ABOUT THE BOOK Rabindranath Tagore (1861- 1941) was a great 'myriad-minded genius' that the world has everseen. The totality of his genius mani- fested itself gradually in conjuction with his later output. 'In earlier days he was marked as a spiritu- alist and a believer in the Upanishads, little account was taken of his pure poetic imagina- tion and solid humanism.' After his demise in 1941 there arose an interest in Tagore the humanist and the seer. 'Since then a comprehen- sive study and understanding of his literary creations and paint- ings, social and political thoughts has been presenting him in a much more clear perspective of his hu- manistic, uninhibited and healthy values.' In this book 'RABINDRA- SAMIKSHA' (a critical apprecia- tion of Rabindranath in Bengali), Professor Arunkumar Mukhopadh- yay (formerly Lecturer in the Presi- dency College and Professor-Chair- man of the Department of Bengali, University of Calcutta) has at- tempted to evaluate Tagore as a poet and a seer, as a great humanist of radical outlook and an intellec- tual giant. Tagore's thoughts on love and nature, religion and poli- tics, state and society, painting and theatre, education and language are thoroughly discussed here in twelve chapters.
Professor Arunkumar Mukhopadhyay, formerly Professor and Chairman of the Department of Bengali language and literature in the University of Calcutta, possesses a brilliant academic career. Born in 1930, he spent a part of his boyhood days in Rangpur (now in Bangladesh). He won Surendranalini Gold Medal and Krisnakumar Dutta Silver Medal along with Asutosh Mookherjee Birthday Memorial Prize in his B.A. Honours in Bengali from Calcutta University. Alter receiving his M.A. in Bengali from Calcutta University in 1952, he took his Ph. D. in 1957 from the same University on the Nineteenth Century Bengali Lyrical Poetry. In 1984 he was awarded D. Litt by Calcutta University on Bengali short stories. After serving Presidency College, Calcutta, for a decade he joined the University of Calcutta in 1969. Author of nearly three dozen books and a large number of research papers, Professor Mukhopadhyay has a sustained interest in the fields of language, literature and social studies. Now he works as the director of Amulyadhan Mukherjee Centre for Social Studies (Maghamallar, Kolkata 19).