Chapter-III

CHAPTER III

RABINDRANATH TAGORE AND HIS

CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH

Rabindranath Tagore, popularly known as Gurudev, was a versatile personality

who dominated the literary world till he was alive. Besides being a first rate writer,

musician, theatre thespian, educationist, philosopher, humanist and an administrator,

he was above all a patriot. He tried and succeeded in all forms of writing, both

fictional and non-fictional. He was a poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer,

scriptwriter and an essayist too. His works reshaped Bengali literature and music in

the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he

won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913 for his poem Gitanjali.

Rabindranath Tagore was born on 6th May 1861. Tagore was born at

Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Jarasanko. He was the son of Debendranath Tagore and

Sarada Devi. He was the youngest of fourteen children. As a child, Tagore lived

amidst an atmosphere where literary magazines were published, musical recitals were

held and theatre performed.

Tagore's oldest brother, Dwijendernath was a respected philosopher and poet.

Another brother, Satyendranath was the first ethnically Indian member appointed to

the elite and formerly Indian Civil Service. Yet another brother Jyotirindranath was a

talented musician, composer and playwright.

His sister Swarnakumari Devi earned fame as novelist in her own right. His

sister-in-law Kadambari, was a dear friend and has a powerful influence on Tagore.

Her suicide burdened Tagore for years.

In early October 1878, Tagore travelled to England with the intent of becoming

a barrister. On 10thNovember 1912, Tagore travelled to United States. In the same

year, Tagore also travelled the United Kingdom. His International travels sharpened

his opinion that human divisions were shallow. The school named Visva-Bharati was

founded on 22nd Dec. 1921at Shantiniketan, a spread of relatively arid and eroded red

soil of seven acres bought in the 1860s by Debendranth. Rabindranath Tagore is a

towering figure in the millennium - old literature of Bengal. His poetry as well as his

novels, short stories and essays are very widely read and the songs he composed are

listened with very much interest.

The second half of the nineteenth century is known as the Bankim era of the

Bengali literature. The first half of the twentieth century is known as the era of

Rabindranath Tagore. His era started with the publication of his poetical works,

novels, plays and essays which stamped him as a genius. When he was in the full

swing of his career as a writer, he impressed the social and historical movements also.

The British Government has been planning to divide Bengal into two

administrative sectors. In 1905, Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal and the Swadeshi

Movement started. The artists, poets and dramatists took part in the movement under

the leadership of Rabindranath. The restless social, political life impressed all the

fields of nation; literature was not the exception for it. The sensitive writer and person

like Rabindranath Tagore could not live away from all these impressions. The

reflections of the social and political condition can be found in his all the writings.

The Freedom Movement of India did not just remain the political weapon but it tried

to bring about revolutionary change in the traditional Indian culture and philosophy.

Ostensibly there are several Tagore - a poet, a novelist, a story writer per

excellence, an essayist, a painter, a composer, a philosopher, an educationist a seer. In

the present context we bring to the to accentuate Tagore- the playwright, the producer,

song writer, musician, the actor, choreographer and stage doer and costume designer

and even as a theatre audience. This chapter surveys Rabindranath Tagore's literary

career. His literature can be grouped into five sections for the convenience of the

discussion.

1. Poetry

2. Novels and short stories

3. Essay literature

4. Drama

5. Miscellany

Tagore as a poet:

Rabindranath Tagore nicknamed as Rabi has written a number of poems. His

poetry is varied in style from classical formalism to the comic, visionary and ecstatic.

He is a born poet. The stream of his poetry blows like the water of Janhavi. It soothes

the heart and soul of humanity. His poetry echoes the music of eternity. His poems

seem the songs of innocence and experience, unity and freedom, peace and ecstasy.

Tagore was influenced by the mysticism of the rishi authors, including Vyasa,

Kabir and Ram Prasad. Abhilash is known as his first long poem. When he was

fourteen he recited his poem Bharat. This poem was published in the Amrita Bazar

Patrika. Banphul is his first long poem in eight cantos running 1600 lines. His first

work which bears the authentic stamp of his genius is Sandhya Sangeet. He himself

has given his experiences about the poems as follows:

As poems my Evening Songs may not have been worth much, infact as such they are

crude enough. Neither there metre, nor thought had taken definite shape. Their only

merit is that for the first time I had come to write I really meant just according to my

pleasure (Tagore, 1987:203).

Rabindranath Tagore's poetry is full of religion and devotion. He is believer in

God. His poetry will look very shallow and poor without God. He a great poet of love

and nature as Hariom Prasad says:

The theme and thought of Tagore's poetry can be summed up with four letters 'LOVE';

that is, love for humanity (both man and woman) love for divinity (God and his

Kingdom) and love for nature. In his poetry he interprets love in all his multi form

expressions the love of a mother, son, husband, wife, lover, beloved and friend and

above all of a true devotee of God. Through his poetry, Tagore comes out as a great

lover of liberty, fraternity and equality (P. Hariom, 2004:71).

Rabindranath Tagore has created the beautiful literary forms. His poetic life is

amazing. Most of his poems are either songs or lyrics. His poetry is vast, various and

voluminous. His mind is the kingdom of diverse streams, cross, flow and merges into

the land. Tagore's poetic career is all embracing and definitive. His poetic career

covers the period, more than sixty years. He had written about 7000 lines of verse

before he was eighteen. He has composed more than 2,500 poems. His creative

passion is described by Krishna Kriplani as:

He was a poet in the traditional Indian sense of the word, Kavi, a seer, an

intermediary between the human and the divine. His genius enriched whatever it

touched. Like the sun after which he was named (Rabi in Bengali, derived from

Sanskrit ravi, means the sun), he shed light and warmth on his age, vitalized the

mental and moral soil of his land, revealed unknown horizon of thought and spanned

the arc that divides the East from the West (K.Kriplani, 2004:74).

His poetic works such as Saisav Sangeet (Childhood songs), Kadi o Komal

(Sharps and Flats), Ganer Bahi, Nadi (River), Smaran (in Memorium), Sisu (The

child), Kheya (crossing), Dharma (Religion) and Santiniketan are noticeable for their

themes. Kshanika and Naivedya are the worldly rank poems. Several of these are

included in the English Gitanjali.

Gitanjali (Songs of Offering) is Rabindranath's spiritual autobiography. The

features of this poetry are its simplicity, freshness, and Indianness. The poems of

Gitanjali are the offerings of the finite to the infinite. It won the Nobel Prize for

Literature for him in 1913. He was the first and so far the only Asian to be

distinguished. The first thirteen Nobel Prizes distributed between 1901 and 1912 were

awarded to Europeans and to Europe, even for nations receiving it more than once. No

non-European country not even Russia or America had received a prize for literature

till 1930 with exception of India. Therefore when it was announced in November

1913 that the prize had been awarded to Rabindranath Tagore, the gaze of the literary

world was bent towards the East, Asia and particularly towards India.

Infact, Tagore obtained it on the strength of an English translation of his

Bengali poetry book Gitanjali. He was being accolade because of his profound

sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which with consummate skill, he had made his

poetic thought expressed in his own English words, or part of the literature of the

west. These poems are deeply emotional and have no comparable lyrics for decades. It

is a rare experience to read them. It gives the pleasure of drinking from a fresh clear

spring. The tender and religious feelings which pervades Tagore's thoughts and

emotions, the purity of heart, the nobility and natural dignity of his style all these

qualities blend into a whole of deep and rare spiritual beauty. His poetry contains

nothing debatable or disturbing, nothing that is vain, worldly or petty, and ever if a

poet may be said to posses qualities which entitle him to a Noble prize.

The award of the Nobel prize for Literature to Rabindranath in 1913,

inaugurated an Age of Rabindranth in Bengali literature. With this prize India

registered her existence on the world's literary map. Tagore was the first writer who

impressed vividly intellectual consciousness of the West. T.R. Sharma describes

Gitanjali:

The poem naturally gives to many a troubled soul. It is a great document of intuitive

faith and reads like Bhagwat Gita on the one hand, and the Psalms of the Old

Testament, on the other. It can be called a synthesis of all that is best in the Indian

and the Western traditions (Sharma T.R. 1998:32).

The post Gitanjali period poems of Tagore is intense and new and unique in

many ways. The poems such as The Gardener, The Crescent Moon, Fruit Gathering,

Balaka, Stray Birds, Palataka, Lipika, Purabi, Mahua, Banabani and the Praises are

rich in contents.

Tagore is a poet and thinker of universal excellence. He blossoms as a poet of

Beauty and Truth like Keats and Kalidasa. He has discovered the unexplored world of

philosophy, sensibility and awareness.

Rabindranath Tagore: As a Novelist and Short Story Writer:

As a novelist Tagore started his career by imitating Bankimchandra but soon he

found his own path and pioneered a new era in Indian Novel. Tagore's novels were

originally written in Bengali. His three most important novels are - The Wreck, Gora

and The Home and the World. As a novelist he has a great influence on the Indian

English novel. P.P. Mehta says:

If Romeshchandra Dutt brought realism and reform to the novel, if Bankimchandra

invested the novel with a romantic halo, Tagore revealed the inmost currents of man's

mind in his novels he brought psychological delineation to the novel. He added depth

and significance to the novel - a great leap forward in the development of the

novel(Mehta P.P. 1968:28).

Tagore's novels are full of the spirit of humanism and universalism. Tagore was

great humanist thinker. He developed his own vision of mankind. As a humanist he

was aware of life and the problems surrounding him. His love for the poor inspired

him to castigate manifestations of social and religious evils. Humanism is the

distinguished feature of Tagore's novels. He was deeply impressed by the

Upnishadas.

The Wreck is a social novel which discusses the problems of marriage, whereas

Gora is a political novel. In this novel one can see the views of Tagore's India. Gora

reveals Tagore's humanistic views. It is well known for well portrayed characters and

well structured plot. The Home And the World is an allegorical novel. It takes readers

into the mainstream of Indian politics.

Tagore was the first to write the short stories in Bengali. His short stories can

be classified into four broad categories - love, social relationship, the correspondence

between man and nature and the supernatural. Tagore's stories reveal a range in

height that makes them some of the best specimens in world of literature. It has a

higher and standard of excellence. Tagore is supreme as a short story writer. His

stories are having richness and variety of content, the beautiful description of nature

and its deepening influence on man. It also has a fine blending of poetic vision and

penetrating psychological insight of the novelist. It is perfect in the portrayal of

conflict between the individual and the family and society and in the creation of

supernatural atmosphere.

Tagore's novels have great impression on the development of Indian English

novels. It has the exposition of socialism, realism, humanism. In his novels Tagore

has psychologically analysed the human characters. His novels influenced the Indian

novelists such as Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and others.

In his short stories Tagore reveals the pathos, the beauty and the sublime of life

out of simple characters and incidents of human life. His best stories 'Cabuliwallah',

'Home Coming', 'Mashi', 'The Post Master, Victory etc. are artistic pieces full of

realism, humanism and poetic vision. His other well known stories are: The Night,

The Skeleton, My Fair Neighbour, Babus of Nayanjore and The Wife's Letter.

Tagore's short stories have a compact and well knit structure, vivid characters

and incidents, apt atmosphere and shine of language. One can observe Tagore's poetic

vision in his short stories. All his stories have the unity of idea which inspires and

sustains the story.

Rabindranath Tagore: As an Essayist

Rabindranath Tagore started writing essays at the age of fifteen and continued

till 1941. His essay Sabhyatar sankat is an example of perfection of the art of essay.

His essays are versatile. Rabindranath developed his own literary theory on the basis

of his knowledge of aesthetics. He examines the nature of poetry and art in the light

of poetic relish, beauty, pleasure and the infinite. In his three books - Sahitya,

Sahityer Svarup and Sahityer Pathe - deals with the relation between poetry and

belief, the functions of the artists, the reader and the critic. Rabindranath's views on

politics, society and education are reflected in a large number of essays written in his

life. He glorified the country and greeted the efforts of union of different elements of

India in his writings, Rakhi Bandhan, Shivaji Utsav. These articles show his

constructive ideas about the country. His political ideas are recorded in Atmasakti,

Bharatbarsa, Raja-praja, Swades, Paricay, Kalantar, Savvatar Sankat, Siksa, is a

collection of essays on the problem of education in Bengal.

He was influenced by the Upnishads. His suggestions on religion are recorded

in his essays-Dharma, Santiniketan and Manuser Dharma. Of these the pampletes

Santiniketan are significant. His philosophy of life can be studied from a number of

his essays.

Some of best examples of the essay are Panchbhut (Five elements), Vichitra

Prabandha (Essays of Wonderful) and Lipika (Epistles). In his Vichitra Prabandha

the interaction of the poet with the world and life and its effect on the mind of the poet

are presented in an artistic manner.

The personal note in his writings is very distinct. Yurop Prabasir Patra

(Letters from one Emigrated to Europe) Yurop Yatrir Diary (Diary of a Wayfarer to

Europe), Jiban Smriti (Reminiscence), Japan Yatri (Passage to Japan), Rasiyar Chithi

(Letters from Russia), Pather Sancyay (Gleaning on a journey), China Patra (Letters

from China) contain the stories of life and the accounts of his travels.

Rabindranath Tagore: As a Dramatist

The towering personality of Rabindranath Tagore also enriched the Bengali

drama. His plays were obscure and less stage worthy. But a group of brilliant young

graduates staged many of his plays. Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, the famous novelist also

tried his hand at drama by writing two plays. Bankim Chatterjee, Nirupama Debi,

Sourindra Mohan Mukhopadhya and Majori Bose have some fine plays to their credit.

Rabindranath Tagore's plays were quite distinct from the main body of Bengali

drama. He has a distinct place as dramatist. In his plays, Tagore's poetry has tended

to overshadow his work. As the outstanding dramaturge of modern India, he has

successfully blended the elements of the folk drama of Bengal with classical Sanskrit

drama.

Rabindranath wrote over sixty dramas many of which may or may not be called

dramas. His range varies from profound tragedies, tragi-comedies, symbolical

dramas, allegories, dramas dealing with contemporary social and political problems,

dramatic dialogues in verse, lyrical dramas, musical dramas, dance dramas to warm

hearted comedies and satires. Tagore's plays are broadly classified into eight genres

as: Musical drama, verse drama, poetic drama, prose drama, comedies, symbolic

drama, nature drama and dance drama.

His musical dramas are Valmiki Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki) 1881; Kal

Mrigaya (The Fateful Hunt) 1882; Mayar Khela (The Plays of Illusion) 1888. His

verse dramas include Rudrachanda 1881, Prakritir Pratishodh (Nature's Revenge)

1884, Raja O Rani (The King and the Queen), 1880, Visarjan (Sacrifice) 1890. Poetic

dramas encompass Chitrangada 1892, Viday - Abhishap (The Curse at Farewell)

1894, Malini 1896, Gandharir Abedan (Gandhari's Prayer) 1897, Sati (The Fateful

Wife) 1897, Karna-Kunti Samvad (Karna and Kunti Dialogue) 1899, Lakshmir-

Pariksha (Lakshmi's Testing), 1897. His prose dramas are Grihaprabesh (Home-

warming), 1925, Shodhbodh(Acquittance), 1926, Natir Puja (The Dancing Girl's

Worship) 1926, Tapati, 1929, Kaler yatra (The March of Time), 1932, Chandalika

(The untouchable maid) 1933, Tasher Desh (The land of cards) 1933, and Bansari

1933. Under the head 'comedies' fall Hasyakautuk (Laughter and fun) 1907,

Vyangyakautuk(Mockery and Fun) 1907. Goday Galad (Wrong from the start) 1892,

Shesh Raksha (Saved in the End) 1928, Vaikunther Khata (The Manuscript of

Vaikuntha) 1897, Bashikaran (Captivation) 1926 and Muktir Upay (The way to

Deliverance), 1938.

Symbolic dramas include Sharadostav (Autumn Festival) Rinsodh (Repayment

of Debt) 1921, Mukut (The Crown) 1908, Prayaschitta (Expiation) 1909, Paritran

(Deliverence) 1929, Raja (The King) 1910, Arup Ratan (The Jewel without Form)

1920, Achalayatan (The Jewel without Form) 1920, Achalayatan (The Static

Institution) 1912, Guru (The Great Teacher) 1918, Dakghar (The Post Office) 1912,

Phagluni (The cyle of spring) 1916, Mukta Dhara (The Free Currence) 1922 and

Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders) 1924. Under the division 'Nature Drama'

ComesVasanta (The Spring) 1923, Shesh Varshan (The Last Rains) 1925,

Shravangatha (The Song of the Rains)1934, Nataraja : Riturangashala (King of

Dancers : The Theatre of the Seasons) 1924 and Navin (Rejuvenescene) 1930,

Tagore's Dance dramas cover Shapmochan (Release from Curse) 1931, Nrityanatya

Chitrangada 1936, Chandalika (The Untouchable Maid) 1938, Nrityanatya Mayar

Khela 1938-39 and Shyama 1939.

Not only dramas but his stories and novels have been copiously dramatized for

the stage and many of his poems are presented in the form of dance-drama.

Cambridge guide to Theatre holds Tagore as India's best known modern

playwright. Although his many plays are not frequently produced outside Bengal,

they constitute an important contribution to dramatic literature.

Most of Tagore's dramas are written in winter. He used poetic tools in his

dramas. His prose dramas are also having the quality of ltyric poetry.

His plays achieved a kind of lyrical action and a rhythomic treatment of

emotions which moved around one idea. The main principle of his plays is the play of

feeling and root of action. Tagore was impressed more with music than action and

more with idea than story.

When his Valmiki Pratibha was staged Tagore was twenty from that time on,

Tagore independently wrote and staged his dramas which were different from Bengali

drama.

1) Musical drama :Tagore's musical dramas are Valmiki Pratibha, Kal Mrigaya and

Mayar khela. These three plays were the innovative musical genre, the work of a

young musician- dramatist, a specialist artist, marked the emergence of a new force in

the world of Bengali drama. These plays exhibits a daring integration of drama and

music where the dramatist freely melodising native and foreign tunes established a

highly effective dramatic form on the stage. These three plays are operatic and are

different from Bengali Gitabhinay and Marathi Sangit Natak in conception.

2) Verse drama :Rudrachanda, Prakritir Pratisodh, Raja O Rani and Visarjanhave

a complicated ground of action, mixture of verse and prose. Songs from enhancing

the intensity of dramatic moments; comic relief is presented in the last three plays,

revenge as a motif. These are having focus on the 'emotional life of the characters';

soliloquy and an exception in Indian drama, exhibition of death on stage. Rudra

Chanda (1881) has a revenge theme. The dramatist gave much importance to the

thematic content of the second verse play Prakritir Pratishod (1884) a spiritual drama

of the sanctity of human values jeopardized by an ascetic stance. Raja O Rani (1889)

is by far the most expansive play he wrote. In Visarjan the playwright achieved the

artistic integrity of idea, plot and characterization. The theme of a radical issue in

religious rites is presented through mostly use of verse. His plays Raja O Rani and

Visarjan received patronage of the audience.

3) Poetic drama :In his poetic dramas Tagore uses the literary haritages such as the

Mahabharata, the Buddhist legend, the Maratha ballad and Folklore. He used the

Mahabharata for his Chitrangada, Viday Abhishap, Gandharir Abedan, Narakbas,

Karna-Kunti-sambad.The Buddhist Legendfor his play Malini.The Maratha Balladfor

Satiandfolklore forLakhsmir Parisksha.

In his poetic dramas he is inclined to dramatize certain moral implications of

myth, introducing in the process of psychological interplay born of the conflict of

values in a deeply traditional milieu.

All his poetic plays are equally valuable and have new interpretation and

freshness. They give the classical myths, the new beauty and volidity.

These plays are the complete moments of tense and terrible drama, presenting

the class of attitude, the conflict of aims and ideas, in men and women who are acting

and suffering under very high emotion as in Viday-Abhishap, Sati, Gandharir Abedan,

Narakbas, Karna-Kunti Samvad. These palys fit for an experimental little theatre, with

the audience ready to catch and relish the subtle nuances of thought and language.

Chitrangada, Malini, Lakshmir Pariskha are plays relatively on an extend scale offer

full fare expected in the public theatre.

4) Comedies:Tagore's comedies are fresh and forever they will remain fresh.

The wit, humour presented in his plays, sketches is intensely enjoyable.

Rabindranath wrote a couple of comedies Goday Golad and Vaikunther Katha.

His comic muse effectively expresses itself in those plays. Those are highly

performable plays that accord with the norms of high comedy. It shows the dextority

of the artist in handling theme, form technique and tense.

Tagore's comedies, begins with the Hasya-Kautuk and Byanga Kautuk in 1907.

Each of these works of apprenticeship consists of the diaglogue of characters in

essentially rudimentary comic situation, reflects an instinctive urge for comic

expression. Following these lively miniature the canvas widens as the maturing

dramatist ventures into the field of more complex social issues. The outcome of such

efforts is a number of larger sized comedies - Goday Golad(1892),Vaikunther Katha

(1897), Bashikaran(1901), Chirkumarsabha (1926), Shesh Raksha (1928) and Muktir

Upay (1928).

5) Prose Drama: In his prose dramas Girth Pravesh, Shodhbodh and Banshari are

written in a contemporary setting. Natir Puja and Chandalika are legend based, Tapati

and Paritran are semi historical, Rather Rashi and Kabir Diksha are apocatyptic and

Tasher Desh is a dramatic fantasy.

Grihpravesh, Shodhbodh and Tasher Desh are dramatic representation of his

own short stories. Tapati and Paritran are new versions of Raja O Rani and

Prayaschita respectively. Chandalika is based on a Buddhist legend. Natir Puja on

his poem Pujarini. Banshari has an original theme. The theme of his prose dramas is

taken from his older material but there is a freshness of his language. It has originality

in characterization and superb invention of motivation and innovative situation

building.

6) Symbolic drama: Tagore's symbolic plays are - Shardotsav (1908),

Mukut(1908), Prayaschitta(1909), Raja(1910), Achalayatan (1912), Dakghar(1912),

Phalguni(1916), Muktadhara(1922), Raktakarabi(1924)and the revised versions such

as Aruprtan(1920), Guru(1918), Rinsodh (1921) and Paritran(1929).

7) Nature Drama:Tagore himself has called 'Ritu Utsav' (Season festivals) to his

nature drama. Nature drama is more befetting a designation, considering their cosmic

scope. In these drama nature is viewed through the prismatic appearance of the

seasons in their eternal cycle includes corresponding changes in all that come within

their grand sweep. His nature dramas or season plays are Basanta (The Spring)

1923,Shesh Varshan (The Last Rain) 1925,Shravangatha (The Song of the Rains)

1934, Nataraj : Riturangashala (King of Dancers : The Theatre of the seasons) 1927,

Nabin (Rajuvenescence) 1930.

In Sharadostva, Phalguni or Vasanta etc.the spirit of the season symbolize the

different aspects of nature to which the progressive human soul is attuned and tyaga is

the secret of permanent blessedness.

The season plays of Rabindranath are a confluence of poetry, song and drama.

The poetic beauty of the season-plays is clear to all. The flavour of their songs too is

undisputed. Inspite of the nomenclature of the season plays as drama the depth of their

dramatic quality is not beyond questions.

The dramatic character in the nature plays is unmistakable. The focus in these

nature plays is the dramatic which is the outcome of a systematically treated theme of

the cosmic interplay of varied forces.

The nature plays are the most joyous plays, plays of life itself in the true sense -

pure, fine and delicate, subtle and tenuous. The images are beautiful. The evocations

of joy and loveliness that the poet scatters through the songs, the music and the dance

and all these fuse in one integrated structure which quivers with an intensity of

feeling.

8) Dance drama: His dance dramas include Shapmochan (Release from curse)

1931, Nrityanatya Chitrangada(1936), Chandalika (The Untouchable Maid) 1938,

Nrityanatya Mayarkhela(1938-39) and Shayma (1939). These are lyrical in which

Tagore created an altogether new form of aesthetic expression where, poetry is

blended with music, dance and drama and all are of equal importance. Here, the

dance is a means of dramatic expression and not more adjunct to or an embellishment

of songs.

These are the best and purest examples of operatic plays by Tagore. These

plays were repeatedly performed in Santiniketan in Calcutta and elsewhere. Among

these dramas Chandalika deals with untouchability, Chitragada and Shapmochan

stressed the true beauty lies in one's inner self.

In this series of plays the songs or musical speech, the sole means of dramatic

expression, being conceived in terms of dance, freely blended styles, but technically

developed fully to suit the exigencies of the new dramatic conception.

Stage : Most of the Tagore plays were intended to be played in the open air or on

open air stages with the minimum of stage properties. No cut or painted scenes were

allowed. In the formative stage of the Tagore theatre, the poet himself was his own

producer, director, designer and dresser. Tagore did not only create new dramatic

forms but also the stage craft best suited to the purpose.

Costume : Rabindranath invariably gave great importance to the stage costume.

Probably he realised that it is possible for the theatre to do without stage, but acting

must mean 'assuming a character', and assuming a character means dressing up.

Music : In the domain of music , Tagore built up the edifice that has now come to be

known as 'Rabindra Sangit', a new genre in artha sangit. Some of his tunes are

improvements on the metre, being lightened and quickened by the addition of the

musical beat. The tunes and melodies created by Tagore have an unspeakable charm

which comes from the moulding of the music pattern that the tune follows a rhythm of

its own, a rhythm that combines in itself the metrical, musical and dance beats. His

music sometimes sounds like rhythmic chanting. Rabindranath, has successfully

conceived a musical style which emphasises and achieves an artistically satisfying

blending of words and melody.

Dance : The credit of introducing original dance drams to the elite of the city goes to

Tagore. He was strongly under the spell of Manipuri dance form and employed the

style into his dance creations. The abhinaya part of part of his dance is borrowed from

Kathakali. This mixed style of form is often termed as Rabindrik style of dance. His

dance dramas found an adequate expression not only in just words and musical

compositions but dance played as equally vital role. As a dance-director he used to

edit the dancing while rehearsal was in progress.

Actor :Tagore was only sixteen when he made his first appearance on the stage. This

was a comedy by Jyotrindranath with Rabindranth in the leading role. He also acted

in his own plays Valmiki Pratibha, Kal Marigaya, Visarjan, Chirkumarsabha,

Phalguni, Tapati, Natir Puja etc.

Tagore's characterization of Valmiki established him as a gifted actor and a

fashionable stage vocalist. He acted in his Phalguni. He played the role of the blind

minstrel with confidence. The impressive presence of Tagore on the stage in diverse

roles thereafter added fresh dimension to their conception leaving an indelible mark

on the audience.

From then on, when he was twenty one he directed, produced and acted in

many of the forty odd plays long and short, of his own. He was seventy five when he

last appeared in Sharadostav staged in 1935 at Santiniketan. Tagore easily achieved

that celtimate goal of all good actors, that is identifying oneself with the role

portrayed.

Rabindranath was against the unrestrained exaggeration in acting, which

according to him completely spoils the clarity and inner beauty of the play. Tagore

had not spared the English actors, the distant idols of the Bengali theatre of those

days. He attended the world famous Passion play in Oberammergau at Munich.

Rabindranath's Raja O Rani was first staged at the Emerald Theatre in 1890.

Since then, his early dramas and comedies were presented intermittently at various

public theatres. Out of his sixty dramas only fifteen were performed in his life time.

Of his great symbolic plays only one performance took place in his life time. In

composition and in production the works of Tagore were far superior to anything that

had been done before the stage history of Bengal.

Thus, Rabindranath Tagore was the man, greater than work. He has a

multidimensioned qualities and a versatile genius. The critic Budhadeva Bose writes

about him:

Great obstacle to a proper appreciation of Tagore is that he is both voluminous and

unequal; the profusion and diversity of his works, comparable only to Goethe's

becomes bewildering when we reflect that, unlike Goethe, he has left no supreme

single achievement by which we could justifiably judge him (Bose B. 1962 :79).

Rabindranath Tagore was a gifted technician. He created a form suitable for

the expression of his ideas. His plays have a flexible form and minimal stage props.

His plays are technically like folk plays and Sanskrit plays. He makes use of myths,

legends, symbol, allegory, songs and dialogues. Tagore shows originality in the

technique of his plays. As M.K. Naik says:

But though he probably took hints from both Jatra and Sanskrit drama, Tagore has

followed neither model slavishly. His plays evince a great variety of structure, since

he allows the form of a plays to be shaped by the needs of its theme (M.K. Naik, 1984:

174).

Tagore's Achalayatan is an allegorical play inspired from Rajendralal Mitra's

'Sanskrit Budhist Literature of Nepal'. He completed the play in 1911. It was first

appeared in the journal 'Prabasi'. It was published in book form for the first time in

1912. The play was dedicated to Sri Jadunath Sarkar.

It can be regarded as an allogerical play, an attempt to repudiate our absurd

Hindoo orthodoxies, our meaning and antiquated socio-religious rites, belief and

taboos.

His Ama and Vinayaka is based on a short verse play 'Sati' written in 1899.

'Sati' was publihsed in Kahini. It presents Rabindranath's conception of religion. His

Arasiker Svargaprapti,is a comic playlet appeared in 1892. It is primarily in the form

of monologue. Mythological material is comically used in this playlet. His Arupratan

is a symbolic play. It is a revised version of 'Raja'. It appeared in 1920. It is an

actable shortened version of Raja-rewritten in a new form.

Tagore's Autumn Festival is based on Bengali original Sharadostav. It is his

first season drama written for the young boys at Santiniketan without any female

character. It is a prose play interspersed with songs. It is a symbolic drama. His

Banshari is a tragi-comedy, published in 1933. It is based on his novelette Lalater

Likhan. It was never played on the stage. It dramatizes the emancipation from the

bondage of the passion of self-gratifying love to the condition of dispassionate love.

Tagore's Bashikaran is a comic playlet published in 1892. It is a social comedy of

errors.

Chandalika represents Tagore's later drama that is based on the Buddhist

legend Sardulakarnavadana. It was published in 1933-34. This is a drama of intense

spiritual conflict in which Chandalika, a very sensitive girl has been condemned by

birth to a despised caste is suddenly awakened to the consciousness of her destiny as a

woman. By asking her for water, the Buddhist monk teaches her to judge herself, not

by the artificial standards of society, but by her capacity for love and service. Since

her own self is the most she can give and since no one is more worthy of her gift she

yearns to offer herself to the monk. But when the mother works her primitive spell

and Ananda appears, degraded and shamed, at her door, Prakriti throws herself and

asks forgiveness. The mother revokes the spell, but dies in the process and

Chandalika who learns love does not claim possession, but gives freedom, is

redeemed a second time.

Tagore's Chirkumarsabha is his own dramatised version of 'Prajapatir

Nirbandha', his own novel. It is a comedy published in 1926. It is a satire on those

who imagine they can lead the life without women and remain confirmed bachelors.

The playwright crafts for them situation after situation that lead to their complete

discomfirture. The comedy ends in happy union of the lovers and the men recognizing

the rightful place of women in the country's work.

Tagore's Chitra is based on the myth from Mahabharata, appeared in 1936.

Chitra is a story of a King's daughter, powerful in statecraft but lacking female

charm. Her father had brought her up as a boy, dressed as a prince, skilled in the use

of arms and was worshipped by her people, to whom she was a vedient protector.

When she saw Arjuna, she regretted, for the first time, her manly costume and

her manly ways. She threw herself at his head, but was received very coldly; for

Arjuna had taken vow of celibacy that was bind him for a dozen years.

She turned to the two gods for their aid; and from Vasanta she obtained the gift

of beauty that was to remain to her for twelve months. Thus armed she renewed her

attack capon the hero and this time she proved irresistible. His vow was forgotten;

and though she warned hi, that she was 'illusion' they began together a life of idyllic

happiness.

Chitra's happiness was not complete, though she feared that his borrowed

beauty alone had made an impression on Arjuna and that, as she put it, her body was

her own rival. She begged that the gift might be taken from her, that she might reveal

to him her 'own true self, a noblest thing than this disguise.'

There was no escape from the terms of the gift, though; and before the year was

up Arjuna began to tire of the beauty that alone made any appeal to him. The villagers

came to him for protection from marauding robbers - their princess Chitra, who had

been their protector, had gone on a mysterious pilgrimage, apparently, for none knew

where she was.

Chitra's hopes of winning him in her real person and her fears of losing him

altogether were described in language that was full of passion and of real feeling, and

embellished with descriptive touches are excellent.

At the last hour of the year chitra made her confession. She disclosed her

identity to Arjuna. She became again the warrior princess and wondered, almost

hopelessly, if Arjuna could still love her as he did when her beauty was a thing to

marvel at and she had little else to commend her. "My beloved", he replied, "My life

is full". And that was all.

Later in 1936, it was adapted into dance drama Chitrangada. It is a lyrical

drama. it is a play wholly in terms of poetry.

'Crown' is Tagore's play based on his own Bengali play Mukut publihsed in

1908. Dakghar is his symbolic play written in March 1912. It is a parable of the

liberation of the soul from the body of a dying child Amal. It is a songless piece - the

only one in the symbolic genre. The central character of the play is 'Amal', The

physically sick child with rare spiritual sensitivity is in a state of bondage. The

character concept of Amal is a masterly stroke and the situation he is in, whether taken

metaphorically or not, is a sensitive imaginative construct of infinite expansiveness.

As the play ends, it becomes manifest that it is not the child but his elders who are

actually sick, suffering from the malady of spiritual obtuseness.

Gandharir Abedan as Tagore renders the play into English as Mother's Prayer.

His Gandharir Abedan is a verse play based on the Mahabharata epic, was published

in 1897. In this play Gandhari's soul is turn by conflict between love for her husband

on one hand and the elemental truths of life : right, honesty and justice on the other

hand.

The play derives its theme from the national epos that teems with moral ideas.

The contending forces are represented by the unrighteousness of Duryodhana and the

rectitude of his high spirited mother Gandhari, who unavailingly implores her

husband, the indigent father, king Dhritarashtra, to renounce their son who has

abandoned the path of Dharma.

Tagore's Goday Galad is a social comedy, a comedy of errors lighted by

polished, scintillating wit and enlivened by delicious satire on our society and religion.

It is a fine specimen of high social comedy and its stageworthiness cannot be

questioned having best comic plots. Grihprabesh (The Home Coming, 1925) is a

poignant tragedy. In this play one can find the inner texture of social realism and

symbolism. Plotting shows assured mastery, a compactly textured play and it

dramatic point lies in the value transformation for the maladjusted couple the

resolution takes two distinct forms, Jatin moves from a plane to emotional attachment

to one spiritual repose. This play of middling size in to acts is not a plain drama.

Tagore's Kacha and Devyani is based on his playlet Vyday Abhishap Written in

1893. His Kal Mrigaya is a musical play publihsed in 1882. In this play the King

Dashratha unwillingly kills the son of a blind sage. The theme is therefore unoriginal,

thin and is based on an episode from Ramayana.

His Karna and Kunti (1900) is based on his playlet Karna Kunti Samvad

written in 1899. The play captures the complex relationship of Kunti, the mother and

her pre-nupital abandoned son, Karna, in all its emotional, political moral bearings.

Tagore's King and the Queen is based on his early play 'Raja O Rani' written in

1889. It is written in blank nerse. The King of the Dark Chamber is basedon his

symbolic play 'Raja'. His Malini is written in1896. This play is adapted from the

Buddhist legend of 'Mahavasta Avadana' , which Tagore found in Rajendralal Mitra's

Sanskrit Buddhist Literature in Nepal but the elaboration is his own. This poetic play

is constructed of two elements : one is the clash of religions following the spread of

Buddhism which militated against the traditional Brahminism and the other is the

dream derived betryal - revenge episode of the two friends.

Muktadhara is Tagore's symbolical play written in 1922. The source of this

symbolic drama is his earlier play Prayaschitta. It symbolizes the victory of the

goodness of man over the appressiveness of power and greed by the name of

nationalism and efficiency. It depicts the liberation of the human spirit from strange

hold of narrow nationalism. It has a functionally symbolized setting. Muktadhara is

one of the most moving and well-knit dramas of Rabindranath, the dramatic story

arises out of a conflict between the ruler and the ruled which symbolically is a conflict

between man and machine an essentially spiritual problem. The play contains many

passages of impassioned prose and a number of musical and limpid songs which are

intimately linked with the message of the play. His Muktir Upay is Tagore's last

experimentation in the realm of comedy. The play is a social comedy with no

romance and little satire.

The idea of man as the supreme judge of his own action is given shape in

Narakbas, in which the dramatic string traces the experiences of the disembodied

spirit of King Somaka who, in a noble spiritual act forgets his reward of heavenly bliss

in the wake of a freshly awakened memory of a past sin. His Natir Puja is a dance-

drama, written in prose but punctuated with music and dance. It is inspired from

Rajendralal Mitra's 'The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal'. The play is

condensed in the events of a single day, symbolising the challenge of Buddhism to the

traditional Hindu religion and society, a whole history retold in a few scenes and

situations. It is one of his simplest and most moving plays.

Tagore's Phalguni is another allegorical play published in 1914. It is a lyric

feast and very enjoyable on the stage and inspire man to a new awakening that life is a

reality and the terrors of death are illusions. Prakratir Pratishodh is the play written

in blank verse in 1883, later in 1917 was adapted in English by the name The Ascetic

or sanyasi. The character of sanyasi is delineated through existing conflict, both

outward and inward which mingle with one another to produce the catastrophe. And

the theme is profound realising the Infinite in the Finite. The story revolves around an

ascetic who is striving for a victory over nature by cutting the bonds of desire and

affection to arrive at a true knowledge of himself. A little girl brings him back to the

world from communion with the infinite and into the bondage of human affection.

Then the ascetic realises that the great is to be found in the small, the infinite within

the bounds of forms, and the external freedom of the soul in love. Only in the aura of

love does every limits merge with the limitless. It presents Tagore's own view.

Prayaschitta is a tragi-comedy of Tagore. It is a songful play with Basanta Ray

as the main singing character and the songs are marked with an emotional overtone,

not hymnal like Sharadostav. Here he advocated non violent, non-co-operation as a

political weapon more than a decade before Mahatma Gandhi's campaign.

The allegorical play Raktakarabi was written in 1923-24, later on in 1925 it

was adapted in English as Red Oleanders. Raktakarabi deals with the challenge of an

all powerful state to the freedom of the individual. In this play Tagore expresses his

increasing concern with the basic problems of modern civilization. In Raktakarbi, the

king of Yakshapuri is an inhuman and greedy ruler who runs only after gold. He

treats his subject as if they were machines to produce gold. The workers in the gold

mines are only numbered automata. They are not supposed to have a soul at all and

the life is devoid of free will.

Everyone in the kingdom is imprisoned, in their own way. The king is

imprisoned in his greed, the priest, in his religion, the scholar in his pedantry and the

workers in oppression and exploitation. Men and women, each representing a

different stratum of society are confined in the prison house of greed, custom and

superstition.

Nandini, a symbol of undying love and life, stands outside the iron bars of the

prison which is Yakshapuri and appeal to each to come out and share in the abounding

joy of the sunlight. The prisoners feel restless and at times, express unfamiliar desire

to come out of their cages behind and follow Nandini. The king runs after her as he

runs after gold. But Nandini refuses him as this is not the way to possess love and life.

All feel her beauty and are disturbed by it, but none understand her true

message. Nandini loves Ranjan, but Ranjan too is imprisoned by the machine and in

the end of the play, we find him sacrificed as its victim. Love and life asserts

themselves through his death and life is reborn in order to recreate love.

Written in blank verse, Rudrachanda is Tagore's historical verse-play that he

published in 1882. It portray the revenge theme through the gradual degeneration of

the monomania hero, the miscarriage of whose scheme of vengeance leads to "self

slaughte" though with the significant dramatic twist of a final reconciliation with his

estranged daughter at the point of his death.

Tagore's Sacrifice is based on his own play Visarjan. It dramatizes the conflict

between enlightened human perception and fanatical orthodoxy over the issue of

animal sacrifice in the worship of the goddess Kali, resolved through the self-

immolation of a noble soul. In this play the feeling of the heart, the foundation of true

morality, run as a leading motif.

An animal kid reared by Aparna has been taken away for ritualistic sacrifice on

orders from king Gobindmanikya. The blood stains on the temple- stairs, Aparna's

grief over the loss of her dear pet and her sense of bewilderment stir the kings

conscience. Why so much pain and bloodshed in the name of God? Disregarding the

protestations of his courtiers he now orders a ban on the practice of sacrificial rites.

Raghupati, the priest, defiantly vows to continue the tradition. Gunabati, the

childless queen, sides with him as she hopes to beget a child by appeasing the deity.

Raghupati tries to persuade Nayanray, Chief of the army to bring about an armed

revolt against the king. Nayanray though he doesnot support the ban, declines to be

unfaithful to his sovereign. Later, as he refuses to post armed guards at the temple, the

king dismisses him and promotes chandpal. The priest now conspires with the Crown

Prince, Nakshatraray and sets a deadline for regicide. Jaysimha, his devoted disciple

reacts strongly, arguing that the mother of the universe can urge her offspring to

commit such an act. Raghupati creates a polimical confusion over the issue as virtue

and vice, and Jayshimha affirms that if the goddess so desired he would do the killing

himself. But when the moment comes he fails. Raghupati then compels him to swear

that he would kill the king by the last night of Shravana.

Chandpal, a power greedy opportunist, incites the people to make an appeal to

the Mughals to intervene. Raghupati too, through trickery, convinces them that the

goddess is displeased with Gobindmanikya. Jayasimha sees through the trick, but

Raghupati confuses him again about truth and falsehood. Chandpal goes over to the

Mughals. The queen provokes Nakshatra into a heinous plot of offering Ohruba, a

child, as sacrifice to the goddess. Gobindmanikya, rescues the child and banishes both

the priest and his own brother from the kingdom. The target date for month of

Sharavana, the night Jaysimha must fulfill his vow. A violent storm has broken

loose. Raghupati raves with excitement Jaysimha enters unperturbed and after

offering his blood to the deity kills himself. His death comes as a great blow to

Raghupati. He takes out of temple the idol the symbol of his assumed suzerainty over

the realm of religion and throws it down into dust.

Valmiki Pratibha is a musical play. This play was first performed in Feb.

1881. Tagore played the lead role of Valmiki in this play. The play deals with the life

of Valmiki, the robber chief who is later turned into a sage poet of ancient India. A

girl is being presented before him by his band or robbers at his behest. This girl is to

be sacrificed at the alter of goddess Kali. Suddenly an inexplicable feeling of pity for

the victim aroused in Valmiki. It incapacitates Valmiki to execute the cruel act. His

bidding to release the captive girl antagonizes his companions and a suffering Valmiki

is left to lead a desolate existence. While wandering lonely in the deep forest he

catches a glimpses of goddess Sarastwati. His ecstasy is short lived as the deity

vanishes as dramatically as she appeared. Yearning to recapture the sight of the

goddess, Valmiki notices a pair of flowers who go ahead with the killing of a mating

crane. The cruel act at once brings to his lips a Sanskrit chant lamenting the act,

indicating his new acquired poetic skill, Valmiki's constancy to the new values is put

to a final test as Lakshmi the goddess of wealth, emerges to tempt him. Valmiki does

not yield to her generous offers and his formant is finally set to rest as he becomes

worthy of Saraswati's blessing.

Vasanta is Tagore's season play published in 1923. It is a play in the format of

festival in an imaginary ancient Hindu courtly setting that takes form of a play within

play. It commences with the King's entrance informing his court poet of his grave

financial crises. The poet tells him that he has arranged a dramatic performance

which will be held at the court to celebrate the festival of spring. The King tells that

his ministers have driven him away from the Court. The poet commends the king's

action as progress in the right direction and elaborates on his own kind of escape

which is tantamount to a concept that of leaving behind petty earthly bonds for

achieving the companionship of glorious spring, the ever free external traveller. It is

the job of the ministers to remind him of the empty treasury, but to make the King

forget that is the duty of the poet.

The poet-producer with his vision seeks to draw him, caught in the web of his

worldliness closer to nature and achieves his mission. Now begins the enactment of

the nature drama that focuses the workings to springtime phenomenon. Following the

call of the attends of Rituraja, enters nature character one after another in quick

succession. Banabhumi (The woodland), Amrakunja (The Mango Grove), Karabi

(Flowering plant), Benubana (The Bamboo grave), Deepashikha (The Flame of the

Lamp), Madhavi ( a flower), Salbithika (The Sal Avenue), Bakul (a flower), Nadi

(The River), Dakhinhaoa (The Vernal breeze), Malati (a flower), Banapath (The forest

path), Jhumkolata (a flowering creeper) and the flowers Akanda, Dhatura and Jaba.

There is a total call to the elements of nature to bestow their all at the feet of Rituraja.

The call is for complete dedication which is to be rewarded with fulfilment. For,

without this fulfilment giving is but a deception. True giving replenishes the earth

which is enriched by the gift of the Spring festival.

The nature - drama instills in the mind of the King "the intimacy of a pervasive

companionship" with the spirit of spring. At last the poet makes him aware of a more

meaningful existence and draws him into the orbit of a fuller rhythm of life.

When the time comes for Spring to depart, its glorious form of the season of

splendour starts fading nature is shown as accepting the departure of spring

equanimously, even ceremoniously.

At the close of the play, there is a involvement of man in the drama of nature.

Now the insensitive Finance- Minister has began dancing along with all the ministers

in the joyous choric dance. This is the festival of destitution. The days of penance

have down on earth, the finance ministers have now work on hand.

There is the succession of springtime abundance by post Springtime decadence.

Taking the life stream of man too in the sweep of the season's force, the nature

drama closes on a note of a full acceptance of the dynamic spirit of the season which

takes both plenitude and destitution in its stride in a harmonic cosmic cycle.

Tagore's dramatic art is simple and complex, simple in style and expression,

while complex in the variety of its forms and the depth of its meaning. The form of

Tagore’s play is according to the need of its theme. Chitra, Sanyasi, Sacrifice and Red

Oleanders are one act plays. Malini and The King and the Queen are having two acts.

The Cycle of Spring is a play in four acts.

Sacrifice and Red Oleanders are based on a humane value system and the

rapidity of movement, undisturbed by scene demarcation. These expose the conflict

between good and evil. The movement of action is slow in Malini and The Cycle of

Spring. Tagore's plays aim at promoting the idea with elaborate suggestions and

symbols and at creating the unity of effect A.N. Gupta says:

The secret of his power does not lie in the action of his plays or even in the

psychological analysis of characters. His aim is not to build a story consisting merely

of objective action, nor does he engage himself exclusively in the painting of the minds

of his characters. His power seems to lie in his amazing vitality of imagination and

his remarkable ability to create an atmosphere which grows upon the mind, not by the

repetition of any central idea, but by magic. He weaves his words into a most delicate

pattern of poetic prose. He can hold up the action with talk that makes action

redundant and makes objective relation between the character and another rather

unnecessary. His plots are nothing but little suggestive sketches meant to induce and

express only an attitude of mind.........He does not follow any of the rules and

conventions of the modern stage. His plays bear a continuous action on the stage and

are set against a background which is extremely simple and unostentatious. He

concentrates the attention of his audience on the atmosphere that he is creating(Gupta

A.N. 1986, pp:150-151).

Tagore's plays deal with the mystery of human existence. His plays are theme

oriented and symbolical. His themes are varied and the treatment is also varied and

well suited to the theme. His plays are expressions of the problems of human life. He

raises some problem or other in his plays and often his solution does not appeal to the

reader. He highlights how love, religion and death can be life giving forces. As K.R.S.

Iyengar says:

Tagore could take many things for granted: for example an intimate knowledge of our

epics and our main cultural tradition generally. Certain attitudes, too, he could take

for granted. Idolatry in India is as old as the hills and condemnation of idolatry also

is as old as the Buddha, if not even more ancient. Asceticism and the failure of

asceticism, casteism and the exceeding of casteism, the spectacle of husband being

redeemed by wife or wife by husband or both by children, fanaticism striving with

tolerance, pettiness striving with magnanimity-all are old, old themes. Tagore could

start the play, strike the opening chords, name the characters and memory and

imagination would do the rest. Not the logic of careful plotting but the music of ideas

and symbols is the 'soul' of this drama. Not the apparent meaning but its echoing

cadence of suggestion - dhwani as the Sanskrit rhetoricians called it; in other words,

the richness of the undertones- is what matters, for this alone kindles the sluggish soul

to a new awareness of life's "deep magic"(Iyengar, 1984, pp:122-123).

The English renderings of Tagore's plays have a compact and neat structure as

compared with their originals in Bengali, which follow the loose Elizabethan model.

Tagore's characters stand as symbols for certain ideas as well as certain vital

and fundamental conceptions of the dramatists. Some of his characters are purely

symbolical. Tagore's characters are his mouthpieces and through them he presents

before us the conflicting ideologies. They exhibit a remarkable conflict of mind and

soul. Conflict is soul of a play. In the process of conflict Tagore's characters undergo

a change of heart. His characters are as poetic as he himself. They seem to be actors

staging an idea, symbols, not human beings.

His dialogues are poetic and highly stylized. The poetical, musical, cadenced

and flowery language is essential for Tagorean drama which discards the conventions

of the realist drama and opts for the larger freedom of imaginative theatre. His

dialogues expound the underlying idea of the play. They are imagery, symbols,

rhetoric and declamation song and music, soliloquy and aside. Setting in

Tagore's plays is far removed from the world of the present. They are set in distant

remote times and places. Settings also aim at promoting and exposing the basic idea

in Tagore's plays.

Tagore is known for the English translations of his Bengali plays. Tagore's

translations form a class apart. The playwright himself translated from the Bengali

originals the following plays: Sanyasi or The Ascetic, Malini, Sacrifice, The King and

the Queen, Kacha and Devyani, The Mother's Prayer, Karna and Kunti, Ama and

Vinayaka, Somaka and Ritvika, Chitra, Autumn Festival, The Waterfall or

Muktadhara and The Cycle of Spring, The Post Office and The King of the Dark

Chamber were translated.

Tagore's plays are expressions of the problems of human life. They deal with

the mystery of human existence. He raises some problem in his plays and often his

solution does not suit the audience. As the problem is something reflective of life a

visible solution is never offered by life itself.

His Sanyasi or The Ascetic is the translation of Tagore's Bengali playPrakritir

Pratisodh, to which he called a dramatic poem. It presents the theme of joy of

attaining the Infinite in the Finite. Sanyasi is a highly symbolical play. Malini is

a two- act play. It deals with the conflict between Brahmanism and Buddhism. It

underlines the importance of love. As K.R.S. Iyengar says:

In Malini again, as in sacrifice, a new ethic challenge an outmoded old ethic beauty

and revelation clash with fear and fanaticism, but once it is a tale told by an idiot -

but also signifying a good deal(Iyengar 1987 : 129).

His play Sacrifice is remarkable for dramatic restraint and concentration. This

play is suitable in the modern context and teaches the modern man the meaning and

need of religion according to present day requirements. Sacrifice exposes the

hollowness of inhuman religious rituals and proclaims the significance of love and

humanity. The King and the Queen is also a play of ideas like Sacrifice. It is complex

drama having a large number of characters. Tagore's Chitra, Gandhari's Prayer and

Karna and Kunti are inspired by Mahabharata. Chitra is a play on both youth and

growth. It is a play on the true virtue of womanhood. It is one of Tagore's most

beautiful plays. Rabindranath Tagore's another play Gandhari's Prayer or The

Mother's Prayer is based on the story from the Mahabharata. It reveals the greatness

of the character of Gandhari. According to K.R.S. Iyengar the play:

Gandhari's Prayer is a study of a mother and her son, the great and magnanimous

mother of the Kurus and her eldest ill-fated son Duryodhana. Dhritarashtra, the

father and Gandhari the mother know that Duryodhana is wrong, but father

compromises, while Gandhari will not. She is a great character.(Iyengar 1987 : 138)

Another concept and story of play has been taken by Tagore from the

Mahabharata is Karna and Kunti. This play is the beautiful dramatization of a

dialogue between the castaway son Karna and socially conscious mother Kunti. In this

play Tagore brought into focus the conflict between illegitimate childhood and

unmarried motherhood.

Kacha and Devyani is also a dramatic dialogue. In The Waterfall or Mukta

Dhara Tagore reveals political convictions. He opposes a technology divorced from

humanity and religion. It is considered as Tagore's greatest plays. It is a play with

social purpose. K.R.S. Iyengar clears the meaning of the play as:

Human values are paramount, and to ignore this truth is to canter towards self-

destruction. Tagore never wrote a more powerful play, or one richer in suggestion,

than Mukta Dhara (Sharma M. 1970:92).

The celebration of life is the theme of Tagore's The Cycle of Spring. In Red

oleanders Tagore has symbolically presented the triumph of humanistic values over

the soul killing materialism.

Somaka and Ritvika is an indictment of religious obscurantism. Autumn

Festival is a pastoral drama which expresses Tagore's joy of life.

Tagore's English translations are conspicuous for variety of themes, such a

great and major contributor to Indian English playwright was misunderstood by some

scholars in India. Sen Gupta says, "He is not a great dramatist" (Sengupta,

1984:179). Another writer Shiv K. Kapur comments, "Tagore was not by means a

sophisticated playwright" (Kapur, S.K. 1966:38). Mohanlal Sharma observes, "It

appears rather difficult to claim for Tagore a permanent position in modern dramatic

literature" (Sharma M., 1970:92).

Apart from these comments it doesn't affect the great place of Rabindranath

Tagore as a dramatist. Some contemporary critics praised Tagore's contribution to

Indian English drama. Niharranjan Ray observes,Rabindranath Tagore is matchless

in his symbolic plays (Ray N. 1967:50). According to Savitri Tripathi, Rabindranath

Tagore has been the source of supreme inspiration to millions in modern India. His

works stir our spirit, refine our life and give profound satisfaction to our mind.

(Tripathi S., 2005:52). Another scholar Satyandranath Ghosal believes, Every

symbolical or allegorical play of Tagore is a magnificent dramatic work (Ghoshal,

S.:45).

The great writers of humanity have been honoured by being translated into a

variety of languages. Shakespeare is one of such writers and there are the great leaders

of thought and literature in ancient and modern Europe whose works are available in

scores of language. A representative portion of Rabindranath Tagore's writing is

available in all the modern languages of the world. In most cases they have been

translated from English versions which were made either by him or by others. In good

number of instances, however, these translations were made direct from the original

Bengali language into a variety of foreign languages like, for example, English,

French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Chinese, Japanese and Persian and of course

into Indian language, into most of them.

In 1961 centenary of Tagore's Birth was officialloy celebrated by the

Government of India and his plays were translated and performed in several Indian

languages in a variety of styles. The occasion was celebrated outside India too and the

dramas and dancedramas were produced in distinctive styles.