Savitri Brata: Hindu Tradition of the Well-Being of Their Husbands by the Married Women in Odisha

Savitri by Sri Aurobindo does not only belong to the world of poetry but is a strong tale as well as the mirror of his religious ideas. The tale is of a king of Madra, Aswapati who underwent intense and profound modes of spiritual examinations to satisfy the goddess, Savitri. In a reward she gave him a daughter called Savitri. Savitri became a beautiful and wishful woman. Though there were many men who wished to marry her, she opted to marry Satyavan son of a blind king, so named, Dyumatsena, who was leading life in exile. Although the sage Narada advised her against marrying Satyavan on the grounds that he was going to die in a year Savitri never relented but actually married him. She had simple devoted life up porting her husband and taking care of his ageing parents. When Satyavan was killed and god of death Yama was sent to take his soul, Savitri followed him. Her sincere love, innocence and determination moved Yama into returning Satyavan to life. Sri Aurobindo claimed that he took this ancient legend and added some more sense into it. It told about the strength of love, faith and the strength within. To him, Savitri was the beacon of spiritual rejuvenation and that life can manage to overcome even death. The paper demonstrates that the qualitative interpretative proposal is applied to the analysis of a particular piece of art, the narrative composition, of Savitri by the Indian poet philosopher Sri Aurobindo, the use of poetic devices the evolution of the characters, and symbolic themes. It applies a symbolic approach to hermeneutics to unlock spiritual semantics, discovers central messages and examines its connection with Indian heritage and with contemporary spiritual development.