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    Chitra, a play in one act
    Chitra, a play in one act
    Chitra, a play in one act
    Ebook72 pages33 minutes

    Chitra, a play in one act

    By Rabindranath Tagore

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 2002
    Chitra, a play in one act
    Author

    Rabindranath Tagore

    Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, composer, philosopher, and painter from Bengal. Born to a prominent Brahmo Samaj family, Tagore was raised mostly by servants following his mother’s untimely death. His father, a leading philosopher and reformer, hosted countless artists and intellectuals at the family mansion in Calcutta, introducing his children to poets, philosophers, and musicians from a young age. Tagore avoided conventional education, instead reading voraciously and studying astronomy, science, Sanskrit, and classical Indian poetry. As a teenager, he began publishing poems and short stories in Bengali and Maithili. Following his father’s wish for him to become a barrister, Tagore read law for a brief period at University College London, where he soon turned to studying the works of Shakespeare and Thomas Browne. In 1883, Tagore returned to India to marry and manage his ancestral estates. During this time, Tagore published his Manasi (1890) poems and met the folk poet Gagan Harkara, with whom he would work to compose popular songs. In 1901, having written countless poems, plays, and short stories, Tagore founded an ashram, but his work as a spiritual leader was tragically disrupted by the deaths of his wife and two of their children, followed by his father’s death in 1905. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first lyricist and non-European to be awarded the distinction. Over the next several decades, Tagore wrote his influential novel The Home and the World (1916), toured dozens of countries, and advocated on behalf of Dalits and other oppressed peoples.

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      Book preview

      Chitra, a play in one act - Rabindranath Tagore

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chitra, by Rabindranath Tagore

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Chitra

             A Play in One Act

      Author: Rabindranath Tagore

      Release Date: December 11, 2008 [EBook #2502]

      Last Updated: January 26, 2013

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHITRA ***

      Produced by Elliot S. Wheeler, and David Widger

      CHITRA

      A PLAY IN ONE ACT

      BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE

      New York

      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

      1926

      All rights reserved

      Copyright 1914

      by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

      Set up and electrotyped Published February, 1914

      Reprinted March, twice, June, 1914; October, 1914;

      February, June, 1915; March, October, 1916; March, 1917;

      December, 1926.

      PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY

      THE BERWICK & SMITH CO.

      TO

      MRS. WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY

      PREFACE

      THIS lyrical drama was written about twenty-five years ago. It is based on the following story from the Mahabharata.

      In the course of his wanderings, in fulfilment of a vow of penance, Arjuna came to Manipur. There he saw Chitrangada, the beautiful daughter of Chitravahana, the king of the country. Smitten with her charms, he asked the king for the hand of his daughter in marriage. Chitravahana asked him who he was, and learning that he was Arjuna the Pandara, told him that Prabhanjana, one of his ancestors in the kingly line of Manipur, had long been childless. In order to obtain an heir, he performed severe penances. Pleased with these austerities, the god Shiva gave him this boon, that he and his successors should each have one child. It so happened that the promised child had invariably been a son. He, Chitravahana, was the first to have only a daughter Chitrangada to perpetuate the race. He had, therefore, always treated her as a son and had made her his heir.

      Continuing, the king said:

      The one son that will be born to her must be the perpetuator of my race. That son will be the price that I shall demand for this marriage. You can take her, if you like, on this condition.

      Arjuna promised and took Chitrangada to wife, and lived in her father's capital for three years. When a son was born to them, he embraced her with affection, and taking leave of her and her father, set out again on his travels.

      Contents

      CHITRA

      THE CHARACTERS

        GODS:

           MADANA (Eros).

           VASANTA (Lycoris).

        MORTALS:

           CHITRA, daughter of the King of Manipur.

           ARJUNA, a prince of the house of the Kurus.  He is of the

        Kshatriya or warrior caste, and during the action is living as

        a Hermit retired in the forest.

        VILLAGERS from an outlying district of Manipur.

        NOTE.—The dramatic poem

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