RABINDRANATH TAGORB Poet and Dramatist EDWARD THOMPSON Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford 13,.DDHI-INDIA 28, Beniatola Lane, Calcutta-700009 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com First published 1926 Second edition, revised and reset, 1948 Ji,tddhi edition. 1979, with a new appendix added by Sankha Ghosh Rs. 60·00 l"IUNTED AT ANU PRESS, 51, JHAMAPUKUR. LANE,.. CALCUTJ'A-700009. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com 'The exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation of the world.' THOMAS HARDY 'One may then laudably desire not to be counted a fool by wise men, nor a knave by good men, nor a fanatic by sober men. One may desire to show that ~e cause for which he has lived and laboured all the best years of his life is not so preposterous, intellectually and morally, as of late it has been made to appear by its noisier and more aggressive representatives ; that he has never been duped by the sophistries and puerilities of its approved controversialists, but has rested on graver and worthier reasons, however ill­ defined and iJI-expressed ; that even if his defence of it should have failed, he has not failed in courage or candour or sincerity ; nor has he ever wittingly lent himself to the defence of folly or imposture.' GEORGE TYRRELL, Through Scylla and Charybdis, viii. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com TO RANI AND PRASANTA MAHALANOBIS Kindest and most unselfish of friends. courage(rns and steadfast through the years. loyal through all detractions and anger Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com PREFACE . · Ovu twenty years ago, I published a short study, Rabindranath Tagore, then, in 1926, a quite different longer book, Tagore, Poet and Dramatist ; both have long been out of print. It is the later book which is now brought up to date with the poet's death. A book, as someone has observed, never completely shakes off its first draft, and my own opinions and critical judgements have changed very greatly. But rewriting has been drastic e11ough (some 35,000 words have been excised, and much added and changed) to make this in essentials a new examina­ tion, and a reasonably close representation of what I now feel. I have remembered always that Tagore (though his work, having to get past the concealment of an Indian language, came to judgement in the age of the First World War and of T. S. Eliot) as a writer was the contemporary of the later Tennyson and Browning and of Robert Bridges. In fairness, he must be judged as the Victorian poets are judged, whose world has passed away. Milton's English verse is less than 18,000 lines. Tagore's published verse and dramas amount to 150,000 lines or their rq uivalent. His non-dramatic prose, novels, short stories, autobiography, criticism, essays of many kinds, is more than twice as much, aPd there is also a mass of uncollected material. I mal-..e no apology for omissions. Paper stocks are rationed, and the poet's Bengali admirers, who may feel disappointment that favourite pieces are not mentioned, must accept my assurance that I have cut down ruthlessly from necessity. I have also cut out my bibliography. I think mine was the first, but a bibliography is of value chiefly to students of Bengali literature ; I have only 350 titles, and an inclusive list is in process of compilation. My own work is nearly finished, and I am able to do, not what a younger man might do but only what is still possible. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com viii PREFACE We ourselves know little of India, while Indians know a great deal about us and even about our inmost thought. Of what we have hardly cared to know, yet which many are at last anxious to know, there is evidence enough if we take some trouble. Gandhi's uniquely frank revelation of his 'experiments with truth' ; Jawaharlal Nehru's Autobiography, which carries the impress of his candour and integrity ; and Tagore's writings and public activities-if we know these, we are not likely to be surprised by events as they presently unfold. 'Norway breaking from thy hand, 0 King', answered Eioar Tamberskelve at the Battle of Stiklestad, when O\af turned inquiringly at the snapping of his bowstring. After the lapse of a millennium, the world heard a c;ound as full of meaning, from Singapore and Burma. There will be no restoration of the empire we have known. But there may well be a nobler and stronger reconstruction, with friendship and understanding, instead of dominion and subservience, as its solvents. The connexion of Britain and India stretches over more than three centuries, and provides the common ground on which East and West can come into a civilized relationship. 'John Keats', said his brother George, 'was no more like "Johnny Keats'' than he "was like the Holy Ghost''.' When Tagore's first English book appeared, and was seen to be mystical and religious, expectation was plea~ed 'Oriental literature' was known to be like that ; the West had made up its mind about 'the East', and a few stereo-typed generaliza­ tions were applied to cover the most diverse facts Tagore, however, was not in the least like what he was supposed to be. He wrote, with a skill and virtuosity hardly ever equalled, in a tongue which is among the half-dozen most expressive and' beautiful languages in the world. and the circumstances of his life afforded him leisure and opportunity, as well as ability, to observe the world outside India. I hope that my reader will see that his work was varied and vigorous and hlld more than a soft wistful charm, deadened by repetition I ancl that his spirit was brave and independent. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com PREFACE ix • Finally, I have a debt to three persons : to Prasanta Mahalanobis, F.R .S., the final authority on all Tagore's work­ his help, in letters and discussions, was generous beyond my power to express ; to Noel Carrington, who examined in detail my book's earliest draft, to its great gain ; and to my wife. E.T. Oriel College Oxford 3 March 1946 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com CONTENTS BOOK I. 1861-1886. EARLY LIFE AND POETRY CHAPTER PAGE Prolegomena 3 " Early Days 20 3 Jul'enilia 27 4 The Heart-Wilderness 35 5 Emergence : Dramatic Beginnings 42 6 Last Poems of Youth 52 BOOK II. 1887-1897. THE SHILEIDA AND SADHANA PERIOD 7 Maturity 65 8 Poem,; on Social Problems 75 9 First Dramas of Maturity 87 10 Re~idence at Shileida 95 11 The Jihandchatti 104 12 Last Dramatic Work of the Siidhanii Period 116 13 The La'it Rice 130 BOOK m. 1898-1905. ur--.;REST AND CHANGE 14 A Turning Back to the Pa,;t-Drama and Verse Narrative 147 15 New Mea<,ure,; : Rcligiou'i Poetry 173 16 Santinikc~an 1X7 BOOK IV . 1905-1919. THE GJTANJALI PERIUO 17 Growing Symboli'>m-New Dramas 203 18 The Second 'Emergence', into World Reputation 220 .l 9 Phiifi1111i. Nationafo,m and Internationalism 240 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com xi xii CONTENTS-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BOOK V. 1919-1941. INTERNATIONALISM . CHAPTER PAOB 20 After the War 259 21 Last Years 273 22 Epilogue 292 APPENDIX A Rabindranath's Knowledge of English Poetry 313 B Comparison of English and Bengali Books 317 • C Thompson's Letters to Tagore : A Few Relevant Extracts 318 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Rabindranath Tagore at the Age of Sixty Frontispiece Santiniketan : M. Sylvain Levi Teaching facing p. 266 Facsimile of the Poet's Writing : An Unpublished Poem facing p. 267 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com BOOK I 1861-1886 EARLY LIFE AND POETRY Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com I PROLEGOMENA THE earliest Bengali literature takes us into a different world from the Hindu one of today. 'The Brahmanic influence was for centuries at a very low ebb', 1 and Buddhism reigned. Though long since replaced by Hinduism, Buddhism has clung tenaciously to the mind of the people and its influence still works, out of sight yet hardly out of sight. Fragments from an extensive literature which was Buddhist and magical and popular in character survive, some of them recovered from Nepal by Pandit Haraprasad Sastri ; these are tentatively ascribed to the tenth or eleventh century. Almost as ancient are hymns discovered by Dr Di1 eshchandra Sen, which in language of the quaintest simplicity tell the adventures of their hero, the Sun-God, and express a wonder less imaginative but as real as that of the Dawn hymns of the Rigveda : The Sun rises-how wonderfully coloured ! The Sun rises-the colour of fire t The Sun rises-how wonderfully coloured ! The Sun rises-the colour of blood ! The Sun rises-how wonderfully coloured! The Sun rise~. -the colour of betel-juice ! We are taken a stage beyond these 'pious ejaculations' by rhymed aphorisms ascribed to Dii.k and Khanii., personages probably as historical as King Cole. These are the delight of the Bengali p~asant today ; and they 'are accepted as a guide by millions. The books serve as infallible agricultural manuals'. 11 1 D10eshchandra Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature, p. 2. • ibid., pp. 19 and 21. Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com 4 RABINDRANATH TAGORE If rain falls at the end of Spring, Blessed land ! Blessed king ! Spring goes ; The heat grows. Khanii says : Sow paddy seeds In sun ; but betel shelter needs. About 1200 A.o., the political control of Bengal passed out of the hands of the Sen dynasty.