Discusses Tagore's uniquely varied output across literature, music, art, philosophy, history, politics, education and public affairs.

A collection of work from a prolific and well-respected contemporary Indian artist.

Perhaps the most versatile of modern creative artists, Indian or Western, not excepting T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence, Tagore doubtless offers us a fairly profound and elaborate aesthetic theory, though, of course, he does not write about art and literature with the deliberate intention of a writer of aesthetics. From a systematic, close study of his pronouncements and cogitations on art and literature, scattered in his variegated writings, emerges an aesthetic philosophy, which is absolutely invaluable to apprehend and appreciate his creative mind as well as the Indian and Western arts and literatures. Much of the finest of the Indian and Western aesthetics has been retouched and modernised by him, and to this he has contributed considerably by dint of his original mind. Hence the need and justfication for a book such as this. There is almost a plethora of critical studies on the various aspects of Rabindranath Tagore’s mind and art. But, curiously enough, only a little attempt has hitherto been made to assimilate and assess his theory-statements on art in detail. This paucity of work further necessitates a thorough exploration of this subject. The present book is an attempt to meet this need. A comprehensive study of Tagore’s aesthetics, the book, it is hoped, will surely help the reader to understand Tagore, art and literature correctly.

This book provides a radical rethinking of the prominent Indian thinker Rabindranath Tagore, exploring how his philosophy of education relates to the ideas of Western theorists such as Kant, Plato and Aristotle. Tagore's thoughts on pedagogy, university and formal education are subjected to a fascinating critique within Ghosh's transcultural framework, referencing a wide range of thinkers across varying time periods, places, and cultures, and developing a greater sensitivity to other traditions, languages, and forms of thinking and writing. The book changes the way we have so far thought about the educationist Tagore, and will be of interest to scholars and specialists of literature, Indian history, and philosophy of education. It is political, deeply philosophical and has a transcultural take on our understanding of a variety of issues relating to Tagore and to philosophy of education in general.

The Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - 'the Indian Goethe', as Albert Schweitzer called him - was not only the foremost poet and playwright of modern India, but one of its most profound and influential thinkers. Kalyan Sen Gupta's book is the first comprehensive introduction to Tagore's philosophical, socio-political and religious thinking. Drawing on Rabindranath's poetry as well as his essays, and against the background theme of his deep sensitivity to the holistic character of human life and the natural world, Sen Gupta explores the wide range of Tagore's thought. His idea of spirituality, his reflections on the significance of death, his educational innovations and his relationship to his great contemporary, Gandhi, are among the topics that Sen Gupta discusses - as are Tagore's views on marriage, his distinctive understanding of Hinduism, and his prescient concerns for the natural environment. The author does not disguise the tensions to be found in Tagore's writings, but endorses the great poet's own conviction that these are tensions resolvable at the level of a creative life, if not at that of abstract thought.

The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art provides an extensive research resource to the burgeoning field of Asian aesthetics. Featuring leading international scholars and teachers whose work defines the field, this unique volume reflects the very best scholarship in creative, analytic, and comparative philosophy. Beginning with a philosophical reconstruction of the classical rasa aesthetics, chapters range from the nature of art-emotions, tones of thinking, and aesthetic education to issues in film-theory and problems of the past versus present. As well as discussing indigenous versus foreign in aesthetic practices, this volume covers North and South Indian performance practices and theories, alongside recent and new themes including the Gandhian aesthetics of surrender and self-control and the aesthetics of touch in the light of the politics of untouchability. With such unparalleled and authoritative coverage, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art represents a dynamic map of comparative cross-cultural aesthetics. Bringing together original philosophical research from renowned thinkers, it makes a major contribution to both Eastern and Western contemporary aesthetics.

Rabindranath Tagore:Selected Essays is a collection of the author's most acclaimed essays. The Poet's Religion and The Creative Ideal reveal someof his fundamental tenets of art and aesthetics, of life and religion, and 'the religion of the poet'.The essays in Sadhana (1913) tell us of the ancient spirit of India, as revealed in our sacred texts and manifested in the life of today. Crisis in Civilisation (Sabhyatar Samkat) was the last public address delivered by Tagore on April 14,1941.The essays incorporatedfrom The Religion of Man (1941) are an extensive and commandingexposition of Tagore's understanding of the meaning and significance of religion in the cultural history of man. Greater India (1921) deals with the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal,one of the most turbulent periods in Indian history.One of India's most cherished renaissance figures, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) put India on the literary map of the world when his Gitanjali was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Myriadminded,he was a poet, short story writer, novelist, dramatist, essayist, painter and composer of songs.

This volume provides a revisionary critique of the art of Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the national school of Indian painting, popularly known as the Bengal School of Art. The book categorically argues that the art of Abanindranath, which developed during the Bengal Renaissance in the 19th–20th centuries, was not merely a normalization of national or oriental principle, but was a hermeneutic negotiation between modernity and community. It establishes that his form of art—embedded in communitarian practices like kirtan, alpona, pet-naming, syncretism, and storytelling through oral allegories—sought a social identity within the inter-subjective context of locality, regionality, nationality, and trans-nationality. The author presents Abanindranath as a creative agent who, through his art, conducted a critical engagement with post-Enlightenment modernity and regional subalternity.

On Alpana, decorative art of floor and wall paintings, with reference to Santiniketan, India.