Later Poems of Rabindranath Tagore

by Aurobindo Bose

Paperback in good condition. Translated from the Bengali by Aurobindo Bose. Light edgewear to the cover. A few faint marks on the page block and some pages. The book itself is a little warped. The pages are sound, all text is clear. CM

Genres: History

142 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2002

Reviews

[Harshith Bangera · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very bad and lazily written book. Even
Wikipedia would have done it better.

The book is about the 10 avatars of Vishnu.
In the First avatar, Matsyavatar, there aren't many details and it is mentioned as a side note, though in around two pages.

The Second, Kurmavatar, has the very simple and known part of Samudra Manthan, very childishly explained.

The Third, Varahavatar, too is scantily written. Even I could have written that.

Fourth, Narasimha is very hastily written. There is no mention of how and what did Hiranyakashyapu do to Prahlada, shockingly there is no mention of Holika at all which is a shame. There is no explanation of how the moment of Narasimha bursting out of a pillar came into being, not even how Narasimha even after his incarnation's sole duty was done, was not able to be calm and how it transpired. Nothing.

The Fifth, Vamana, is so dully written. Maha Bali is not given his due just to elevate Vamana and did Ashok do that well? No. Even Vamana is reduced to minuscule writing.

The Sixth, Parashurama is also very short and non-detailed. This is the father, this is the mother. This happened, so he did this and then so & so happened and he went on a massacre spree. And Ashok, what in the hell is 'Creation of Kerala?' Idiot! Entire mid-Maharashtra to mid-Kerala is the 'Parashurama Bhoomi' or as we call it as 'The land created by Parashurama'.
And you didn't even research on why Parashurama did that. What was the true reason for writing this book? Definitely, nothing to do with Vishnu nor writing.

The Seventh, Rama...Oh, God! Ashok is jumping around like the vanara from one paragraph to the other, badly writing or missing a lot of things, only proudly writing the 'kandas' as titles. The

Eighth, Krishna...horrible imaginations this writer has. I wonder who told him all these bull shit stories that he has noted in this book. Very painful and displeasing. In page 127 & page 201, Ashok contradicts himself in the names of Krishna's dead siblings. Ashok couldn't go beyond one page on one avatar but goes on explaining about Krishna's son's wedding and grand son's weddings. Very imbalanced writing Ashok. Poor research has been done.

The Ninth was best explained. The previous lives of the Buddha or titled as 'Puranic legends of Buddha' was the only thing cherishable in this nearly 300 pages book apart from some contents in the Buddhavatar. But the damage had already been done with the writings on the 8 incarnations.

No one knows the Tenth let alone Ashok.

How beautifully Ashok could have let us know parts of one incarnation connecting the other, be it subtly mentioning Karna in the Parashurama avatar instead of going on explaining in the very same avatar of how the curses worked out in the Mahabharata. How well the birth, destiny and relationship of Parashurama and Vishwamitra could have been explained without getting out of the Dashavatar zone. This isn't Dashavatar. This is made to be 'Rama, Krishna and the other petty little avatars'.

What a shame the avatars have been reduced to. Where did you do your research from Ashok? Hong Kong? Kuala Lumpur? Beijing? Vienna? Or Sri Lanka? No research was done at all. Am sure Google was your mother of everything when it came to this book. Wasn't it?
More shame on Rupa publishers, my reading novels began with books by Rupa publishers. This book is an insult. Shame on me for not reading 10-20 pages of the book in the book store before spending a whopping Rs. 295 on this. I really need to re-read a good book or cook something to calm me after having an eyesore reading this book.

You have disappointed me a lot, Mr V. Ashok.

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming nearer today, the stories get more elaborated. Probably due to the more references available. Consequently Rama Avatara and Krishna Avatara were the most extensive. I read in other places, not everybody agrees with Buddha Avatara. Anyway, in this book the teaching of Buddha were not really expounded, but rather his feats of converting prominent rishis to his teaching -- which left a bad taste on me.

[Freya Abbas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poems! The translator was a student of Tagore’s and seems really talented too. Tagore’s poems reflect on the divine source of creative inspiration.