For anyone who (surprisingly) does not know of Rabindranath Tagore, he is the composer of India’s national anthem. His legacy has been preserved through his poems, novels, stories and songs ages after his having written them. The songs that are written and composed by this literary genius are known as Rabindra Sangeet.

He is said to have composed 2230 of such songs which are sung in all kinds of occasions in Bengal even today.

They are mostly based on the Hindustani classical music and the folk music of Bengal. The origin of this music genre was from Tagore’s literature. Some intercepts of novels or poems were lyricised and the tunes added to them gave rise to wonderful pieces of music. Various ragas from different regions were taken into account and mixed to create his melodies. He inspired the sitar sensation Vilayat Khan, sarodiyas like Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan.

Tagore’s regime and influence in Bengali literature had spread worldwide so rapidly, just as Shakespeare in the English-speaking world. Tagore’s songs are so popular that any Bengali who may not have resided in Bengal all his life too knows of it and is proud of his own cultural heritage.

From the ones who have no access to his songs to those who do, all know of them alike. In most of the neighbourhoods in Bengal, any festivity is incomplete without the presence of some songs by Tagore performed by singing or dancing to those tunes. A lot many neighbourhoods also play the songs in loudspeakers, making the atmosphere rich with aesthetics and range of expressions of all human emotions.  

After Tagore’s death, all his compositions were divided into different sections and genres to categorize and preserve his work. Some such divisions were made as seasonal songs known as Prokriti Porjaay where it was subdivided into summer (Grishho), monsoon (Borsha), autumn (Shorot), early winter (Hemonto), winter (Sheet) and Spring (Boshonto); into diverse or Bichitro songs, and into patriotic or Deshatmobodhok.

In spite of the last category being two different concepts, the difficulties in translations present themselves together for certain events. Tagore also composed may plays and dance-dramas such as Shyama, Chitrangada, Tasher Desh and so on. 

The Gitabitan contains the collection of all of the Rabindra Sangeet composed by the famous Kabiguru himself. It has six sectional divisions according to themes – Puja (worship), Prem (love), Prakriti (seasons), Swadesh (patriotism), Aanushthanik (occasion-specific), Bichitro (miscellaneous) and Nrityonatya (dance dramas and lyrical plays).

The poetic beauty and melodious appeal have inspired many singers to imitate the original or release newer versions of them with modern instrumental beats. Some famous singers of Rabindra Sangeet throughout ages are Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, Rezwana Chowdhury Banya, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Srikanto Acharya and some singers in the film industry like Kishore Kumar, Roopa Ganguly, Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal.

If you are new to it and planning to begin listening to this beautiful musical form, here are some songs you can begin with – Ami Chini Go Chini, Tomar Khola Hawa, Mone Pore Ruby Ray, Ekla Cholo Re, Mayabono Biharini, Boro Asha Kore amongst the innumerable many other excellent songs.