Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Gitanjali at Santiniketan-1909 and some manuscriot

On 26th Ashara (10 July, 1909) Rabindranath left Santiniketan and again came back on 23rd august (7 Bhadra). He stayed there from 10 Bhadra to 18 Bhadra and wrote 18 songs in nine days. On some day he wrote more than one song. On 16 Bhadra he wrote 5 songs.
This time Rabindranath wrote the songs of Gitanjali in a new manuscript. The manuscript was at the custodian of Kshitimohan Sen. His son Kshemendramohan Sen gifted the manuscript to Rabindrabhaban. It was rapped with  cloth of pink colour and with light and shade design made by Herbert Sherring Company of London.  This copy book was first used by another person who wrote 18 Hindi Dohas with ink from the second page keeping the front page blank.Some body was of opinion that those were written by Rabindranath himself which was not believable by another section of persons.
This was a peculiar behaviour of Rabindranath to use others copy book, within his reach, as his manuscript . He was used to do this several times. He wrote the poems of 'Shisu Kabya Grantha' in 'Amar Khata' of his brother-in-law's wife Nalinibala.
There were 188 pages in the above manuscript of Gitanjali. The original manuscript  was microfilmed before it had come to Rabindrabhaban and it was made to hardbound in two volumes after photocopying every pages with accession no. as 427(i) and 427(ii). It was revealed that the pages were arranged, by whims, after the original binding was destroyed. Rabindranath was in the habit of  writing poems by making the copy book turned over. But since the pages had been rearranged it was not possible to find the original outlook. As a result it became difficult to determine the time of writings of the articles outside Gitanjali.
Gitanjali contained 157 songs and poems. But all of them were not present in this manuscript.The manuscripts marked 1 and 3 were not yet available. There were 2 and 4 manuscript with Mira Devi-Kripalani's collection where two songs -- "Ami Bahu Basanay Pranpane Chai" written on 27th July, 1907 ( 12 Ashara 1314) and   "Bipade More Raksha Karo" written on 11 Ashara were present. These two songs were written in Calcutta before his son-in-law  went for America.That manuscript also contained no.5- "Antara Mama Bikasita Karo" and 11-13 no. three songs written for the dramma of Autumn.
 Another manuscriot of Gitanjali arrived at Rabindrabhaban from the collection of Mohanlal Gangopadhyay. By the way, it was better said to be a press copy rather than a manuscript.
The song, Rabindranath wrote in the original manuscript was "Jani jani kon aadikaal hote " Gitanjali-11/20 written in Bolpur, 10th Bhadra, 1316. Rag-Kedara.
In the night of 10th Bhadra he wrote, "Tumi Kamon kore gaan koro he guni" Gitanjali-11/21.Raag-Khambaj;
"Aman arhal kore lukiye gele chalbena", Gitanjali11/22. Raag - Tori-Bhairabi and "Jadi tomar dakha na pai prabhu" Raag- Kaphi Gitanjali-11/24.Swara-37.
12 Bhadra, (28th Aug, Saturday) He wrote,  ' Jadi tomar dekha na pai prabhu..'. Raag-KaphiGitanjali 11/22-23. Swara-38. and 'Heri aharaha tomari biraha..'Swara-37. and 14 other songs.