Published Paper Details:
Tagore in Judging the Literary Value of the Mahabharata
SHIBNATH DUTTA
Mahabharata, Rabindranath Tagore, Essays, Letters, Literary view, Literary value, Epic, Characters, Impolations.
The literary value of the Mahabharata in Rabindranath Tagore's view is the main topic of this discussion. The Mahabharata is one of the greatest ancient literary texts, which spread their influence on the creations of a much later period, overcoming the boundaries of space and time. It also takes on new forms for various critics. Rabindranath Tagore is an important figure in the criticism of the Mahabharata in twentieth-century Bengali literature. He discussed this epic from many different angles. Rabindranath didn’t write a single essay on the Mahabharata, but scatteredly he delivered many remarks about this epic. As literature it was criticised by him in his many essays and letters.
Rabindranath’s remarks on the Mahabharata’s literary value have some important points. These are like the Mahabharata’s genre, technique of creation, characters, inconsistencies, impolations etc. These points have been focused on in our discussion. Rabindranath, in his book ‘Adhunik Sahitya’, said that he had judged Mahabharata as historical poetry. And indirectly he judged it as an epic also. According to Rabindranath, the Mahabharata’s structure is very strong. He appreciated the Mahabharata’s technique of creation. Rabindranath discussed the Mahabharata’s characters in his many essays and letters. He did a comparative analysis between the Mahabharata’s characters and modern Bengali novel characters. He thought that, the Mahabharata’s characters were not as perfect those in the modern Bengali novels. But in spite of that, Mahabharata’s characters must survive year after year. Rabindranath judged the Mahabharata’s inconsistencies from the perspective of literary criticism. His view about the Mahabharata’s later impolation was very scientific. According to him, it would be better if the original form of this epic could be discovered. He thought that the operation should be done by an objective researcher.
These points have been discussed in detail in our essay. Generally, Rabindranath’s philosophical view about the Mahabharata is too much discussed. But he looked over this text as literature, too. He is one of the most important literary critics of the Mahabharata. Rabindranath’s literary view of the Mahabharata is a very important topic to discuss.
Journal : TRISANGAM INTERNATIONAL REFEREED JOURNAL
Paper ID : tirj/January23/article-7
Page No : 73- 83
Published In :Volume 3, Issue 1
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) :
E ISSN : 2583-0848
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