Chitrangada: And other Dramatic Poems

The years between 1892 and 1900 comprised the most prolific phase of Rabindranath Tagore’s literary career; it was during this period that he wrote several dramatic poems, natyakabya. Less well-known than his novels and poetry, his dramatic poems are, nevertheless, masterpieces. Included in this collection are Chitrangada, Viday Abhishap, Gandharir Avedan and Karna-Kunti Samvad –all based on well-known incidents from the Mahabharata. Through his technical mastery, erudite vision, and poetic style, Tagore explores the depth of human character. His innovative and imaginative pen exploits the metrical technique of the payar and the rhymed enjambment to address the perennial questions plaguing mankind: what is beauty, love, human relationship? Chitrangada (1891): Here, Tagore expresses his own views on transient beauty and eternal truth, in his own unique and poetic style. Because of its delicate psychological construction, tenderness and grandeur of passion rich sensuousness, evocative image and metaphors, it is acclaimed as one of the finest lyric dramas ever produced.Viday Abhishap (1893), Gandharir Avedan (1897) and Karna-Kunti Samvad (1900) reveal Tagore’s vision of ‘dharma’, which is the pivot around which these three poems revolve.Transcreated from the Bengali by Sailesh Parekh, these dramatic poems retain the melody, mood, meaning and essence of the original. Through his ingenuity, the transcreator has succeeded in maintaining the depth, dramatic power and dynamic equivalence in these poems.