Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Gitanjali and Santiniketan (contd- 8)

Rabindranath returned back to Calcutta on 31Asharh (15 July) and wrote two songs on that day;
1. 'Prabhugriha hote asile jedin,' Gitanjali 11/97-98,
2. 'Bhebechinu mane ja habar tari shese', ,, 11/98. The poem was written while going through a horse driven car which is evident from his trembling handwriting.
On 1st Shraban he came Santiniketan along with Pratima Devi. Before coming to Santiniketan he wrote,
'Amar e gaan cherheche tar/sakal alongkar' Gitanjali 11/91.
'Aaj barashar rup heri manaber Majhe'          ,,       11/77-78
'Amare jadi jagale aaji nath'                           ,,       11/68-69
'He mor durbhaga desh'                                 ,,       11/85-86
'He mor chitta punya tirthe jagare dhire'          ,,       11/81-84
He came to Santiniketan on 1 Shraban and stayed there upto 25th. From 2nd to 8th he wrote 7 poems,
1. 2 Shraban (18 July) 'Ninda dookhe apamane' Gitanjali 11/99-100
2. 2 Shraban      ,,       ' Rajar mata beshe tumi sajao je sishure' ,, 11/100/101.
3. 3     ,,        (19 July) 'Jariye Geche Saru Mota'                       ,,11/101                              
4. 3     ,,             ,        'Kamon kore amon badha kshay habe'   ,, 11/ This song is not present in the original manuscript, It is present in press copy.
5,7     ,,         (23 July) 'Gabar mato hay ni kono gaan'   ,,        11/102
6. 7    ,,              ,,       'Amar maghe tomar lila habe'      ,,        11/102-103
7, 8    ,,              ,,       'Duuswapan kotha hate ele'         ,,        11/103.
These poems are written in Santiniketan.
Rabindranath said about God,
"It is not that He is not only to be felt within the heart, He is to be visualized externally."
Before going to Calcutta, between 9 and 25 Shraban he wrote 20 poems for Gitanjali  of which 4 are only songs.
26 Shraban, (11 Aug), Rabindranath wrote the penultimate  poems at Calcutta.
"Sheser madhye ashes ache" Gitanjali 11/122/123 (156)
24 (9 Aug) Shraban Rabindranath wrote Charuchandra Bandyopadhyay ; ' yesturday, in  the morning I am ging to Calcutta by train. Please see me . Charuchandra met him and probably Rabindranath handed over the press copy to him for printing on 26th Shraban (11 Aug). The last poem, 157th one, was written on 29th Shraban (14 Aug) which was not present in the press copy. The poem was sent next day written in a yellow paper of different size. Gitanjali was printed in Kantik press by Manilal Gangopadhyay and publishe on 5 Sept (20 Bhadra) as per the catalogue of Bengal Library. The press copy was kept by Manilal. It was collected later on from his elder son Mohanlal for Rabindrabhaban. It was 192 pages of white Copy Book of which 105 pages were written. The advertisement of the press copy was also written by Rabindranath himself. But the manuscript  of the started from 59th song
 ' Jibana jakhana shukaye jay'.
(The print line and other description ): Name;Gitanjali      
  Declaration ; Gitanjali/Rabindranath Thakur/ Price -Re 1/-
On the next page; Indian Publishing House /22 Cornwallis Street, Calcutta./ Published by Satish Chandra Mitra/Kantik Press/20 Cornwallis Street, Calcutta/Printed by Haricharan Mitra
Pages: 2+2+2 (advertisement)+4 ( Index /1-3/ +178; No of prints-1000.
'Santiniketan//Bolpur. 31 Shraban/1317.
Some songs of this book were published earlier in other books The similarity of thoughts of the songs written at a short difference of time, they are published in his book along with other songs.
157 poems/Songs are included in this book. 6 songs of them are within the Sharada Utsab and one song was published in the drama 'Prayaschitta' ; the rest 150 poems/songs were first published in this book. Though Rabindranath said all of them as songs but only 85 of them were tuned, of which a few were tuned afterwards.