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RABINDRA
'YUG' OR THE ERA OF RABINDRANATH
The first half of 20th century Bengali literature is primarily regarded as the era of Rabindranath.
This towering personality had an unquestionable command in all spheres of literature viz. poems, novels, short stories, plays, essays, songs, dance,
art of letter-writing and several other creative art forms. This gifted genius has
spontaneously produced an incredible variety of literary
extravaganza and carved a niche for himself in the domain of
Bengali literature. He has enriched Bengali literature like never before and made it
classic in matter and content. In a nutshell, it can be
concluded that he epitomized the Bengali culture, life-style, and
psyche quite immaculately in an exclusive style.
His literary career started when he was only 12 years of
age. He went on composing incessantly till he was an octogenarian.
It is impossible to assess his literary works or judge his life by ordinary mortals. He had amalgamated within himself a stupendous store-house of
energy, wisdom, knowledge, poignant emotion, romanticism and the representative voice of
men of all times. He made a spectacular fusion of the earthly limits with
infinity and fractions with the integral whole that elevated his compositions to a transcendental peak. No other poet of any age whatsoever, has
shown such colourful variety like Rabindranath Tagore.
At the inception, therefore, it becomes relevant to have a
glance at his poetic genius since it was poetry which earned him the covetous
'Nobel Prize' and shot him into limelight. After this it was an endless show of divine poetic display which glorified Bengali
literature and the Bengalis as a nation in the estimation of the
world at large.
THE POEMS OF
RABINDRANATH
The poetic genius of Rabindranath is an all-time wonder
which cannot be comprehended by the common men. Bengali poetry had made
a grand 
appearance in the history of world literature through
Rabindranath and his unique creations. His innumerable poems and songs are still held in
very high esteem by men all over the world. He was a
quintessential poet in the selection of themes, choice of words, exquisite rhymes,
diction, variety and colour and so on and so forth.
Even during the preliminary phase of Rabindranath's literary
career, we find a grand collection of poems viz., 'Sandhyasangeet'
(1882), 'Prabhatsangeet' (1883), 'Chhabi O Gaan' (1884), 'Kori
O kamal' (1884) etc. At such an early stage of his career, he exuded conspicuous impressions of a veritable genius
on the making.
The next phase (1890-1896) saw the publishing of voluminous collections
of poetry which are regarded by some as the best harvest of Rabindranath's works. This is
because many of his highly acclaimed and famous poems came out in print at this stage. Moreover,
the poems at this stage sparkled with artistic excellence, emotional highs and ever green romanticism. These virtues were not
much prominent in the later stages. His famous books at this stage were 'Manasi'
(1890), 'Sonar Tari' (1894), 'Chitra' (1896) 'Chaitali'
(1896).
'Sonar Tari' may be regarded as a spectacular symbol of
Rabindranath's life. The natural ecstasy of these poems have been identified with the individual
soul with a unique finesse.
Rabindranath was accepted and admired universally in the Bengali life and society after the publication of 'The Gitanjali' - a
grand book of poems. The Swedish Academy honoured him by
conferring on him the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his marvelous
translation of 'The Gitanjali' into English. (The
translation also included other poems apart from 'The Gitanjali').
Besides these, other books of poems viz., 'Katha O Kahini' (1900),
'Kshanika' (1900), 'Naibedwa' (1901), 'Sishu' (1906), 'Kheya'
(1910) etc. deserve special mention.
RABINDRANATH
AND BENGALI
NOVELS
Rabindranath was a multidimensional personality and a gifted
genius. He was a spontaneous poet and travelled with
graceful ease in all branches of literature. So, it is
obvious that he would imprint his masterly touch on the
sphere of novels as well. Rajarshi (1887), Chhokher Bali
(1903), Nauka Dubi (1906), Gora (1910), Ghare Baire (1915), Jogajog
(1929), Char Adhyay (1934).
Rabindranath was essentially a poetic genius. Hence, he felt more comfortable in dealing with
the subtle emotional and sedate stuff rather than dabbling with the
chaos, confusion and intricacies of the big, bad world. So, his
short stories which deal with the colourful aspects of human
life are superior in quality and flavour than his novels.
RABINDRANATH'S
SHORT STORIES
It is an intrinsic proclivity of man to tell tales and to listen
or read eagerly to well told stories. But the birth of short
stories as a literary medium need not be traced far back. 'A short story must contain one and only one informing idea and
this idea must be worked out to its logical conclusion with absolute singleness of method'.
Rabindranath may be regarded as the first composer of short stories in Bengali. His collection of short stories
were printed in three volumes of 'Galpanuchhed'. Some of his eternal short stories deserve special mention in this
regard. They are 'Durasha', 'Ekratti', 'Nashta Neer', 'Megh
O Raudra', 'Atithi', 'Kshudita-Pashan', 'Rabi Baar', 'Laboratory', etc. As a
writer of short stories, he can certainly be juxtaposed with great masters like
Tolstoy, Maupassant, Chekov etc.
RABINDRANATH AS ESSAYIST
Although he dealt primarily with human emotions, sentiments and
conventions, Rabindranath was indubitably one of the greatest thinking saints of his time. This can be easily comprehended if one goes through his essays or
treatises. His articles are based on society education, religion, culture and diverse other topics. Sometimes he
is found to be a critic of ancient literature. He has focused
on his personal political ideology in books of treatises like 'Atma
Shakti' (1905), 'Bharat Barsha' (1906), 'Raja Praja' (1908)
etc.
In 1908, Rabindranath authored an essay named 'Education'. Here, he has
vehemently pointed out and criticized the problems of Bengal's
basic education, its inherent conflicts with western
education and the Bengali's sheer neglect towards his mother
tongue.
He was tremendously influenced by 'The Upanishads'. Apart from this,
he was totally obsessed with the traditional Baul music of
Bengal. His spiritual conviction, transcendental experience etc. were articled in different
magazines and journals at different times such as 'Dharma'
(1909), 'Shantiniketan' (1909-1916), 'Manusher Dharma'
(1933) etc.
Rabindranath had also penned some intensely personal essays.
Notable among these were 'Pancha Bhoot', 'Bichitra Prabandha'
etc.
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