Annals of Library and Information Studies Vol. 59, June 2012, pp. 122-127 Letter correspondences of Rabindranath Tagore: A Study Partha Pratim Raya and B.K. Senb aLibrarian, Instt. of Education, Visva-Bharati, West Bengal, India, E-mail: [email protected] b80, Shivalik Apartments, Alakananda, New Delhi-110 019, India, E-mail:[email protected] Received 07 May 2012, revised 12 June 2012 Published letters written by Rabindranath Tagore counts to four thousand ninety eight. Besides family members and Santiniketan associates, Tagore wrote to different personalities like litterateurs, poets, artists, editors, thinkers, scientists, politicians, statesmen and government officials. These letters form a substantial part of intellectual output of ‘Tagoreana’ (all the intellectual output of Rabindranath). The present paper attempts to study the growth pattern of letters written by Rabindranath and to find out whether it follows Bradford’s Law. It is observed from the study that Rabindranath wrote letters throughout his literary career to three hundred fifteen persons covering all aspects such as literary, social, educational, philosophical as well as personal matters and it does not strictly satisfy Bradford’s bibliometric law. Keywords: Rabindranath Tagore, letter correspondences, bibliometrics, Bradfords Law Introduction a family man and also as a universal man with his Rabindranath Tagore is essentially known to the many faceted vision and activities. Tagore’s letters world as a poet. But he was a great short-story writer, written to his niece Indira Devi Chaudhurani dramatist and novelist, a powerful author of essays published in Chhinapatravali1 written during 1885- and lectures, philosopher, composer and singer, 1895 are not just letters but finer prose from where innovator in education and rural development, actor, the true picture of poet Rabindranath as well as director, painter and cultural ambassador. imaginative Rabindranath can be drawn. Rabindranath wrote as many as 40981 letters from Rabindranath wrote to W.B. Yeats “…I feel sure October 1978 to July 1941 which forms a substantial these letters, when published, will present to you part of Tagoreana (all the intellectual output of pictures and ideas concerning me and my Rabindranath). Besides family members, estate surroundings more vividly and truly than anything I workers and Santiniketan associates, Rabindranath have yet written”2. Most of the letters were first wrote to literary personalities, poets like W.B. Yeats, published in different journals and were in the Ezra Pound, artists, editors, thinkers like Romain personal collection of different people to whom the Rolland, Bertrand Russell, scientists, educationists, poet wrote. Only after the establishment of Rabindra scholars of Indian religion and philosophy, religious Bhavana, Visva-Bharati took initiatives to collect leaders, agricultural economist (Leonard Elmhurst), them and later on publish them in the book entitled politicians and statesmen like Mahatma Gandhi, Chithipatra3. It is a rare example in Indian literature, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose. particularly in Bengali literature where manuscript of Rabindranath wrote huge number of letters during such a good number of letters are preserved and his lifetime not only to communicate messages to published. Letters written to Mahatma Gandhi4, letters persons for specific purpose but also to express his of English poets to Rabindranath5, selected letters of ideas on nationalism, civilization, nature, society, Rabindranath6 etc. have been published separately. education, Swadeshi movement and so on. So, the letters of Rabindranath helps to understand Tagore as Objectives of the study _____________ • To study the growth pattern of Rabindra Patrabali; 1 Number of published letters. There may be unpublished • To find out the persons to whom Rabindranath had letters in the personal custody, scattered all over the world. written to; Majority of the published letters are kept at Tagore’s museum Rabindra Bhavana. • To identify major themes of the letters; RAY & SEN: LETTER CORRESPONDENCES OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE 123 • To find out whether Rabindranath’s letters follow Analysis any bibliometric law (Bradford’s law). Growth of Rabindra Patrabali Methodology Rabindranath composed his first poem at the age of Bibliometric techniques are used “to analyse eight and by the end of his life, he had written twenty- quantitatively the properties and behaviour of five volumes of poetry, fifteen plays, ninety-five short 7 recorded knowledge” . In this study statistical stories, eleven novels, thirteen volumes of essays; bibliometric technique is followed as it helps to “… initiated and edited various journals; prepared Bengali shed light on the process of written communication textbooks, penned thousands of letters; and by the age and of the nature and course of development of of seventy created more than two thousand paintings. discipline by means of counting and analyzing the All these writings and paintings come under preview 8 various facets of written communication” . of Tagoreana. Chithipatra, the book containing of Rabindranath’s 4098 letters of Rabindranath was consulted. Original Record of growth pattern of letters of Rabindranath letters whenever necessary were consulted from may help to identify place of letters in Tagoreana. It Tagorean research centre and Rabindra Bhavana may also help to know Tagore’s imaginative thinking museum to record the name of addresses, date of to construct his biography, to establish his writing etc. Besides, primary and secondary sources relationship with different people, period of letter in the form of original works or first editions of correspondence, mode of relationship, etc. Many Tagore’s work kept in Rabindra Bhavana were letters may still be in the custody of individual consulted. A wide range of secondary sources in the correspondents. There are 4098 Rabindra Patrabali form of books and articles both in Bengali and (letters) published in Chithipatra. The growth pattern English were consulted to corroborate and critically of letters being substantial part of Tagoreana can be evaluate for the purpose of interpretation. found in Table 1. Table 1—Growth of Rabindra Patrabali Year Jan Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total 1878 5 5 1879 7(7) 1880 1 1 1881 1(1) 1882 1 1 1883 3 6 3 12 1884 1 1 12(10) 1885 1 1 3 2 11(4) 1886 2 1 2 2 35(28) 1887 1 1 1 2 2 7 1888 2 1 4(1) 1889 1 1 1 4(1) 1890 3 2 2 1 2 2 1 13 1891 9 8 1 10 2 4 3 5 1 1 45(1) 1892 3 1 1 2 11 12 7 2 1 1 10 55(4) 1893 9 5 4 6 3 9 4 2 1 43 1894 2 6 1 6 10 16 11 16 5 5 78 1895 1 9 11 7 1 5 6 6 5 8 5 9 73 1896 1 1 2 1897 1 2(1) 1898 2 2 1 4 1899 1 1 6 5 5 7 2 3 3 36(3) 1900 1 1 1 2 4 8 16 7 4 3 9 56 1901 4 3 17 10 10 6 7 7 4 2 3 74(1) 1902 1 6 2 14 8 1 3 2 2 3 4 4 50 1903 6 4 11 6 7 5 6 15 1 10 3 5 84(5) 1904 3 2 5 5 7 6 5 7 4 6 7 58(1) 1905 2 3 4 2 4 3 4 1 2 26(1) (Contd) 124 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2012 Table 1—Growth of Rabindra Patrabali—Contd Year Jan Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total 1906 1 2 3 5 4 6 3 6 3 1 34 1907 1 1 5 8 2 4 4 6 10 5 15 63(2) 1908 14 17 10 8 6 3 9 3 6 3 7 4 90 1909 2 4 10 3 6 2 4 8 5 6 52(2) 1910 3 2 2 10 8 3 10 6 10 9 7 4 77(3) 1911 7 3 4 10 17 13 6 7 12 17 23 3 125(3) 1912 8 12 18 7 11 11 1 9 11 14 13 15 130 1913 21 16 10 11 20 5 4 2 2 5 12 5 115(2) 1914 4 6 9 9 7 5 8 2 5 4 1 4 70(6) 1915 4 10 10 4 4 6 5 4 4 5 5 66(5) 1916 9 13 4 13 8 3 4 6 7 7 74 1917 4 10 5 6 2 9 5 11 13 2 70(3) 1918 5 11 3 8 7 1 9 7 9 10 8 11 89 1919 3 3 2 12 12 4 6 5 2 8 10 5 74(2) 1920 6 5 2 1 2 2 3 7 4 2 2 4 40 1921 1 1 4 4 6 1 2 2 13 7 6 3 54(4) 1922 5 5 11 7 10 5 3 2 7 3 4 64(2) 1923 1 2 5 3 2 2 2 2 8 6 5 2 41(1) 1924 2 3 3 4 2 2 7 2 1 7 34(1) 1925 2 3 9 8 4 3 1 5 9 4 8 57(1) 1926 5 1 7 8 3 4 1 5 1 14 52(3) 1927 16 5 14 9 10 6 14 14 13 9 19 12 144(3) 1928 7 18 4 6 8 5 13 17 20 23 12 5 138 1929 5 4 14 1 1 15 12 15 15 19 8 109 1930 7 13 2 5 9 5 7 7 7 20 5 1 88 1931 1 8 10 21 25 26 22 19 14 23 12 14 197(2) 1932 13 10 8 2 12 9 11 7 19 14 8 114(1) 1933 3 3 4 8 5 10 11 7 10 11 13 2 87 1934 10 1 11 22 7 5 12 15 6 18 6 6 119 1935 19 2 18 16 17 21 11 12 14 23 8 7 168 1936 10 6 4 14 5 9 12 6 15 28 5 9 123 1937 9 4 13 9 17 5 12 12 4 20 12 5 124(2) 1938 13 12 12 11 33 14 10 12 19 21 12 11 180 1939 9 8 14 9 11 9 9 5 12 19 7 3 117(2) 1940 11 8 9 7 16 7 6 6 5 3 2 4 84 1941 3 2 3 8 10 9 1 36 * Number within bracket in the total column indicates letters written in the corresponding year without any reference to the month or date.