother being worshipped in his residence at Kolkata. Every day at four o’ clock in the morning, he would see Lalitkumar Raychaudhuri reading Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine and the Mother’s messages with utmost devotion. Many of Sri Aurobindo’s associates from his political days like Upendranath Banerjee, Amarendranath Chatterjee, Bhavabhushan Mitra alias Swami Satyananda as well as Sarojini Ghose (Sri Aurobindo’s sister) would visit the Mukherjee’s residence at Ballygunje in Kolkata and from them young Prithwindra would hear stories of the Mother’s grace and kindness. Once, when he had gone to visit Barindra Kumar Ghose (Sri Aurobindo’s youngest brother who was also a noted revolutionary) who was hospitalized for fracturing his thigh, the latter had told him: “Go to the Mother, try to understand how the Divine Mother has incarnated in a human body. Sejda (Sri Aurobindo, as he was addressed by Barindra Kumar, meaning third elder brother in Bengali) has said without knowing the Mother it is not possible to attain God.”

In August 1948, Tejendranath took his wife and three sons Rathindranath (5 February 1934—7 February 2017), Prithwindra and Dhritindranath alias Togo (11 December 1937—14 December 2012) to Pondicherry to have the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In the evening of 8 August, they reached Pondicherry and was put up at the residence of Sudhir Kumar Sarkar, another associate of Sri Aurobindo who had joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram with his sons and daughter a couple of years ago. In the early hours of 9 August, accompanied by his parents, brothers and Sudhir Kumar, Prithwindra went for the Balcony Darshan of the Mother. In an interview with the present author, Prithwindra had recalled his very first meeting with the Mother in the following words: “At the moment when the sun was about to rise, the Mother appeared on the Balcony. She looked at the sky, then at the sea and then into the eye of each and every one who had assembled beneath her Balcony; and after flooding them in a billow of grace, she departed from the Balcony. She left behind a fragrance in the air. I remembered seeing Her on the night of the excruciating torture I had to bear and I could recognize the fragrance: it was tuberose.”

This calls for an explanation. Even before Prithwindra had met the Mother, he had seen her in a vision. During the Second World War when he was aged seven, he had fractured his arm due to an accident. Although he was treated by a European doctor at Shambhunath Pandit Hospital in Kolkata, the pain did not quite subside and rashes and blisters had emerged all over his negligently plastered arm. While he was in excruciating pain, his eyes suddenly fell on the framed photograph of the Mother hanging on the wall. And what did he see? He saw a column of white light descending like a staircase and the Mother descended through that staircase with a bunch of tuberoses in her hand. The Mother’s face was beaming with a bright smile and Prithwindra could see a heavenly blue light in her two eyes. To the present author Prithwindra had recalled that he did not know what he saw was reality or an illusion but it made him forget the unbearable pain which seemed like the bite of a thousand scorpions. And he got lost in the peace. 

In the afternoon of 15 August 1948, Prithwindra had the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo. Wearing a new outfit, he — along with other devotees — followed the queue which went up to the first floor of the Ashram main building. He saw Sri Aurobindo sitting on the right and the Mother on the left facing the aspirants. When Prithwindra came and stood about two feet away from Sri Aurobindo, he felt as if he had come closer to the company of ‘Someone’ who was ‘like a hardened camphor-like fire yet a cold insurmountable Being like the Himalayas.’ There were thick garlands of tulsi adorning Sri Aurobindo’s feet and its fragrance made Prithwindra’s young heart feel fulfilled. To the present author he had reminisced: “But I felt so overwhelmed —instead of looking straight at Sri Aurobindo, with trepidation I looked at the Mother on whose face I saw the smile of assurance. I followed her eyes and looked at Sri Aurobindo’s eyes — as if the Mother silently introduced me to him. Then I saw the same assurance in Sri Aurobindo’s eyes as well. The distance between us was eliminated. My heart appealed: may I be able to place my head on those feet and thus become fulfilled. I observed in the eyes of Sri Aurobindo a detachment amid deep affection. Its interpretation still baffles me… This huge change, the blessings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, a feeling of newness in my body, mind and soul —everything made me feel as if I’ve left my old world behind and residing in a fairy land.”

When he was asked by the present author what was the most striking feature in Sri Aurobindo’s personality that he remembered most vividly, Prithwindra had said: “The first detail that comes to the mind is a global vision of a gracious, serene light. Other details like the eyes, the smile etc. appear vaguely on the screen of memory. Once, he seemed to have an amused wink, as if he met again an old friend: probably something in me reminded him of my grandfather who had been His ‘right-hand man’ in revolution.” And he added that Sri Aurobindo “could look a bit absent-minded at times, with flashes of a keen gaze drilling with compassion. At times he seemed to contemplate the world with an innocent marvel, bringing to my mind the look he had at the age of fourteen (the photo which some disciples nicknamed the Boy King).”  

In the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo, the Mukherjee brothers found a comfort for their souls. Soon they made up their mind of not going back to Kolkata. Coached by Sudhir Kumar, they informed the Mother that they would like to stay in the Ashram permanently. The Mother assured them that she would think it over. She waited for Usharani Mukherjee to come for blessings and when she came, the Mother put her right hand on Usharani’s shoulder and said: “The boys want to stay here. But they are so young; they require someone to look after them. Will you do it on my behalf?” Usharani’s eyes were filled with tears of joy as both she and Tejendranath had dreamt of joining the Ashram once their children were adults. So the Mother’s proposal fulfilled that dream much earlier. Thus, in October 1948, Prithwindra joined the Ashram with his mother and two brothers. Tejendranath too joined the Ashram as a permanent inmate a year later and came to be known as ‘Borda’ (meaning ‘Eldest Brother’ in Bengali).

In 1948 the Mukherjee brothers joined the transition “classe de dixième” (Class X) at the Ashram School where, along with other new comers, they had lessons in French. As Pondicherry was still a French territory in 1948, most of the subjects were taught in French according to the syllabus of schools in France. After two months of coaching in French, Rathindranath — better known as Rothin in the Ashram community — had a triple promotion to “classe de septième” (Class VII) in 1948-49. By the virtue of two consecutive double promotions, Prithwindra caught up his elder brother at the “classe de sixième” (Class VI) in 1949-50.

Prithwindra Mukherjee at the age of twelve in 1948

Prithwindra Mukherjee reciting Jananir shubhra phool on 1 December 1950

Tejendranath Mukherjee with his wife Usharani and sons: Dhritindranath alias Togo, Rathindranath alias Rothin and Prithwindra.

Prithwindra Mukherjee at the age of sixteen in 1952

Prithwindra with his two brothers: Togo and Rothin.

In 1950 the Mother reserved the ‘Mani House’ situated at 3 Easwaran Koil Street for Prithwindra’s family. She would emphasize on the fact this house belonged to her and that she knew quite well its nooks and corners so one ought not to budge an inch. But during his adolescence, whenever he approached the Mother with the request of allowing him to live on his own, she would remind Prithwindra: “Do you forget who Tejen is? Who Usha is? Are there many children as fortunate as you are, to have them as parents? You have so much to learn from them! And that house is your field of realisations!” Later, he would admit that this house was the haven where the Mother had accommodated the souls of his family. He also recalled that the house had an open terrace upstairs, full of rose plants. He would spend the nights in this terrace observing the positions of the constellations on every season. He used to enter a field of sleep where varied impressions gathered jumbling. These impressions made him write in a poem the following lines: “They call me in dream/ Those star-like souls/ And sweep over my mood/ As the wave-crest rolls”.

Usharani was an excellent cook who served varied delicious dishes and sweets to her children and all the guests who visited the house. Prithwindra had recalled that although Sri Aurobindo and the Mother did not partake of milk or its derivatives, the Mother was fond of chhanar payes prepared Usharani while Sri Aurobindo admired the pantuas she prepared for him.

An incident which had left behind an indelible mark on Prithwindra was the mahasamadhi of Sri Aurobindo in December 1950. To the present author he had recalled that there was no augury whatsoever, everything looked normal and that anybody hardly guessed what was going to befall on 5 December. But “there was some kind of a faint tension in the Mother’s attitude.” That year, for the first time, Prithwindra had participated in the Annual Function of the Ashram School which took place on 1 December. Directed by the Mother and coached by Ila Sen, mother of Dr. Satyabrata Sen (Sri Aurobindo’s physician), he had recited the Bengali poem ‘Jananir shubhra phool’ written by Nishikanto, the Ashram poet whom Sri Aurobindo had described as the ‘Brahmaputra of Inspiration.’ Prithwindra recalled that the Mother conducted the whole performance as if nothing serious was raging behind the screen. “It was only after the 2nd December pageant of physical education that She was seen free for things that really mattered.”

On 5 December, at dawn Tejendranath had gone to the Ashram Tennis Ground for a walk. The others in the family were still asleep. Suddenly his cry was heard from the drawing-room downstairs: “Sri Aurobindo has left his body!” To quote Prithwindra’s own words: “Before the birds woke up from their slumber we rushed to the Ashram. The door of the prohibited room was open and Sri Aurobindo was lying on his bed. Who could say that he was gone? Seeing his hands on his chest my entire body shivered with a strange joy: his bones could be seen through his transparent cream-like-skin as if an X-ray had been made. I followed his beard, moustache and locks of hair flowing like the river Mandakini and then my eyes fell on his face which was illuminated by a subtle inward smile. As I was looking at him, I felt that if I looked at him more intently, he would wake up from his nap. But when I came back to my senses I realized that it was too late. He was no longer our Sri Aurobindo. The gate of the Ashram was opened to all devotees and followers. Along with the thousands of curious people we flocked to see Sri Aurobindo repeatedly. It was like a living dream. I kept sitting on the step in front of Nirod-da’s [Dr. Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo’s attendant and scribe] room. People, stunned, like shadows moved about somnolently. When it was time for meals, someone would come and whisper that the Mother did not want anyone to fast. We went to the Dining Room and returned to our posts. Something very strong within yearned to see the Mother. Nobody could see her. One day, however, she sent Nolini-da [Nolini Kanta Gupta] to take my father upstairs; She told him: “Sri Aurobindo personally has asked me to tell you not to mourn. He is with us.”  I had visions of a very long and arduous journey: we were accompanying the Mother through ordeals of all sort and something from my heart—like the bîr-purush in Tagore’s verses for children—wanted to comfort her that whatever happened, I was going to fight for her.”

While recalling Sri Aurobindo’s last journey to the Samadhi vault, Prithwindra said: “I had changed my position and had been sitting on the step in front of Dyuman-da’s room. A gigantic German visitor called Kaplan and other inmates were digging, night and day, below the Service tree. Slowly the cortege came. I heard someone remind: “The head Eastward.”  Most probably the Mother was standing on the terrace above Dyuman-da’s room, but I could not see Her. I felt like being born again on 17 December when I saw the Mother. It was all through a new beginning.”

Apart from his studies in the Ashram School, towards the end of 1949, Prithwindra began to devote considerable time — along with Tara Jauhar — to catalogue the valuable books and magazines on physical culture in the library of the Physical Education Department. He also learnt typewriting from one gentleman named Hiren Ganguli and short-hand from Sanat Banerji, the Indian-Consul who later joined the Ashram as an inmate. Even before he had finished his studies at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in 1958, he had begun to teach English, French and Bengali at the very institution from 1956. In the 1960s, he also assisted Rishabhchand in compiling notes from various books for the latter’s monumental work, Sri Aurobindo: His Life Unique.

Because of his physical handicap, Prithwindra’s life was subjected to several restrictions. He himself has admitted in an autobiographical note that a sense of misfit haunted him in secret and that he could not forget that he was not like the other children around him. ‘A kind of escapist attitude’ drew him to the sea and he became a dare-devil swimmer. He also became an adept in parallel bars and roman rings and could swing with the rings up to almost ninety degrees forward and proportionately backward.

But the Mother — with whom Prithwindra shared an intimate bond—took a special interest in him. He was allowed by her to stand near the wall close to her and watch her distribute flowers to her devotees at the Meditation Hall in the Ashram main building. During the ‘Vegetable Darshan’, Prithwindra was allowed to stand one step below the doorway so that when the Mother came down the staircase, her left elbow touched his forehead. At times he received her cool presence on his right cheek while she gave him a smile.

In the following photographs, Prithwindra [with crutches] can be seen with the Mother, Sarala Ganguli and Gangaram Malwade.

The Mother was quite concerned about Prithwindra’s physical infirmity. She looked upon it as one of those human difficulties the conquest of which would lead to winning a war against the forces of inertia in the physical world which in turn would expand the horizons of consciousness.   

With her approval, Pranab Kumar prepared two charts: one for active home exercises that Prithwindra had to follow every day and the other for passive exercises and physiotherapy (including oil massage and sea-bathing) to sensitize the inert muscles of his polio-affected leg. He set aside two hours thrice a week to massage Prithwindra’s leg and made him do exercises. The charts prepared by Pranab Kumar were faithfully followed by Prithwindra. The Mother too followed even his minute progress. As a result of this therapy, whenever any response was observed in any of the inert muscles, the Mother was invited to appraise it. She would be overjoyed as she considered it to be the victory of Consciousness. Every morning she gave a bunch of special flowers to Prithwindra bearing the spiritual significances of ‘Perseverance’ and ‘Concentration’. Although he had to miss some of his favourite classes due to the therapy, Prithwindra stood second at the end of the academic year. As he was fond of history, philosophy, literature and music and interested in four European and six Indian languages, he gradually began to shun the therapy.        

Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya and Prithwindra Mukherjee in 1956.

Prithwindra’s literary career began in 1949 at the age of thirteen when his first poem was published in the November issue of a Bengali journal. Naren Dasgupta, a former associate of Jatindranath Mukherjee and the then manager of the Ashram Press, proposed to show his poems to Sri Aurobindo. His poems were duly sent for Sri Aurobindo’s perusal because Nirodbaran recalled seeing a bunch of his poems on Sri Aurobindo’s desk but no response from the Guru was conveyed to the young poet. But no genuine talent goes unnoticed. By the time he had reached the age of fourteen, Prithwindra had endeared himself to the likes of Nolini Kanta Gupta, Dilip Kumar Roy, Sahana Devi, Nishikanto Roychowdhury, Pavitra, K.D. Sethna alias Amal Kiran and Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya whose influence had enriched him the most.   

One afternoon, young Prithwindra turned up at the residence of Dilip Kumar Roy with a few of his recent poems to show him. Dilip Kumar not only welcomed him but also encouraged the poet in him. This marked the beginning of a very fruitful association. From time to time Prithwindra would visit Dilip Kumar who would devote almost an hour to retouch his poems. Once he told the young poet: “You do not have to worry about the metre; you have the gift of perfect rhythm. Our task will be to look for the mot juste.” To Prithwindra, he taught how the replacement of a word here and there transformed the whole poem.

Soon after the mahasamadhi of Sri Aurobindo, Prithwindra had written a poetical piece on Sri Aurobindo in Bengali which began as follows: ‘jaya sriaurobindo jaya/ jaya jay he jyotirmaya’. On reading this composition, with a choked voice and tearful eyes, Dilip Kumar asked Prithwindra to visit him the next day. On the following day, when Prithwindra stepped into Dilip Kumar’s apartment, he was greeted by Dilip Kumar who had already set tune to his poem. Before long, Dilip Kumar formed a chorus to sing it before the Mother. This was indeed a very special honour for a young poet of fifteen!

And it was only the very beginning! On reading one of Prithwindra’s poems published in the Bengali monthly journal, Pradip, Hemendra Prasad Ghose, the veteran journalist who was also an associate of Sri Aurobindo when he was editing the Bande Mataram journal, praised the young poet’s work. In January 1954, Prithwindra penned a mystic poem in Bengali the lines of which were ‘pretty unknown’ to his ‘usual vocabulary’. Dilip Kumar Roy had left Sri Aurobindo Ashram by then so Prithwindra showed this poem to his guide, Nolini Kanta Gupta who, without making any alteration, got it printed in the famous Bengali quarterly review Bartika published by Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, Kolkata. At the same time, Prithwindra continued to write poems in English as well which were published regularly in Mother India, the monthly review of culture edited by K.D. Sethna and published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. 

Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya had made Prithwindra a subscriber to four juvenile Bengali magazines. Upon observing Prithwindra’s keenness to write for them, Pranab Kumar informed the Mother about it. The Mother welcomed the idea and selected Shishu-sathi — the most reputed among the four magazines — to start with. In those days, the Mother told stories to the children of the Ashram. These stories were re-written by Prithwindra for his Bengali readers and sent to Shishu-sathi for publication. The editor of this journal, who had no idea about the age of the author, went on publishing the stories every alternate month and also invited Prithwindra’s contribution for its special Puja annual. Once when he was paid a sum of five rupees for one of his contributions, he had offered it to the Mother who accepted it with immense joy.

Being a student of history and the one who had been in contact with revolutionaries, Pranab Kumar held Jatindranath Mukherjee alias Bagha Jatin in high esteem. He also encouraged Prithwindra to conduct a thorough research on the freedom movement of India. Thus, in 1955, Prithwindra began his research on the pre-Gandhian freedom movement initiated by Sri Aurobindo and pursued by Jatindranath. His findings were serialized in the famous Bengali weekly, Basumati, from September 1965 to February 1966 under the title of Sadhak-Biplobi Jatindranath and later published in book-form. One of his first articles in Bengali written on his illustrious grandfather entitled Mahan Purusha Sannidhye Jatindranath was published in the Yugantar Weekly Supplement on 7 December 1958 and was followed by The Legendary Heroism of Bagha Jatin (Amrita Bazar Patrika Puja Annual, October 1963), Bagha Jatin: Hero of Bengal Revolution (Mother India, September-October 1964), Jatindranath Mukherjee: A Life-Sketch (published by Balasore Day Celebration Committee, September 1965), Biplabi Jatindranath-er Jivanadarsa (Jayasri, January 1966: this article was a study of analyzing the philosophy that led the Extremists in Bengal), Swamiji-Nivedita-Jatindranath (Sister Nivedita Birth Centenary Souvenir, Volume II, October 1967), Jatindranath Mukherjee (Mrityuhin, a compulsory reading for the West Bengal Secondary School published by Biplabi Niketan in 1970), Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin Commemoration Volume, 1975), Biplabi Neta Jatindranath (Sainik Samachar — an organ of the Indian Ministry of Defence, New Delhi, December 1975), Jatin Mukherjee: His Life and Thought (Diamond Jubilee Souvenir of the Balasore Battle, 1975) to name a few.

A Rose-bud’s Song — Prithwindra’s first anthology of poems in English — was published in 1959. Dick Batstone, an Oxford scholar, while reviewing this collection, wrote: ‘… Another characteristic of these poems is the vivid use of colours. The writer is a visual poet, but it is often a dream vision—the sights come to him from the fields of sleep… This dream world is sometimes surrealist and fantastic, … with images here and there from the French Symbolists, but often it is an inner place of devotion and aspiration where the writer is an opening bud, a growing plant, a child or a priest in a world given and presided over by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. This inner world must in time transfigure the outer…’ Rishabhchand Samsuka, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and a fine author himself, made the following remark about Prithwindra’s poems in the 27 November 1960 issue of the Bhavan’s Journal: ‘I have pleasure in introducing to lovers of poetry a prodigy of a poet who started writing poetry both in English and Bengali at the age of seventeen. He is barely twenty-four now but has already made his mark, not only as a poet of great promise, but as a translator… What strikes one most in these pulsing utterances of the young poet is the leaven of sincerity, which imparts to the poems a lilt and a twang all its own. Even a hurried glance… will not fail to convince the readers that here is one of the poets who herald the coming dawn of a new age in exalted accents of genuine inspiration.’

In 1967, when Prithwindra had a short interview with Pope Paul VI to whom he had presented a copy of A Rose-bud’s Song, the Pope browsed through the book and with a smile of complicity, greeted him by saying: “You are fortunate, because you are a poet. The Lord is always present with poets.”

A Rose-bud’s Song was followed by Alor Chakor (meaning of ‘Bird of Light’ in Bengali) — a collection of his poems in Bengali with a foreword by noted author Narendra Deb — in 1960. In his foreword, Narendra Deb expressed his profound admiration for the ‘lofty ideas’, ‘poetic diction’, ‘imagination’ and ‘expression’ he came across in Alor Chakor. Dilip Kumar Roy too welcomed the ‘promising poet’ in a long review article published in the famous monthly Bengali journal, Bharatvarsha, in which he remarked: ‘I have been delighted in noticing in these poems the blossoming of a keen-eyed genuine poet: a poet indeed, established in the conviction of his own dharma … Therefore I congratulate Prithwindra with affection… Wherever he has been capable of responding to the higher Consciousness, he has composed successful poetry. So beautiful, simple, sincere a style and aspiration and vocabulary — at liberty conveyed through a flowing rhythm. We shall expect in his poetry an increasingly confirmed expression of this Aspiration. May Prithwindra continue to follow the loftiest inspiration which is his own, may he sing on — ever-awake in his radiant dream of a luminous ideal and of beautiful diction. It is certainly these which have found utterance in a cluster of poetic resonances through the poet-voice of Prithwindra…’

Saileshkumar Bandopadhyay made the following remark about Alor Chakor : ‘It is perhaps not possible to evaluate Alor Chakor according to the standards reserved for usual books of poetry. For, if at all we need to compare the essential tone and mood of this collection of poems by Prithwindra Mukherjee — a spiritual disciple of Sri Aurobindo — with anything else, it can only be with the Skylark of Wordsworth… It is of course audacious to claim that the poet of this book under review belongs to the same category as Wordsworth. But the present reviewer has no hesitation in confirming that these poems belong to the same family as that illumined Bird — serving as intermediary between the worlds of the Immortal and of the mortals. Each poem here is like a bud of sun-flower full of spiritual yearning and athirst for the rays of the Divine Sun. Thanks to their ideation, diction, imagination and expression, these poems have a direct access to our heart. In accordance to the poet’s mood, solemn or tripping metrical movements cascade out of the poet’s pen in spontaneous flows… Certainly lovers of classical modes of poetry will feel captivated by these poems.’

As a result of his literary contributions, Prithwindra had earned for himself considerable fame even before he had turned twenty-five. Professor K. R. Srinivasa Iyenger in his Indian Writing in English (published in the January 1957 issue of Contemporary Indian Literature, issued by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi) mentioned Prithwindra ‘among the other poets who owe their main inspiration to Sri Aurobindo. Mystic poetry like the above is in no sense escapist. Genuine mysticism really offers a corrective to an age that has seemingly lost its standards and sense of values. To return to the ground — the root-of-all, the seed-of-all — is the one sure way of renewal, and it is the cardinal purpose of the Aurobindonian school of poetry to project before us in the accents of mantra a vision of the New Man and the New World arising out of the ambiguous frustrated present.’ In his Introduction to The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglican Poetry 1828—1965 (Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1970), Professor V. K. Gokak justified the presence of poets like Prithwindra in the said anthology as a tribute to ‘neo-symbolism’ (p. xxi), representing ‘mystical poetry or the poetry of visionary power.’ (p. xxxiv) Ashok Kundu too had reserved a considerable space on Prithwindra’s publications in his famous Bangiya Sahitya-Kosh, Volume XI published in 1979. Syed Mujtaba Ali, the famous Bengali litterateur had also written to Prithwindra: ‘You have a mastery over the language, you have caught the melody.’

Prithwindra had an enviable command not only over Bengali and English but French as well. In his twenties, he began to translate the works of French authors like Toru Dutt, Albert Camus, Saint-John Perse and René Char for Bengali readers. Encouraged by Suzanne Karpeles (who was known as Bharati-di in the Ashram community), Prithwindra also started translating original works of well-known writers from Bengali into French. One of his first translated pieces of French poetry had somewhat disturbed the Bengali literary scene when he had published Mallarmé’s famous sonnet Le Cygne in the famous Bengali monthly magazine, Masik Basumati. A critic who wrote under the pseudonym of Bopadeb Sharma wrote in his feature in Katha Sahitya, another famous Bengali monthly literary magazine: ‘All the same, the poem seems to be terribly confused.’ Prithwindra would later remark that the poor critic was not aware how deliberate Mallarmé was in his attempt to remain hidden behind deliberate confusion. In the early 1960s, when he had published his translation of the French Nobel laureate St-John Perse, few from the French-speaking circle in India had even heard his name. Fortunately, Pierre Fallon, the Belgian missionary who taught at the University of Calcutta, came to Prithwindra’s rescue with his generous appreciation of the work. It is noteworthy that due to his lectures and publications on French literature, Prithwindra had earned the name of ‘Monsieur France’ in Pondicherry.

Another field in which Prithwindra had deep interest was music. And the creative atmosphere of Sri Aurobindo Ashram further developed his interest in music. Soon after joining the Ashram, in 1948, he was included in the chorus for the dance-drama on the ‘Spiritual Evolution of India’ which was staged under the direction of Dilip Kumar Roy and supervised by the Mother. Later, he learnt to play the flute and also received one as a gift from Pranab Kumar. He also learnt to play the Esraj and took lessons in Hindustani system of music from a sadhak named Ardhendu Bhattacharya who encouraged him to get familiarized with the classics by Bhatkhande on Hindustani music. With the Mother’s approval, he took private lessons of singing with Vidwan Ramamurthy, learnt piano under Olga Allen and also attended the latter’s classes on the theory of Western music. Having sensed Prithwindra’s eagerness to compose music exploring the raga intervals supported by Western laws of harmony, utilizing both homophony (series of chords) and polyphony (superposing lines of melody), Pranab Kumar made arrangements with two lending libraries in Chennai run by the British Council and the United States Information Service so that every week Prithwindra could borrow four books. Prithwindra perused the books and kept extensive notes on musical theories explained by Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith and Leopold Stokowski and thus developed his own style of music: a synthesis between the music of the East and the West. In his leisure hours he composed songs for children and also organized a chamber-music group and played his pieces with accompaniment from Arunkant Patel (piano-accordeon), Kanak Ganguli (Hawaiian guitar), Tehmi Marzpan (Spanish guitar), Ashok Ganguli (violin), Behram Solena (saxo tenor) and a few others. Soon, he came to know that the Mother was listening to his experiments. With a beaming smile she told Prithwindra that the experiments reminded her of the music of the Volga boatmen! For her pleasure, Prithwindra organized the first orchestra with harmonicas only. The Mother further encouraged him when he enacted in Bengali his play entitled The Magician which was inspired by one of her talks. Moreover, his article on music entitled Vishva-taner Milan pathe published in the reputed Bengali monthly, Prabasi, in which he had expressed his dream of a synthesis of world music, not only won the first prize in the nationwide contest organized by the journal but also earned appreciation and support from Birendrakishore Raychaudhuri, the famous musician.

Having chosen the scale of Ramakali of Hindustani system, Prithwindra composed a piece entitled Awakening for his band orchestra mainly with some basic chords and counterpoints. The duration was of five minutes and it was performed before the Mother on 15 August 1957. Hardly had the music stopped when the Mother gestured Prithwindra to come to her. Then she took his right hand in both her hands and exclaimed: “Magnifique!” (Magnificient!) She further added in French that she had been waiting to listen to such music and encouraged him to continue. For the next two or three days, the Mother expressed to many her absolute satisfaction in respect to Prithwindra’s musical experiment. Pranab Kumar too was extremely pleased with his compositions for the band and asked him to write the Mass Drill music for the annual functions of the Physical Education Department of 2 December 1957 and 1958.

The Ashram Band of 1957.

After composing the Mass Drill music for the annual function of 2 December 1958, Prithwindra was ready with his score for the annual function of 1959 as desired by Pranab Kumar. However, during the rehearsal of the 1959 Mass Drill music, some members of the band refused to pay his composition. It was an unexpected blow for both Prithwindra and Pranab Kumar who advised the former to withdraw his score.

By the time he was about to step into the third decade of his life, Prithwindra had tasted sufficient success as a bilingual litterateur and translator. Now he was eager to test his boundaries in the West. The first opportunity came from the United States of America where he had applied at the Juilliard School in 1965. Although his application was accepted, the Mother dissuaded him from going ahead. However she assured him that a better opportunity would soon arrive. Her words turned out to be true when Prithwindra received a scholarship from the Government of France to write a thesis at the Sorbonne University. At the same time she also reminded him that French surgery was quite far ahead of its times. On 9 November 1966 Prithwindra’s flight landed at the Orly Airport in Paris. Thus began a new phase in the life of Prithwindra Mukherjee.

The French Government scholarship allotted Prithwindra a sum of 480 Francs per month out of which he paid 125 Francs as room-rent in the hostel and 1.20 Francs for a single meal. Following the Mother’s suggestion, André Morisset — her son — appointed François Chan and Georges Gambelon to look after him. While François helped him as a secretary, Gambelon took him out every Saturday afternoon shopping at the departmental store Belle Jardinière to purchase whatever he required for daily use and also made him discover the major museums. Meanwhile, Prithwindra met Professor Merle d’Aubigné, the internationally acclaimed French surgeon, who suggested a series of operations to overcome his physical infirmity. At the Mother’s advice, Prithwindra consented for the surgery which took place on 19 June 1967 at the Hôpital Cochin in Paris. After the surgery, he spent two months at the hospital and four months at a nursing home specialized in post-operatory muscular rehabilitation. The surgery provided him with the mobility which enabled him to travel extensively across four continents of the globe between 1967 and 2003.

During his stay in Paris, Prithwindra not only kept himself busy with his doctoral thesis — the main objective of which was to emphasize on the evolution of Sri Aurobindo — the Prophet of Indian Nationalism — into the Seer of the Life Divine and the Champion of the Ideal of Human Unity and dreamer of World Union — but also wrote extensively in Bengali. His letters describing the Parisian world and culture and his interactions with French celebrities were serialized in the famous Bengali magazine Desh under the title of Paris-er Chithi. He also renewed his contact with Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro, whom he had befriended in India a couple of years ago and also made friends with the likes of Yehudi Menuhin, Zubin Mehta, Leopold Stokowski, Zubin Mehta, Karl Richter, Ray Charles, Jean-Pierrre Rampal, Rostropovitch and Henri Dutilleux.

Prithwindra defended his thesis Doctorat d’Université on Sri Aurobindo (entitled Les écrits Bengali de Sri Aurobindo) successfully at the Old Sorbonne in November 1970. Jean Filliozat, the President of the Jury who also held the Chair of Indian Studies at the Collège de France, suggested that if Prithwindra stayed back in France, it would be useful for studies on India and beneficial for him as well. Following the successful defence of his thesis, Prithwindra served as a lecturer in two Paris faculties, a producer on Indian culture and music for Radio France and was also a freelance journalist for the Indian and French press. He also waited for an opportunity to start his second thesis — for the coveted Doctorat d’Etat — on the intellectual roots of India’s freedom movement during the pre-Gandhian phase (1893-1918).

During the Bangladesh liberation war in December 1971, Prithwindra was given a full page in Le Monde to explain the grievance of the people of the land. He selected some poems, translated them with notes and published them under the title of Poèmes du Bangladesh. Subsequently many literary magazines invited him to write more. In 1975 the University Paris III published this mini anthology of Poèmes du Bangladesh. A literary critic of Le Figaro praised it as a gift from “our delicious Franco-Bengali poet.” He was also associated with the UNESCO and one of the first translations he did for the UNESCO was of an anthology of three Bengali short stories authored by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee into French. He was also a founder-member of the French Literary Translators’ Association.

In 1972, as a result of his series of round-table tributes on Radio-France to celebrate the birth centenary of Sri Aurobindo, Prithwindra drew the attention of Arthur Conte, President of the ORTF who advised him to join the channel France-Culture as a part-time Producer. At the same time, Prithwindra started working for Charles Duvelle, Director of the OCORA series of LPs, attached to Radio-France and promoted various forms of extra-European traditional music.

In 1977 Prithwindra was invited by the National Archives of India as a guest of the Historical Records Commission. He presented a paper entitled Jatindranath Mukherjee and the Indo-German Conspiracy in February 1977 and his contribution on this area has been recognized by eminent educationists. A number of his papers on this subject have been translated into major Indian languages. In December 1977 he presented a research paper entitled The Transformation of Bourgeois: Morality in the Scheme and the Action of Jatin Mukherjee at the Indian History Congress.

In 1974, upon examining Prithwindra’s documents, Raymond Aron, the famous historian, arrived at the conclusion that Prithwindra’s selection of these twenty-five years (1893-1918) provides the missing link in contemporary history and he most willingly agreed to supervise his thesis in Paris University IV. In 1981, Raymond Aron obtained for Prithwindra a Fulbright scholarship to explore American archives from coast to coast. Prithwindra went to the United States of America as a Fulbright scholar and discovered scores of files covering the Indian revolutionaries in the Wilson Papers at Washington. At the same time he was concerned by the archives preserving documents on Indo-German collaboration during the First World War at the universities of California, especially at Berkeley. The campus of Berkeley opened a new horizon in his musicological quest. When he returned to Paris with more than eight thousand pages of notes, Aron thanked him with the following words: “What a gift for French researchers!” However, by the time Prithwindra completed the thesis and Aron began to constitute the jury, he died accidentally in 1983. After two years of desperate attempts, Prithwindra could successfully defend his thesis and the jury-board which had the likes of Le Roy Ladurie (Professor at the Collège de France), Fernand Braudel (Father of the New School of History in France), Jean Naudou (specialist on India), François Bourricaud and Annie Kriegel — both being eminent professors — as its members, welcomed it unanimously as “most honourable”.

Meanwhile, in 1971, Prithwindra married Danielle with whom he had a daughter named Adya who was born on 8 July 1972. Following a divorce in 1981 he married Catherine (whom he renamed Ishani). They were blessed with a son named Arjava and a daughter named Amrita.

With his impressive command over Bengali and French, Prithwindra had hoped to teach Bengali in the University of Paris. As he was appointed for many years as a lecturer by University Paris III-Inalco (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), his name was proposed as candidate for the Chair of Bengali which was going to be created with a special fund. Upon enquiring with competent authorities of Collège de France, Department of Comparative Literature at Sorbonne and UNESCO, René Sieffert — the President of the Institut — was convinced about his profile as the ideal candidate. Sunitikumar Chatterjee, the noted scholar and linguist, also assured to back Prithwindra’s candidature. Unfortunately, local politics did not permit the Chair to exist. So Prithwindra joined University Paris XII where a special course on Indian Philosophy was created to welcome him. In 1981, he joined the department of ethnomusicology attached to the C.N.R.S.-Paris (French National Centre of Scientific Research) with the project of a cognitive study of the scales of Indian music.

During his sojourn in the United States of America, Prithwindra had befriended Bill Woodruff, a post-doctorate scholar in sociology, who often talked to him about the epoch-making theory of cognitive research and had also shared with him some literature on the said subject as explained by Eleanor Rosch. While working on the scales of Hindustani and Carnatic Music at C.N.R.S., he made a rapprochement between the theory of categories in cognitive studies and the Indian system of seventy-two mélakartâs. He had hoped to receive a warm support for his project; instead he was shown a cold shoulder by certain authorities of cognitive research who not only opposed the project but also tried to ruin Prithwindra’s career. Making use of an international congress of linguists at Paris, he presented a paper on his project which was appreciated by a few specialists. Support also came from professors working on Indian music in European and American universities. Prithwindra went a step forward by conceiving two electronic gadgets: one, for singling out the successive degrees of any of the mélakartâs; the other one, for situating the height of the twenty-two microtones (shrutis) used in Indian music. He believed that once the gadgets materialized, the two diapasons could bring about a very modest revolution in the world of composition. In July 1997 he presented a paper on this subject at the XVIe International Congress of Linguists held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The authorities of C.N.R.S. chose to recognize his discovery with a bronze medal. He retired as a researcher in Human and Social Sciences Department of the C.N.R.S. in 2003.

In 1985, the Ministry of Culture of France financed Prithwindra’s trilingual edition of Baul songs to celebrate the Année de l’Inde. As a producer-cum-author of features for Radio-France, Prithwindra organized concerts and lecture tours all over Europe. In 1990 with the collaboration of Radio VPRO-Holland, he was the first to publish a digital record with the Bauls. In a vast public meeting at Rotterdam, he had also celebrated the anniversary of Lalan Fakir, the legendary Baul.

In 2003 Prithwindra was invited by Sir Simon Rattle who was to conduct Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the world premiere of Correspondances, opus for voice (with the divine participation of Dawn Upshaw) and orchestra, where the veteran composer Henri Dutilleux had set to music Prithwindra’s French poem “Danse cosmique” on Shiva Nataraja, followed by texts by Solzhenitsyn, Rilke and Van Gogh.

As an extraordinary scholar and prolific writer, Prithwindra had authored more than seventy books in English, Bengali and French. His noteworthy works include titles like Samasamayiker Chokhe Sri Aurobindo, Pondicherryer Dingulo, Bagha Jatin, Sadhak-Biplobi Jatindranath, Undying Courage, Vishwer Chokhe Rabindranath, Thât/Mélakartâ : The Fundamental Scales in Indian Music of the North and the South (foreword by Pandit Ravi Shankar), Poèmes du Bangladesh, Serpent de flammes, Le sâmkhya, Les écrits bengali de Sri Aurobindo, Chants bâuls, les Fous de l’Absolu, Anthologie de la poésie bengalie, Bagha Jatin: Life in Bengal and Death in Orissa (1879-1915), Bagha Jatin: The Revolutionary Legacy, The Intellectual Roots of India’s Freedom Struggle (1893-1918) and Bagha Jatin: Life and Times of Jatindranath Mukherjee. Invited by the famous French publishers Desclée de Brouwer, Prithwindra’s French biography Sri Aurobindo was launched with due tribute by Kapil Sibal, India’s ambassador in France. His PhD thesis, Les racines intellectuelles du movement d’independence de l’Inde (1893-1918) was foreworded by Jacques Attali: it ended up with Sri Aurobindo, “the last of the Prophets”. While launching Prithwindra’s biography Bagha Jatin: Life and Times of Jatindranath Mukherjee published by National Book Trust, Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India, admitted: “It is an epitome of the history of our armed struggle for freedom.” To celebrate the centenary of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel award, in 2013, Prithwindra brought out a trilingual (Bengali-French-English) anthology of 108 poems by Tagore entitled A Shade Sharp, a Shade flat which was launched by the President of the illustrious Sociéte des Gens de Lettres founded by Balzac.

Official recognitions flowed in, although belatedly, to acknowledge Prithwindra’s invaluable contribution in the field of research and literature. In 2003 he was honored with the prestigious ‘Sri Aurobindo Puraskar’ by Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata. In 2009 he was appointed to the rank of chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture of France. In 2015 the Minister of Culture appointed him Chevalier in the Order of Palmes academiques (academic laurels). In 2014, the French Academy recognized Prithwindra’s entire contribution by its prestigious ‘Hirayama Award’.  In 2020, he was honored by the prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ by the President of India for his contribution in the field of education and literature.

At the chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters ceremony in 2009 (left to right): Swami Veetamohanando (President of the Vedanta Centre in France), H.E. Ronjan Mathai (India’s Ambassador in France), Henri Dutilleux (senior-most Western composer), Prithwindra Mukherjee, Gérard Pédraglio (Representing the Republic), Professor Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat (Member of the Institute), Dr Bikas Sanyal (Director Maison de I’lnde, Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur)

Receiving the Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur

 

Prithwindra Mukherjee with Janine, the Mother’s grand-daughter at Paris.

The present author was introduced to Prithwindra Mukherjee in 2008. Having read some of his articles and biographies of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo, Prithwindra had sent an appreciative note to him. Gradually a deep and most intimaPrithwindra Mukherjee with Janine, the Mother’s grand-daughter at Paris.te bond developed between the two of them which lasted till the end. As the present author enjoyed the confidence and affection of Togo, Prithwindra’s youngest brother who lived in Pondicherry and died in December 2012, Prithwindra too trusted him and shared with him his moments of sorrow and delight. Since its inception in March 2010, our organization—the Overman Foundation—was blessed to have him as a guide and patron. He also joined the Board of the Foundation in 2018. In August 2011, Overman Foundation presented him with the ‘Auro Ratna Award’ for his invaluable and outstanding contribution in the field of research and philosophy which was accepted on his behalf by Togo. In his acceptance message, Prithwindra had written:

‘…several times I remembered that in the Court of Rajarshi Janak, the sage Yajnavalkya was asked: “How do you work in this world; with the help of what? What is the aid that you have in this world which enables you to perform your function?”

‘Yajnavalkya gave an immediate, open and simple answer: “It is due to the light of the sun that people perform actions in this world. If the light of the sun were not to be there, activity would be impossible.”

‘That is why John Milton was to raise the humble question: “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

‘For me the source of all light has been the Love I received from the Mother. Without her Love, I would be nothing. I could do nothing. Hence I honestly feel that by awarding me today you recognize how potent Love can be.

‘By choosing to thank you, I thank that Love.’ 

Overman Foundation was also privileged to publish three books authored by Prithwindra Mukherjee: In Quest of the Cosmic Soul (2013) — an anthology of his writings in English on varied themes and covering a span of fifty years, Paris-er Chithi (his famed series which was originally serialized in the Desh, the reputed Bengali magazine) and Pondicherry-er Gandi Chere (an autobiographical account which chronicles his journey from being an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, to his becoming a citizen of Paris and a member of French intelligentsia). Both the books in Bengali were published in 2023. Several articles authored by him were also published on the website of Overman Foundation.

Whenever the present author required any sort of help or advice, he would approach Prithwindra unhesitatingly and Prithwindra — being the personification of sweetness and warmth — never let him down. Be it a letter of introduction or recommendation, preface to the author’s book or personal reminiscences of several disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, not a single request made to him went unfulfilled. When the author got married in February 2016, he received from Prithwindra the following gift — a beautiful poem authored by him with the first letter of the names of the bridegroom and the bride.

ANURAG-SHUKLA

17 February  2016

1

Awaiting the Mother’s radiant return

Numinous in her golden frame,

Undaunted they stand loyal and stern

Repeating the delightful name.

Assembled they breathe the fragrant wind

Gliding down the peaks of Overmind.

2

Stupendous visions of anticipation

Hastily appear one after the other

Up hoisting  the banner of sanctification :

Kyrie eleison to greet the Mother.

Listening to her clarion voice

All of us now assemble and rejoice!

As he was a witness to a most brilliant period of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and was also quite close to the Mother and numerous disciples of Sri Aurobindo, Prithwindra would also share with the author tit-bits as well as little-known secrets of Ashram life of the bygone era. In fact, although Prithwindra lived in Paris, his soul was at Pondicherry in the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo. And his heart was always with the Mother. He would look upon any small or insignificant service rendered to him as a gift of the Mother with whom he had a constant inner contact as was evident from the details of the dream-visions of the Mother he had shared with the author.

For quite some time Prithwindra’s health was failing. Since 2003, he was confined to his wheel-chair owing to the wearing out of his tendons and muscles of the shoulders. In his recent emails to the present author, he would write of his failing eyesight and faculty to listen. But he was mentally as alert as a youngster and his memory was as impeccable as ever. In October 2024, he gifted to Overman Foundation all the letters and birthday cards he had received from the Mother as well as letters written to him by the stalwarts of Bengali literary world. This collection of correspondence named ‘Prithwindra Mukherjee Collections’ was formally inaugurated as a permanent exhibition at Overman Foundation office on 24 November 2024. Initially it was proposed to inaugurate the Collection on 17th November but afterwards the date of 24th November was selected keeping in mind its significance in the Aurobindonian community. And Prithwindra was informed about it well in advance. On 12 November 2024, he wrote to the present author: “I can never be disappointed with your work. The Mother’s special blessings surrounds you and guides you on the path; I am amazed to see its evidence in your intuitive actions.” Who knew that it would be the last communication from Prithwindra!

Prithwindra Mukherjee passed away on 29 November 2024 at the Tenon Hospital in Paris at 3.10 p.m. due to septicaemia. The news was officially released by his family on 30 November by a Facebook post. His funeral took place on 11 December 2024 which happened to be the birthday of his younger brother, Togo.

Great were Prithwindra’s achievements as a researcher and writer. But as a man, he was far superior than his remarkable achievements. He did not let his physical infirmities overpower his talents, dreams and aspirations. He had the valour and determination of a soldier through which he conquered all obstacles, established himself successfully in a foreign land and went on to achieve the status of a legend in his lifetime. The following words of Rabindranath Tagore suits him most appropriately:

Tomar kirtir cheye tumi je mahat/Tai taba jibaner rath/Paschate pheliya jai kirtire tomar/Barambar

which means

You are, sire, greater than all you achieve

And so your life’s rich chariot time and again

Leaves far behind all your resplendent feats.

(Translated by Dilip Kumar Roy)

___________

About the Author: Born on 13th October 1984 to Jayanta and Sanghamitra Banerjee (eminent actress of Bengali cinema), Anurag Banerjee is a multiple award-winning poet, essayist, researcher, biographer and translator. A former faculty at NexGen Institute of Business and Technology, Kolkata and Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR), Pondicherry, he established the Overman Foundation, one of India’s leading research institutes dedicated to the ideals of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, at the age of twenty-five in March 2010. He has lectured in several national symposiums and seminars organized by Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Sri Aurobindo Bhavan (Kolkata), National Council of Education and Jadavpur University and authored more than two hundred and fifty research papers which have been published in anthologies and journals of repute. He is a Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Sakti Centre Trust which runs the Sri Aurobindo Bal Mandir School at New Alipore, Kolkata, and editor of Srinvantu, one of the oldest bi-annual journals of West Bengal dedicated to an exposition of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In April 2011, he received the prestigious Nolini Kanta Gupta Smriti Puraskar awarded by ‘Srinvantu’ and Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata. In December 2021 he received the Shiksha Bharati Award’ from the Indian Achievers’ Forum ‘in Recognition of Outstanding Professional Achievement & Contribution in Nation Building’. In 2024 he received the Golden Book Award (declared Asia’s most prestigious book award by the Business Standard newspaper) for his magnum opus, Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram in Contemporary Newspapers.

____________

The following photographs were taken at Paris when Prithwindra Mukherjee was presented with the ‘Padma Shri’:

Condolence Message of Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, posted on Twitter.