KOLKATA: Admirers of Rabindranath Tagore have a unique gift awaiting them this Baishe Shrabon (August 7), his 77th death anniversary, when a facsimile edition of the poet’s personal copy of Gitanjali with his handwritten notes on the margins will be unveiled.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Visva-Bharati University as its acharya (chancellor), had mooted the idea of publishing the rare copy for mass circulation. The PM, during his visit to Sweden earlier this year, had gifted a replica of the first copy to the Nobel Museum, which now finds a pride of place among other memorabilia of Nobel laureates.Happily accepting the PM’s suggestion, VBU is taking this rare item out of its archives to get a facsimile edition published so that readers are able to leaf through this 106-year-old first copy of Gitanjali, which was also Tagore’s personal copy.In 1912, the India Society in London got Tagore’s handwritten manuscript printed by Chiswick Press with the help of artist William Rothenstein, an avid Tagore fan. Rothenstein sent it to his friend, Irish poet WB Yeats, and both were so impressed by the deep philosophy of Tagore’s poems that they decided to send it to the Swedish Academy for its consideration for the Nobel Prize. Yeats wrote the foreword and Rothenstein drew an illustration of Tagore, which were incorporated in the first book.The trio of Tagore, Yeats and Rothenstein was also joined by American poet Ezra Pound . There were sessions after sessions of readings and discussions before the book was finally sent to the Nobel committee.Tagore kept changing and correcting words and phrases here and there with his pencil in this printed version till the last moment and kept it as his personal copy of Gitanjali. The India Society got a fresh copy printed (the second copy) incorporating the changes and this was sent to the Swedish Academy for its consideration.The corrections that Tagore made with his pencil, even the marks left by bookworms in this 106-year-old copy, have remained intact in the facsimile edition. “We wanted to get that authentic feel. When you get this book, it will give you goosebumps for ‘nearly holding’ Tagore’s prized possession,” said Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, the spokesperson of Rabindra Bhavana.In 1913, Tagore won the Nobel Prize for literature. This first copy remained one of his most-loved possessions and after his passing away in 1941, the copy was handed over to Rabindra Bhavana archives in Uttarayan complex of Santiniketan for preservation. It remains there to this day.The officiating vice-chancellor of VBU, Sabuj Koli Sen, said when Modi sent the copy to the Swedish Nobel Museum, only five facsimile editions were printed. When the PM came to Santiniketan on May 25, he was gifted one of the four copies that was left with VBU. This is when the decision was taken to go public.“On Baishe Shrabon, we hope to come out with the facsimile edition of this very special book so that readers can buy them from VBU bookstores. We are doing this in association with Visva-Bharati’s publications division,” Sen said.

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