Author Description

This volume consists of a collection of essays that explores the songs of Rabindranath Tagore, also known as Rabindrasangeet as independent poetic verses. It is an intellectual reading of his songs that are collected in the Gitabitan, which is a collection of all of his 2232 songs. The first edition of this three volume book was published in 1931 and 1932, and contained Tagore's songs in chronological order. To make the collection more user-friendly, he revised the book and arranged the songs by themes. The six major parts of this book are Puja (worship), Prem (love), Prakriti (seasons), Swadesh (patriotism), Aanushthanik (occasion specific), Bichitro (miscellaneous) and Nrityonatya (dance dramas and lyrical plays).The author in this book explores the merits of his songs not only as an art form, but comprising insights that are philosophically and intellectually rich. All songs in the Gitabitan, the essays explore, is reflective of Tagore's wonder at the emotional tension of our insignificant mortal human self in relation to the vast infinite of the universe.