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Rabindranath and Modernism (I) BENGALI literature has
reached the stage of modernism and even ultra-modernism. This achievement is,
we may say point-blank, the contribution of Rabindranath. Not that the movement
was totally absent before the advent of Rabindranath. But it is from him that
the current has received the high impetus and overflooded the mind and the
vital being of the Bengali race. We can recall here the two great artists who
commenced modernism – Madhusudan and Bankim. But in their outlook there was
still a trace of the past, in their ideas and expressions there was an imprint
of the past. The transition from Ishwar Gupta and Dinabandhu to Bankim and
Madhusudan – not from the viewpoint of time but from that of quality – is
indeed a revolution. Within a short span of years the Bengali way of thinking
and the refinement of their taste have taken a right-about turn. It was Bankim
and Madhusudan who have placed Bengali literature on the macadamized road of
modernism. Still, while walking on that road, somehow we were not able to shake
off completely the touch of clay under the feet and the smell of swampy lands
around. It was Tagore's mastercraft that enabled Bengali literature to drive in
coachand-four through the highways. Not only so, in addition he has enriched
and developed it to such an extent that we feel, pursuing the image, as if we
could safely drive there the motor car or even the railway train. The
term modern, no doubt, relates to the present time,
Page – 157 but
there is in it a factor of space as well. It is the close communion among the
different countries of the world that has made modernism modern. The relation
of give-and-take among many and various countries and races has given each
country a new atmosphere and a new character. The newness that has thus
developed is perhaps the fundamental feature of modernism. Bankim and
Madhusudan were modern, for they had infused the European manner into the
artistic consciousness of Rabindranath
too has done the same, but in a subtler, deeper and wider way. Firstly, at the
dawn of modernism, the two currents, foreign and indigenous, though side by
side did not get quite fused. They stood somewhat apart though contiguous.
There was a gulf between – a difference, even a
conflict – as of oil and water. In Madhusudan these two discordances were
distinct and quite marked. It was in the works of Bankim that a true synthesis
commenced. Still, on the whole, the artistic creation of that age was
something like putting on a dhoti with its play of
Page – 158 creases
and folds, and over it a streamlined coat and waistcoat and necktie. Both the
fashions are beautiful and graceful in their own way. But there is no harmony
and synthesis in, their combination. It was Tagore's genius that brought about
a beautiful harmony between the two worlds. In the creation of the artistic
taste of My own clime I find in every clime, And I shall
win it from everywhere. Thus,
for example, the ideas and movements that have taken shape in Swinburne and
Maeterlinck have induced some echoing waves in the works of Tagore here and
there. Some of the things, specially characteristic of
the West, were fused into his inspiration, became his own and formed part of
the being of the pure Bengali race: these have grown now its permanent assets. Rabindranath's
experience has, so to say, travelled across space to embrace the universe. On
the other side, in the matter of time too his experience has far exceeded the
present to climb to the lofty past. At times he soared high to the experiences of
the seers of the Upanishads or the Vaishnava devotees, and came down with
them into the widely extended domain of universal experience. The modernism of
his poetic creation, developed on the wings of these two aspects, and its
keynote is the harmony and synthesis of the East and the West, the present
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the past. Thus the oriental and the occidental thoughts, ideas, experiences and
realisations of the present and of by-gone times, that possess any value or
special significance, have combined and are fused in the delightful comprehension
of the poet giving birth to a new creation in which a great diversity vibrating
in a common symphony blossomed with immaculate beauty. How
the two original streams of thought, oriental and occidental, were synthesised
in Tagore's work is a subject that demands a deep study. I do not propose to
deal with the subject in its entirety, but I shall try to point out a few
salient features. The European consciousness, especially modern, is centred on this physical world, this living body endowed
with the ardent senses, on the undeniable reality of the outside world where,
after all, things are transitory; and of the dualistic life it espouses, this
consciousness lays more stress on death than on life, on misery than on
happiness, on shadow than on light; it seeks beauty and fulfilment in contrast
and conflict in human life and consciousness. Inspired by this idea our poet
sings: Not for me
liberation through renunciation.
or,
Is the
Vaishnava's song only for Vaikuntha¹?
Again,
Where is the light, O where? Kindle it with the fire of
separation. I do not say the indulgence of the lower nature, the physical propensities and the sense-objects is less prevalent in our country. The teeming wealth of sensuality that is found ¹ The highest heaven.
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Kalidasa and Jayadeva has hardly any parallel in the literature of any other
country. But the oriental approach is quite different from the occidental. The
consciousness and the attitude with which
Page – 161 as
to render names and forms secondary – insignificant – and to reduce them to mere
shadows. Thus to Wordsworth all natural truths and beauty are inherent in the
power that presides over Nature which he calls Spirit. Tagore
wanted to seize the object as a real object and touch the body physically, with
the sense of touch. Unlike the spiritual seers he could not remain content with
embracing the object in and through the soul alone and the person through the
impersonal. As a mortal he sought to taste the delight of-mortal things. And
yet he established the Immortal in the mortal. He looked upon the body as body
and yet was united with it in and through something of the formless soul. The
uniqueness of his realisation consists in the synthesis of the duality, the
contrary. Like the pagan he maintained intact the terrestrial enjoying, even
made it more intense, yet he brought down into it something of the supraphysical.
And for this harmonisation he resorted to the consciousness of the Upanishads
which is innate to his country. The thing that has bridged the gulf between the
physical and the supra-physical, between the body and the soul, between the
inmost within and the outmost without is the heart of the devotee – the
emotional fervour of the Vaishnavas, adorers, lovers and those who have the
fine sense of beauty and delight. Rabindranath
has the intuition of the Brahman, the infinite Bliss, the
One without a second, which is beyond all limits and is the support of all, as
the vital principle. He has, at every step, sung the victory and glory of this
vital aspect of the Brahman. He has often cited this aphorism of the Upanishad: All created things are moved by the pranic power. Inspired by this idea he
too had sung: Deep I dive
into the ocean of life and breathe it in to my heart's content.
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rhythm of life flowed out into movement and dynamis. Here again another
feature of the modern mentality, characteristic, for example, of the vitalists,
is found in him. But the difference is that he has not assigned the highest
place to it, though he has emphasized it considerably. He has endeavoured to
posit something of immobility within or behind the moving and to make all
stirrings terminate in a wide peace. Although he gave himself to the duality,
the many, the swirling flood-tide of the external world, he was in close touch
with the inner being, the profundity which is filled with the calm and silence
of the One. No
doubt, he says: Away with your meditation, Away with your flower-offering, Let your clothes get torn
and soiled. But what he meant to say
is this: Then you may rush out to the wide world And remain
unsulIied In the
midst of the dust, And walk about freely. With all chains on the body; Until that day dawns Remain in the depths of your heart. The
life that was the object of Rabindranath's worship was no other than the
Brahman in Its aspect of Prank Energy. On the one hand the sense of this
Prana-Brahman impelled him towards the world as such and, on the other hand, a
gesture and glimpse of the Transcendent Brahman served to give a poise and
measure, cadence and contour to that Immeasurable Energy. We
lay so much stress on this aspect of Tagore, because herein lies the main
secret of man's modernity and his immediate
future.
Page – 163 What is required of man is to realise and establish the supra-physical
even in the physical without losing the reality of the latter, to convert the
supra-physical into the physical. Though the physical was not lost in oblivion,
yet its own forms and ideas were brought under the pressure of the
supra-physical and tinged with the colour of the same, so that it could be seen
in a new light as an image of the supra-physical – such has been the trend of
ancient spiritual tradition. But the modernity of to-day wants to keep the
nature and the essence of the physical intact and, keeping its speciality
unimpaired, endeavours to manifest the supra-physical in the physical. Man's
universal urge to-day finds expression in the immortal line of Tagore: O Infinite,
Thou dwellest in the finite. We
believe that the entire future of humanity depends on this line of spiritual
practice and its realisation in this life. And in this respect Rabindranath the
poet has almost become to us the seer Rabindranath. (2) In the consciousness of the artist of the past each concept, each thought, each sentence or word appeared as a well-defined, separate entity. Artistic skill lay in harmonising the different and separate entities. The criterion of beauty in that age consisted in the proportionate, well-built formation of the constituents – a symmetry and balance. In the modern consciousness and experience nothing stands in its own uniqueness. The lines of demarcation between things have faded, are almost obliterated – no faculty or experience has its separate existence, everything enters into every other thing. In the consciousness and experience of men and in the sphere of artistic, taste there is now a unification
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and an assimilation just as men want to
unite, irrespective of caste and creed and national or racial boundaries. We
want to replace the ancient beauty of proportion by a complex system of sprung
rhythm and a play of irregularities and exceptions. So
we may say that the difference between the past and the present is something
like the difference between melody and harmony. The ancients used to playas it were on a one-stringed lyre accompanied with a melodious
song, or carried on a symphony comprising the same kind of melodies. The
moderns like polyphonic movements, conglomerations of many heterogeneous
sounds. From
this standpoint it will be no exaggeration to say that Rabindranath Tagore has
modernised the Bengalis and Bengali literature and the Bengali heart.
Madhusudan brought in Blank Verse. But by creating and introducing the metre of
stresses Tagore brought about a speciality in modernism. In words, rhythms and
concepts he has brought in a freedom of movement and swing, a richer, wider and
subtler synthesis and beauty. A
poet of the olden times sings: Who says the autumnal full
moon can be compared to her face? A myriad
moons are lying there on her toe-nails.
Or take the famous line that received ample praise from Bankimchandra – The fair lady leaves, imparting
overwhelming pangs of separation. How far away have we come
when we listen to the following lines of Tagore:
Page – 165 "Who art thou that comest to me, O merciful one?" Asks the
woman. The mendicant replies, "The destined hour is
come to-night."¹ Or, Thy feet are tinged red with the heart's blood of the three worlds, O Thou, who hast left thy hung-down plait uncovered, Thou hast placed thy
nimble feet on the central part. Of the
bloomed lotus of world-desires. After
sharpening and heightening the intellect by the urge of inspiration, after
magnifying and diversifying his imagination by the intellect infused with the
delight of the inner soul, Rabindranath's experiences at different levels of
consciousness synthesised them all in a free and vivacious metre embodied in
waves of poetry. He created a Utopia in which the modern world
with all its hopes, aspirations and dreams have found the reflection of
its own deeper nature. The sweetness, skill and power of expression that are
found in the Bengali literature of today were merely an ideal before Tagore
bodied them forth. We, the moderns, who are drawing upon the wealth amassed by
him for over half a century and we who are using it according to our capacity
often think that it is the outcome of our own genius. We are swept by the giant billow caused by Tagore. But being placed at the crest of it we can hardly conceive how far we have come up. Again forgetting all about the wave we claim all the credit for ourselves. One of the signs of the rich and mature language is that every writer has at his command a ready-made tool of which he has to know only the proper manipulation. In the literature of that language no writer falls below a particular standard or a level of tune. The writer, who imbibes the genius of a language, and literature ¹ The mendicant came to nurse
the deserted woman whose allurement he had once rejected and to whom he had
promised to come in proper time.
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and its ways of expression, is carried on by
them in spite of himself. Of course, we do not claim that Bengali literature
has already reached the acme of perfection. But the growth and the development
amounting to a full-fledged youth have been the contribution solely of
Rabindranath. Again, in this respect his indirect thought-influence has far
exceeded his direct contribution. We
have used the word "modern". Now the question is whether the term
"modern" should include the ultra-modern also. The ultra-moderns have
gone one step forward. The movement of eternal youth and the overflow of
youthful delight in Rabindranath are apt to march towards the ever-new, to
commune with the novel, to accord a cordial welcome to the ever-green. There it
is quite natural that he should have sympathy and good-will for the ultra-modern
also. Nevertheless, it must be kept in view that above all he was the
worshipper of the beautiful and of beautiful forms and appearances. However
soft and pliant might have been the frame of his poetry, in the end it remained
a frame, after all, a delicate and harmonious shape of beauty. It is doubtful
whether the ultra-moderns have retained anything like the frame-work of beauty.
In fact, under their influence, the frame-work has not only got dissolved but
also practically evaporated. Not to speak of rhyme, they have banished the
regulated rhythm and pause. They have adopted a loud rhetoric and an
over-decorated personal emphasis. Of course, we may detect a reflection or have
a glimpse of ultramodernism in the following lines of Tagore's Purabi and
Balaka: Behold, by what a blast of
wind, By what a stroke of music The waters of my lake
heave up in waves To hold speechless
communications between this bank and the other! (Purabi)
Page – 167 The mountain longs to become
an aimless summer cloud. The trees want to free
themselves from their Moorings in the earth And to be on the wing and
to proceed in pursuit of the sound And become lost in their search for the farthest of the sky in a twinkling. (Balaka) But
still here we do not come across the note of a reversal, dissolution,
revolution. It seems the poet retains an inner link with the heart of the hoary
past in spite of so much of his novelty and modernism. And he did not like to
cut asunder that link. This
deep conservatism alone made Tagore the worshipper of symbols and did not allow
him to be a revolutionary iconoclast. Indeed one can draw one's attention to
the speciality of his unique skilfulness. Many a time he held firm the
structures and forms almost in a sportive mood and created under strict
restrictions. The play of freedom and lightness found expression not so much
in his words as in his metres, still more in his concepts, and above everything
else in his ideas and attitudes. In connection with his delineation he gave
expression to a unique softness and delicacy in the midst of firmness. He
placed the formless in the body and brought the Infinite into the finite and
gave us the taste of liberation amidst innumerable bondages. Further,
in spite of close intimacy and familiarity, there is an aristocracy and glory
in the manners and movements of his poetry; this too became a stumbling-block
on the way of his becoming an ultra-modern.
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