Tagore's contribution

Tagore's contribution

Introduction

The Talented writer who made India proud by becoming the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize in literature was also the first non-European to win the prestigious award. The writer dazzled the world with his brilliant writings and spiritual in sights. He composed India’s stirring national anthem and is well-loved even after 150 years of his birth. Also known by the sobriquet e , the versatile genius being discussed in none other than Rabindranath Tagore.

His life:

            Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta on 7 may, 1861. At the time of his birth there were three revolutionary movements in Bengal. The first was the great socio-religious movement of the Brahmo Samaj, which started by Ram mohan Roy the early years of 19^th century revolutionary movement in Bengali Literature .The third, was the beginnings of a national movement. The Tagore family very activity participated in all three movements. Tagore was mostly educated at home his father name was Devendranath Tagore. He passed away on 6 August, 1941.

Let’s analyze Rabindranath Tagore as the playwright in detail.

Tagore as The playwright

Though, Tagore was a poet and a novelist, he was dramatist too. He was a man of a versatile genius, who achieved eminence in almost all the literary genres even though he was chiefly a poet , a novelist and a writer a short-stories. In addition to, he also wrote a large number of plays. Therefore, some of them are enlisted, as given below

Ø  Sanyasi or The Ascetic

Ø  The King and The Queen

Ø  ‘Sacrifice’ or ‘Visarjan’

Ø  ‘Malini’

Ø  ‘Natir puja’

Ø  ‘Chandulika’

Ø  The cycle of spring

Ø  Red oleanders

Ø  Mukta-Dhara

Ø  Chitra

Ø  Gandhari’s prayer

Ø  ‘Karna and Kunti’

Ø  The king of The Dark- Chamber

Ø  The post office

‘Sanyasi’ which was Tagore first important play. It deals with the conflict between truth and beauty, between reason and love, between rejections and acceptance. The protagonist in this play turns a Sanyasi. After getting lots of miseries from life, he achieves his redemption. So this conveys philosophical message to this readers.

       The King and The Queen is a play which depicts a conflict between Love and duty. Vikram, the king is in the beginning spirituality and morally blind. He is Self –centered and is leading a life of sensual self indulgence. But sumitra, his Queen is not willing to live merely as his wife, but she wants to walk for the betterment of the people.

       “Sacrifice” in this play, the protagonist is queen by the name of Gunavati,who, who thinks only of the expected joys of motherhood. She sends flowers and also animals to be offered as a sacrifice to the terrible mother, Kali.when priest Raghupati assures the queen that the sacrifice would please Goddess Kali.when Aparna,a beggar girl whose goat has been sacrificed to Kali.And then the king,Govinda comes personally to the Temple, and restricts not to offer animals to the Goddess.Therefore,the queen feels repentance to sacrifice, the animals.So,it’s a play about innocent animal’s sacrifice.

       “Malini”,which deals with the conflict between old and outmoded.Malini,who is the principal character, who stands as princess with strong Buddhist views.So,this is the story of beauty and revelation clash with fear and fanaticism.

         “Natir Puja”, this play depicts a conflict between the temporal power of king and the spiritual power of the lord Buddha.Srimati is the court dancer, who is murdered by the Royal guard under the orders of the king.”Natir Puja” is one of the well-known play, which contains the elements of Buddhism.

          “Chandalika” is a famous play by Rabindranath Tagore. The Protagonist of the play is Prakriti, belonging to the untouchable class. She falls in love with a Buddhist Bhikshu named Ananda.Prakriti’s mother knows black magic, so she performs spell to please her daughter. The conflict between the desires of the flesh and the aspirations of a soul has most effectively been conveyed to us, through this play.

           “The cycle of spring”, this play depicts the passing away of winter, and the advent of spring.So, this play ends with a choral song celebrating festivals of spring.

               “Red Oleanders”,is a play,which possesses principal characters like Governor,The Assistant Govenor etc.but no queen can be found through this play.At the end of the play there is a Bishu’s song of autumn and fruitfulness.

               “Mukta Dhara”,the greatest symbolical play.Bibhuti,the royal engineer in the mountain kingdom of Uttarkut,has performed a marvelous engineering feat by building a dam across the waters of Mukta Dhara with the help of steel Machine.It is one of the most moving play.

                “chitra”,is a play,which deals with the woman of extra-ordinary beauty named Chitra,who falls in love with Arjuna,who is ascetic.Chitra is not happy because she knows that Arjuna doesn’t love her.So,Tagore has depicted the evaluation of human love from the physical plane to the spiritual.

                  “Gandhari’s Prayer” is a drama,by Tagore,which deals with the relation between a Mother and her son.Gandhari was the great and large hearted mother of the Kauravas including the eldest of them,namely Duryodhana

                   “Karna and Kunti”,is a well-known play by tagore.Through,this play,he depicts here the relationship between Kunti and her son Karna.Kunti may be described as the mother of sorrows because she is too great and has suffered immensely.

                    “The King of the dark Chamber”,is a famous one,but still it has some characteristics that make this play readable.the theme of the play is somberely impressive,the relationship between man and God.Therefore,this play is about the human soul’s adventures in its attempt to know God.

                    “he Post Office”,is a masterpiece play,which was written by Rabindranath Tagore.This play deals with the soul’s adventures in the divine;and the adventures leave the soul as well as the body cured.

     Tagore as a Novelist

                              Being a versatile genius,tagore also wrote some novels,which were more famous and even today these are more readable.some are given below by describing the analysis of novels.

          Let’s illustrate his novels in detail.

                “Chokher Bali” is a story of an extramarital affair that takes place within the confines of a joint family.It is the story of the Rich,flamboyant Mahendra and his simple,demure,beautiful wife,Asha a young couple who are befriended by the Pragmatic Bihari.This novel deals with a complelling portrayal of the complexity of relationships and of human characters.

                 “The Home and The World”,is a well-known novel,which takes place in the revolutionary Bengal of 1905.there are three principal characters such as Nikhil-The Idealistic husband,Bimal his wife,and Sandip his friend and their autobiographical narratives interwined to make this novel.this novel deals with politics including conflict of it.

                   “ Naukhadubi”,is a  novel,which has an improbable beginning;two marriage parties are drowned in a boat wreck,the only survivors being one of the bridgegrooms and the other bridge.Ramesh and kamala,both are the recently married couple and try to settle down.It has a happy ending.

                   “Gora”,is a masterpiece of Tagore,which has been described by Krishna kripalini as something like a Mahahasbharata of modern india.The hero,gora grows up as an orthodox almost s a fanatic hindu till he learns that he is but a foundling.This is a story about the clash between the old and new,mere revivalism and blind iconoclasm.

                     “Four Chapters”,is not more celebrated novel,yet it has its own significance.Though it has a political background,Tagore has explained a love story through this novel.It was Tagore’s great gesture of protest,but it is also benediction born of compassion and love.this novel is no more thana seed,yet the seed of a mighty banyan.

         Tagore as a Poet:

                            Tagore was a prolific writer and he tried his hand successfully at the most all major forms of Literature. As Edward Thompson points out,even Victor Hugo could not have claimed a wider range of form and mood than was evinced by Tagore who wroteTragic and Comic symbolic writing them in blank verse, in Rhymed couplets in prose. Tagore wrote poetry-Reflective poetry,religious,elegiac poetry and purely lyrical poetry; and who wrote short stories too.

Ø  A Moments of Indulgence

Ø  At the last watch

Ø  Benediction

Ø  Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva

Ø  Brink of Eternity

Ø  Broken Song

Ø  Chain of Pearls

Ø  Colored Toys

Ø  Death

Ø  Defamation

Ø  Distant Time

Ø  Face to Face

Ø  Free love

Ø  Freedom

Ø  Gitanjali

Ø  The Gardener

Ø  The Crescent Moon

Ø  Fruit Gathering

Ø  Stray Birds

Ø  Love’s Gift  and Crossing

Ø  The Golden Boat

Ø  The Herald of Spring

Ø  Wings of death

Ø  Sheaves: Poems and Songs

Ø  Poems from Tagore etc.

The one hundred odd songs in the Poetry “Gitanjali” from a mighty piece prayer and pleading and exultation.”The Gitanjali” songs are mainly poems of bhakti in the Great Indian Tradition.

In Rabindranath Tagore’s collection of poetry “The Crescent Moon”, Tagore depicts the child’s capacity for wonder and joy. He found in them beauty, innocence, humor, charity and a kind of wisdom. Some of the pieces in this poem seem to have as it were overflowed from the well-known “The Gitanjali” volume.

“Urvashi” is an old myth as the rig Veda, and Brahmana, epic, purana.Here, Tagore’s views that “Urvashi” as the Sheer woman-not child, nor Mother, nor wife-but the beautiful woman who is goddess. She carries nectar in one hand and a chalice of poison in the other.

“The Child” is unique among the poet-Tagore’s poems because it was written in English and later on translated it into Bengali as Shishutirtha.

In other poems”Superior”, Tagore makes a rather older child ‘Impeach’ a mere baby to their Mother.”Authorship” is another piquant piece of fancy. The father, who is an author, goes on scribbling; he is supposed to be writing books.

The last three sections of the poems are an anti-climax, and seem almost to blur the intention of the poet. Some of the volume appeared, seemingly in a endless, sequence, readers began to feel allegoric to such dreaminess and mistiness, dissolving cadences and vanishing color, this feeling deepened when the “Collected poems and Pla” appeared in 1936, and one critic wrote

“Much of Tagore’s writing is only a kind of mellifluous musing

Or is even lost, in the endless mist of vague sweetness”

So, Because of his poems, He belongs among the creative writers of Indian Writing in English.

To Wind Up:

As a whole, Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, Dramatist, actor, producer; who was a musician and a painter; He was an Educationist, Reformer, philosopher, Prophet and above all, He was a Novelist and Short story writer, and a Critic of of Life and Literature.