‘ছিন্নপত্র’র নির্বাচিত পত্রাবলি : আত্মবোধ থেকে বিশ্ববোধ / Selected Letters from ‘Chinnapatra’: From Self-Consciousness to World-Consciousness

Abstract

‘Chinnapatra’ is a unique and innovative creation in Rabindranath’s literature. The letters mentioned in ‘Chinnapatra’ have a specific path of evolution of Rabindranath Tagore’s consciousness. Rabindranath Tagore stayed in the Sajadpur-Kaligram-Patisar region in connection with the work of the zamindari. The letters he wrote during his stay in these places are included in the book ‘Chinnapatra’. ‘Chinnapatra’ and ‘Chinnapatravali’ are collections of letters written to his niece Indira Devi and friend Shrish Chandra Majumdar, published at different times. He wrote the letters during this period, 1885-1895 AD. There are about 153 letters in this collection. This collection is named ‘Chinnapatra’ because some parts of these letters were omitted for the purpose of publishing them in book form, hence the collection of these letters has been named ‘Chinnapatra’. The poet's beauty-thirsty nature is seen here in the intense taste of nature, the beloved imagination of Padma and the joy of solitude. He absorbed beauty. The limits of this self-consciousness were crossed by his deep sympathy for worldly life and listening to the sufferings of ordinary people. Gradually, when a bridge of humanity was built between his self-consciousness, the consciousness of homeland, and the consciousness of the universe, Rabindranath's world-consciousness came to its fullness. The major trend in Rabindranath, the worshiper of world humanity, was the romantic trend and Another trend was the combination of divine feeling which originated from colonial thought and later gave another dimension to Rabindranath's literature. This trend has expanded not only in Bengali literature but also in other literatures after Rabindranath. The trend of worldly consciousness is seen in several of Rabindranath's poetic works, such as 'Balaka', 'Sonar Tori', and 'Chitra'. The consciousness of worldly consciousness that was awakened through the poetic works is reflected in the letters of Chhinnapatra. The present article discusses an example of his transition from self-consciousness to worldly consciousness.