Remembering Rabindranath Tagore Volume - High Commission of ...

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Remembering Rabindranath Tagore
This was the period of the ‘Bengal renaissance’ when there were new beginnings. Until
this time music had been performed by courtesans for the exclusive recreation of men
while folk music which was more participatory was considered too rustic and awkward for
the urban sophisticate. The Tagore family and the Brahmo Samaj released music from such
narrow confines. The participation in music by family members including the women of
the Tagore household, who were exposed to folk music of rural Bengal, classical ustadi or
raga music, as well as classical western music, introduced an element of eclecticism which
epitomised the nabajuga or new age that Rabindranath had welcomed. Rabindranath was
fearless about adopting changes and exhorted others to follow suit. He wrote in a song: 4
In this dawn of the new age don’t waste time sitting in judgment
On what remains and what does not, what happens and what does not
Like the waterfall coursing down impenetrable mountains
Take the plunge without fear, into the unknown
After his return from England, Rabindranath took over from his elder brothers the primary
responsibility of organising the annual foundation day celebration of the Brahmo Samaj in
Magh, composing songs around the melodies he had learnt from ustadi or classical music and
involving younger family members, nieces and nephews to participate in it. Rabindranath
mentioned that in these early days he was much better known as a singer than a poet and every
public meeting in Calcutta which he attended, would end in a clamour for ‘Rabibabu’s songs’.
Many of those who attended the Brahmo Samaj celebrations did so primarily to hear him sing.
Subsequently his music composition took on more complex and richly diverse forms.
Rabindranath’s songs, numbering 2,232, were compiled in a collection called Gitabitan
(1941), arranged according to themes rather than chronology.
Broadly these songs were classified in Gitabitan under the following categories: Puja or
devotional, many of which he had composed in the dhrupad structure for the Brahmo
congregations; Prem or Love, which could be equally addressed to the divine and the
beloved; Prakriti or Seasons, the dramatic variety and the changing moods of nature which
moved him intensely; Ānushthanik or occasion-specific where he had special songs to
capture the mood of assorted occasions such as marriage, birthday, death, housewarming,
travelling, sowing and harvesting as well as the various celebrations in the school calendar
of Santiniketan; Swadesh or patriotic, which included songs to inspire and encourage
patriotic fervour during the freedom struggle; Bichitro or miscellaneous and nrityonatya which
included all his dance dramas and lyrical plays.
Speaking of Puja or devotional songs Tagore explained how in Indian culture, songs of
love and religion were almost synonymous. Tagore said: “In India the greater part of our
literature is religious because God with us is not a distant God - he belongs to our homes
as well as to our temples. Therefore religious songs are our love songs.” 7