On the occasion of the forthcoming 150th birth anniversary of Sister Nivedita, our Advaita Ashrama released a new revised & enlarged edition of the Letters of Sister Nivedita in 2 volumes. The first copy of this monumental edition has been received by Most Revered President Maharaj, Swami Smarananandaji, at Belur Math on 15th September 2017.
Sister Nivedita (1867—1911), an illustrious disciple of Swami Vivekananda, was a champion of Indian education and Indian Nationalism in the beginning of the twentieth century. Indian History would be incomplete without taking into account the contribution of Sister Nivedita in rejuvenating the people by her lectures and writings as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda.
The maximum number of Nivedita’s letters were written to Miss Josephine Macleod and Mrs. Ole Bull, American friends of Swami Vivekananda, who helped and supported Sister Nivedita right from her arrival in India till her passing away. These letters were lovingly preserved by Ms. Macleod and later on handed over to Ms. Lizelle Reymond, who wrote the first biography of Nivedita titled ‘The Dedicated’. Reymond came in contact with Sri Anirvan, a scholar of Indian Philosophy, and passed on Nivedita’s letters to him for preservation. Prof. Sankari Prasad Basu, the renowned scholar & researcher of Vivekananda literature, happened to meet Sri Anirvan in the course of his enquiry regarding Sister Nivedita. Sri Anirvan, finding Prof. Basu to be the right person to value his precious treasure, handed over the letters to him with the only condition that he should publish them. Prof. Basu painstakingly researched and deciphered the handwritten letters, and collected many more letters from various sources and published them for the first time in 1982 from Nababharat Publishers, Kolkata. Before his passing away Prof. Basu handed over the original letters along with more unpublished letters to Belur Math, and the responsibility to bring out the second enlarged edition came on Advaita Ashrama, the publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math.
These letters are a priceless source material not only for historians and educationists but for all the ardent devotees, followers and admirers of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement.
Some special features of this new second edition :
- 85 new letters of Sister Nivedita added to the new edition.
- Some letters incomplete in the first edition have been fully restored.
- 33 new letters added in the appendix, either received by Sister Nivedita or written about her.
- Name, Place & Subjective Index.
- An exhaustive ‘Introduction’ to the Letters by Sri Somenath Mukherjee, an associate of Prof. Basu
- Short Biographical Sketches of Addressees & distinguished persons in the letters
Publication information :
Title : Letters of Sister Nivedita
Total no. of Letters : 886, language : English
Additional Letters in Appendix : 123
Collected & Edited by the late Prof. Sankari Prasad Basu
Originally published in 1982 by Nababharat Publishers, Calcutta
Edition :Â Second Revised & Enlarged Edition
Hard Bound : 2 Vols. Set (Total no. of pages : 1338)
Volume I : Letters 1897—1904 : Pages—685
Volume Il : Letters 1905—1911 : Pages—653
Publisher : Advaita Ashrama
5, Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata—700014, India.
Email — mail@advaitaashrama.org
Website — www.advaitaashrama.org
ISBN : 978-81-7505-463-9 (Set)
Price : Rs. 800/- (2 vols. set)
