Rabindranath Tagore Chittra Analysis

The genesis of Chitra, as the author recalled it, was his delight at the sight of the profusion of spring flowers, and the following depression he suffered while pondering over their evanescence and his final consolation that even if the flowers fade and wither, their fruits would throw the seeds into the future. At the same time the episode of Arjuna and Chitra of the Mahabharata was floating in his mind. The pollination of the philosophy of spring with the myth of the Mahabharata resulted in the fruition of Chitra.

“I accord music a much higher place than the one accorded to by the musicians. Their edifice of music is built on some lifeless, inanimate notes; mine of an animated, deathless, elemental feeling. They want to place the notes above the words: I want to place the words above the notes. They use words to produce a note; I use notes to produce the words…… A song is like breathing. It cannot be read; it can only be heard.” 1

Rabindranath Tagore’s Chitra, a lyrical and metaphorical drama, written in 1913, is a fine example of Tagorean philosophy of truth and illusion. It shows his great mastery over music and metaphor. It deals with, apart from many other things, human love from the physical to the spiritual, from transience to permanence, from romanticism to realism. It also shows how a number of saints and sages have surrendered their life-long penance at the feet of a woman; how the sensual and mundane mortality is transcended into spirituality; how the union