নটীর পূজা

by Rabindranath Tagore

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla.

The complete works of Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্র রচনাবলী) in the original Bengali are now available at these third-party websites:
http://www.tagoreweb.in/
http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr....

Reviews

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play portrays a divergence between the earthly power of a sovereign and the saintly power of Lord Buddha. Srimati, the court-performer is executed by the royal guard under the aegis of the monarch, when, during the course of her dance, she abandons, piecemeal, her adornments and even her items of clothing, till she stands unadulterated and nude in a nun’s drape. She is obviously dominant and victorious even in her bereavement because now even Queen Lokesvari, and even the elder princess Ratnavali, fall under the enchantment of the court-dancer’s philanthropy and pay obeisance by feeling the departed Srimati’s feet, in mark of their shift to Buddhism. It is a profoundly heartrending play portraying an atypical act of religious self-immolation by an individual who was never expected to ascend to such enormous heights of selflessness.