Tagore’s Text

Abstract

This chapter examines the complex textual and publishing history of Tagore’s works, and the reasons why they specially suit and specially require electronic compilation. The most important reason is the repeated, often radical revision that he carried out on his texts. These extend from small local variants to drastic recasting of the entire structure of a work. He might retain the same text even when converting material from one genre to another. The picture is still more complicated by the many translations and adaptations that he made of his own writings. All these factors give the Tagore corpus a markedly self-referential quality. His works not only relate to but refer to one another, so that a complete database of his writings is essential for his proper study. Such a study also calls for tools like a comprehensive bibliography, a hyperconcordance, and an elaborate collation engine. By providing these tools, Bichitra offers an overview of Tagore’s mental universe.

A part of this chapter has appeared previously in Towards Tagore (Dasgupta et al. 2014).