''Gitabitan'' () is a book forming a collection of all 2,232 songs (
Rabindra Sangeet
''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in ...
) written by
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
polymath
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
.
Editions
The first edition of three volumes was published in 1931 and 1932, and contained the songs in chronological order. To make the collection more user-friendly, Tagore revised the book and arranged the songs by theme. The revised edition of the first two volumes was published in 1941, the year when Tagore died. Volume three, which included all of Tagore's dance-drama's, was published in 1950. In 1960
Visva Bharati
Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the w ...
published the ''Gitabitan'' as a single volume.
Themes
The six major parts of this book are ''Puja'' (worship), ''Prem'' (love), ''Prakriti'' (seasons), ''Swadesh'' (patriotism), ''Aanushthanik'' (occasion-specific), ''Bichitro'' (miscellaneous) and ''
Nrityonatya'' (dance dramas and lyrical plays).
Other collections
The ''Swarabitan'', published in 64 volumes, includes the texts of 1,721 songs and their musical notation.
The volumes were first published between 1936 and 1955.
Earlier collections, all arranged chronologically, include ''Rabi Chhaya'' (1885), ''Ganer Bahi o Valmiki Pratibha'' (1893), ''Gan'' (1908), and ''Dharmashongit'' (1909).
References
External links
Swarabitan & Gitabitan Android AppGitabitan(includes pdf version)
Gitabitan ArchiveGitabitan.comGitabitan of Rabindranath Tagore - An Encyclopedic Site
{{Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindra Sangeet
Works by Rabindranath Tagore
Indian songs
20th-century Indian books
Bengali-language songs