The influence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the mind of K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1908-1999), a widely admired poet, critic and an erudite scholar who straddled the world of English and Indian literature with perceptible self -assurance, has been powerful and pervasive. It covers not only his life and philosophy in general, but also his epic retellings and his critical thinking in relation to literature. Iyengar’s recourse to the Upanishads and the integral yoga of Aurobindo is significant and indicates the author’s consistent regard for weighting the Ramayana muthos with the philosophic wisdom of the ancients, enriching Sitayana with the Upanishadic wisdom. On his own admission, Aurobindo has been a major influence on his life and writing. My pronounced undergraduate admiration for Lytton Strachey as a critic was later qualified by my acquaintance with the critical works of Virginia Woolf, Middleton Murray, Lascelles Abercrombie, Herbert Read, T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis, Allen Tate and Yvor Wlnters. During the last twenty years, however, the major influence on my life and critical writings has been Sri Aurobindo….(1962).

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Keywords: Sitayana, Self-Assurance, Erudite Scholar, Abercrombie, Upanishads.