Any encounter with Rabindranath is always unnerving for Rabindranath is enormous if not gigantic. The proportion of his enormity could be explained by sheer numbers: over forty volumes of officially published works of him and still adding-over two and half thousand songs of his composition; his writings on social, philosophical, and myriad other discourses. Also about three thousands paintings of Rabindranath's are available and his active fields on education and rural reconstruction are still alive as renowned state-run institutions. These being primary sources, there are thousands of narratives on the life and works of Rabindranath in the form of audio or in print or in visual or audio-visual form as secondary sources. There has hardly been anyone whose life and times have been so meticulously documented as it have been with Rabindranath's. Anthological collection of his works in print or visual and even audio [that too translated in countless analogue and digital languages] assuming encyclopaedic dimension. Beyond the colossal size of the content, what inspires awe of Rabindranath is his prolificacy. Amazingly, almost every area of human intellectual endeavour finds mention in this 'encyclopaedia'.
Intellectual tradition of Pre-First World War Europe more or less carried on with the legacy of Enlightment, till knowledge was differentiated and specialized in to disciplines. Persuasion of knowledge in the non-Industrial East by that instance did carried its own tradition of undifferentiated knowledge. Rabindranath's prolificacy could be explained by that intellectual tradition. Often recommended about Rabindranath, when asked what his greatest flaw might be, he said, 'inconsistency'. Again he was then asked what his greatest value might be, and he replied, 'Inconsistency', This self-declaration of 'inconsistency' as his characteristic attribute stands to suggest his not being consistent with any particular area of intellectual persuasion. Ambivalence suggested in this 'story' often encourages encountering Rabindranath differentially. Inconsistent as him, a dramatist Rabindranath could be encountered differentially from educationist Rabindranath or painter Rabindranath, for that matter. Perhaps there was an amount of sarcasm in his claim with 'inconsistency' and that was accepted methodically in his biographical narratives. But very often such narrative fumbles when educationist Rabindranath is positioned against painter Rabindranath-the inherent consistency resists. The painter and the educator for that matter tend to reveal an undeniable consistency of both. Educator Rabindranath echoes the painter Rabindranath in harmony.
The apparent ambivalence and incongruity on the other hand opens up a pattern in his creative style. Biographically, there is unmistakable consistency in his 'inconsistency' switching between serious engagements with editing literary periodical and taking up issues of reforming rent collection in their ancestral estate with equal enthusiasm is often recorded as an evidence of his inconsistency. But there is an interlude too. Switching off and on from active engagement with socio-political cultural issues of the times, he may be found taking a pause as an interlude: that is the space where Rabindranath is creative in writing or composing music and painting. Rabindranath regularly cited this space as his personal against the space occupied by the 'Others', is the cozy abode where he always yearned to return. Harvest of this interlude often reflected his experience with the 'Others' and again took a flight to what is desired of the 'Others'. And there is a third.
category, where he frees his imaginations not bound by the 'others'. Even this could be a pattern again with any creative person; but engaged and articulated with so much intensity and vigour, Rabindranath not only stands huge in diversity but in volume too.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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