Tagore, Rabindranath

Extraordinary unknown autograph manuscript notebook, unpublished in the present format, comprising 152 pages of which thirty-four are accomplished mostly on rectos only, containing twelve poems and lyrics for twelve songs in Bengali, most of them dated, in ink with some pencil emendations, extensive deletions of typical Tagorian style developed into an art form and incorporated into many of his paintings, various dates in the autumn of 1928, (8 x 5 1/8 in.; 204 x 130 mm); some light soiling; red cloth with marbled paper endleaves, oiled cloth wrappers.

Gift to a family friend and early patron who supported Tagore's university at Santiniketan — Descended in the family of the friend and patron to the present owner

The Essential Tagore. ed. Fakrul Alam & Radha Chakravarty. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011

An unknown manuscript notebook of poems and songs some being heavily amended drafts of subsequently published works.

The present notebook constitutes a microcosm of the genius of India's Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate and one of the modern world's most profound and prolific writers. Tagore's writing achievements span no less than ten genres: poetry, songs, prose, novels, short stories, plays, autobiographical works, travel writings, plays and humorous essays.  Though Tagore found writing  poetry to be "kind of secret and forbidden delight" (letter #92 in Chhinnapatra (Torn Leaves)), he predicted that he would be best remembered through his songs. Stunning examples of both are contained in Tagore's notebook from the autumn of 1928.

Each poem and song in the notebook is a draft manuscript of a work published in a variant form. Twelve of the manuscript poems were published in a collection entitled Mohua in 1929. Mohua is a tree with flowers of the same name containing intoxicating nectar, and Tagore's poems included in this collection celebrate nature, love and life. Two of the song lyrics in the notebook were later included in the dance drama Chitranggada, first performed in 1892 and then modified and extended in 1936. Seven of the song lyrics in the notebook were later incorporated in the musical drama Tapati published in 1929. The remaining three song lyrics in the notebook in his three-volume song collection entitled Gitabitan (Garden of Songs), published in 1931. Heavily emended and containing Tagore's inimitable artistic deletions, one of these songs, "Mon je bale chini chini," is of particular significance:

The fragrance in this gentle breeze

seems familiar to me.

Who says that

this spring flower "Chameli" is alien to me?

She is not unknown to me!

She left her subtle impression on my thoughts.

It seems to me

that she was my companion all along,

in some unknown forest and on distant seashore.

Here, in this shadow filled garden,

that foreigner plays her flute

My memories come back

and get startled with that melody.

My heart awakens

with the eternal morning glory and its music.

When Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his collection of poems entitled Gitanjali (Song Offerings), with an introduction by W. B. Yeats; the Nobel Committee aptly cited: "Seldom indeed in the realm of imaginative literature are attained so great a range and diversity of note and colour, capable of expressing with equal harmony and grace the emotions of every mood from the longing of the soul after eternity to the joyous merriment prompted by the innocent child at play."  Also, deeply admiring of all that surrounded him wherever he happened to be, Tagore painted the simple beauties of nature in his poems and songs invoking a spirituality and belief in a "Benevolent Creator." Tagore believed in the universalism of human souls and embraced the concept that a human being can only find joy in life if he thinks he is only a part of nature aspiring to be with the divinity. He wrote: " . . . our soul when detached and  imprisoned within the narrow limits of a self loses its significance. For its very essence is unity. It can only find out its truth by unifying itself with others, and only then it has its joy."

Tagore wrote thousands of poems from his early childhood until his death in 1941. He believed in cross-cultural fertilization and travelled frequently in India and around the Eastern and Western worlds. The simple pastoral life of local people, open sky, and nature's wonders inspired his verse. He composed over two thousand songs with subjects ranging from the joys and sorrows of life to romantic love, nature spirituality and many more subtle nuances of human emotion. Tagore's songs were influenced by traditional, rural Bengali folk tunes, Indian classical music as well as by Western music, particularly Irish Scottish and British tunes. Mingled in the present notebook are poems and songs providing insights into Tagore's creative process.

Manuscript material by Tagore is extremely rare outside of institutions and there appear to be no records of a notebook of any kind sold at auction.

Sotheby's acknowledges the generous assistance of Dr. Asok Chaudhuri in the research and cataloguing of this lot.