DR.

YANGA’S
COLLEGES
INC.

College of Education

AFRO-ASIAN
LITERATURE
MODULE
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Course Outline
Course Name

Descriptive Title Afro-Asian Literature

Course Description The course Afro-Asian Literature plays an increasingly important role in educating the
students in becoming professionally imbued with the ideals of a true personhood in the
community of nations. This course is a selective yet intensive study of the literature
produced in Asia and Africa, as well as India and the Islamic world (the Middle East).
This requires a textual reading of representative texts for the purpose of experiencing
the national dynamics of national or international consciousness in the literature of
each country or continent, and to discover perspectives held in common by those
countries as seen in their literature.

Course Learning At the end of the course, the students should be able to:
Outcome
1. draw logical conclusions about life from the literary pieces they have read;
2. analyze literary pieces and be able to reflect in the significant ideas and
values expressed in them;
3. explain different customs and traditions of Afro-Asian countries depicted in the
literature;
4. summarize and outline the plot of the various pieces of African and Asian
literature;
5. reflect with the ideas expressed in different Afro-Asian literary pieces;
6. compose unified and coherent paragraph/essays using different rhetorical
devices;
7. write critical analysis paper on the literary pieces discussed;
8. demonstrate deeper appreciation of Afro-Asian literature by the literary
devices used; and
9. discover literature as a means of understanding others’ culture and of
developing sensitivity and diversity.

Credit Unit 3

Time Allotment 48 Hours

Course Content and Time Frame

Examination
Week Course Content or Topic
Coverage
I. INDIAN LITERATURE
a. Pachatantra
 The Lionmakers
 The Duel Between the Elephant and the Sparrow
b. Savitri’s Love
1
c. Gitanjali
II. HEBREW LITERATURE
a. The Story of Joseph
Prelim b. The Story of Ruth
c. The Parable of Talents
III. PERSIAN LITERATURE
a. Hell and Heaven (Sadi)
b. The Captive Gets a Wife (Jami)
2 c. Sohrab and Rustum
IV. ARABIAN LITERATURE
a. Arabian Knights
b. The Food of Paradise
Midterm 3 V. CHINESE LITERATURE
a. Poems of Famous Chinese Poets
b. Conceited Coachman
c. Little Incident
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VI. JAPANESE LITERATURE

a. The Thief Who Became a Disciple
4 b. My Native Village
c. The Picture Wife
d. The Spider’s Thread
VII. AFRICAN LITERATURE
a. Once Upon a Time
Final 6 b. The Wrestling Contest Between the Cat and the Tortoise
c. Life on a Slave Ship
d. Anticipation

Course Requirements

1. Examination
2. Critical Analysis Outputs
3. Class Attendance, Assignments, Quizzes, Recitation, Class Participation
4. Google e-mail account
 Afro-Asian Literature | iv

A. Panchatantra, (Sanskrit: “Five Treatises” or “Five Chapters”) also spelled Pancatantra, collection of Indian animal
fables, which has had extensive circulation both in the country of its origin and throughout the world. In Europe the
work was known under the name The Fables of Bidpai (for the narrator, an Indian sage, Bidpai, called Vidyapati in
Sanskrit), and one version reached the West as early as the 11th century.

Illustration of a Panchatantra fable, about a bird who is outwitted by a crab; from an 1888 edition published as The
Earliest English Version of the Fables of Bidpai, "The Moral Philosophy of Doni" translated (1570) from the Italian of
Anton Francesco Doni by Sir Thomas North.

In theory, the Panchatantra is intended as a textbook of niti (“policy,” especially for kings and statesmen);
the aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and cleverness rather than altruism. The original text is a mixture of
Sanskrit prose and stanzas of verse, with the stories contained within one of the five frame stories. The introduction,
which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahmin named
Vishnusharman, who used the form of animal fables to instruct the three dull-witted sons of a king.

The original Sanskrit work, now lost, may have come into being at any time between 100 BC and AD 500. It was
translated into Pahlavi (Middle Persian) by the Persian royal physician Burzoe in the 6th century. Although this work
also is lost, a Syriac translation of it has survived, together with the famous Arabic translation by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ
(d. AD 760), known as Kalīlah wa Dimnah, after the two jackals that figure in the first story. The Kalīlah wa
Dimnah led to various other versions, including a second Syriac version and an 11th-century version in Greek,
the Stephanites kai Ichnelates, from which translations were made into Latin and various Slavic languages. It was the
12th-century Hebrew version of Rabbi Joel, however, that became the source of most European versions.

The 17th-century Turkish translation, the Humayun-namah, was based on a 15th-century Persian version,

the Anwār-e Suhaylī. The Panchatantra stories also traveled to Indonesia through Old Javanese written literature and
possibly through oral versions. In India the Hitopadesha (“Good Advice”), composed by Narayana in the 12th century
and circulated mostly in Bengal, appears to be an independent treatment of the Panchatantra material.
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PANCHATANTRA: THE LION MAKERS

Four Brahmans lived near one another and were friends in a small town.  Three of them had been scholars their
whole lives and had learned much, but they had no common sense.  The fourth couldn’t be bothered to study from
dusty dry books, but he had a great deal of common sense.

One day they got together to talk and decided that all their accomplishments and learning were pointless if they didn’t
go out in the world to meet people, see places, gain a little political power, and make a little money.  So they decided
to travel together.

They hadn’t gone far when the eldest said, “One of us is not smart enough or educated enough, having nothing but
common sense.  He won’t make it very far in the world without scholarship, so let’s not share our money with him. 
He should go back home.”

The second said, “That’s true, friend, you should go home.”  But the third said, “No, this is no way to treat our friend
who we have known since we were small children playing together.  He will stay with us and have a share of the
money we earn.”

So they agreed and all four continued on together.  Soon they came upon the bones of a dead lion in the forest.  One
of them said, “Here is a chance to show off how intelligent and learned we are.  Let’s bring him back to life through
our superior knowledge.”
The first said, “I can assemble the skeleton for I know how it should go.”  The second said, “I can add on the
muscles, organs, and skin.”  The third said, “I can give it life.”

But the fourth, who was the man of no scholarship said, “This is a lion.  If you give it life it will kill every one of us.”

“The scholars replied, “We will not make all our learning pointless.  We must use it at every opportunity.”  So the
fourth replied again, “Then wait a moment while I climb this tree.”

So the man of sense climbed a tree while the other three brought the lion to life.  The lion rose up and killed the three
scholars.  But the man of sense climbed down after the lion had left and went home.

Scholarship is less than sense;

Therefore seek intelligence:
Senseless scholars in their pride
Made a lion, then they died.
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The Duel between the Elephant and the Sparrow by Panchatantra

In a dense bit of jungle lived a sparrow and his wife, who had built their nest on the branch of a tamal tree, and in
course of time a family appeared.

Now one day a jungle elephant with the spring fever was distressed by the heat, and came beneath that tamal tree in
search of shade. Blinded by his fever, he pulled with the tip of his trunk at the branch where the sparrows had their
nest, and broke it. In the process the sparrows’ eggs were crushed, though the parent-birds further life being
predestined barely escaped death.

Then the hen-sparrow lamented, desolate with grief at the death of her chicks. And presently, hearing her
lamentation, a woodpecker bird, a great friend of hers, came grieved at her grief, and said: “My dear friend, why
lament in vain? For the Scripture says:

For lost and dead and past

The wise have no laments:

Between the wise and fools

Is just this difference.

“That is good doctrine,” said the hen-sparrow, “but what of it? This elephant curse his spring fever! killed my babies.
So if you are my friend, think of some plan to kill this big elephant. If that were done, I should feel less grief at the
death of my children. “Madam,” said the woodpecker, “your remark is very true. For the proverb says:

A friend in need is a friend indeed,

Although of different caste;

The whole world is your eager friend

So long as riches last.

“Now see what my wit can devise. But you must know that I, too, have a friend, a gnat called Lute-Buzz. I will return
with her, so that this villainous beast of an elephant may be killed.”

So he went with the hen-sparrow, found the gnat, and said: “Dear madam, this is my friend the hensparrow. She is
mourning because a villainous elephant smashed her eggs. So you must lend your assistance while I work out a plan
for killing him.”

“My good friend,” said the gnat, “there is only one possible answer. But I also have a very intimate friend, a frog
named Cloud-Messenger. Let us do the right thing by calling him into consultation. For the proverb says:

So all three went together and told Cloud-Messenger the entire story. And the frog said: “How feeble a thing is that
wretched elephant when pitted against a great throng enraged! Gnat, you must go and buzz in his fevered ear, so
 Afro-Asian Literature | iv

that he may shut his eyes in delight at hearing your music. Then the woodpecker’s bill will peck out his eyes. After
that I will sit on the edge of a pit and croak. And he, being thirsty, will hear me, and will approach expecting to find a
body of water. When he comes to the pit, he will fall in and perish.”

When they carried out the plan, the fevered elephant shut his eyes in delight at the song of the gnat, was blinded by
the woodpecker, wandered thirst-smitten at noonday, followed the croak of a frog, came to a great pit, fell in, and
died.

“And that is why I say:

“Woodpecker and sparrow

With froggy and gnat,

Attacking en masse, laid

The elephant flat.”

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B. Savitri’s Love

Long long ago, there ruled a king named Ashvapati. He was a pious and virtuous man.
However, he had no offspring. To acquire the same he resorted to a rigorous regimen of
discipline, which included eating only a minimal amount of food at a specific time of the day and
keeping the mind and body under strict control. Every day he would pour offerings into the
sacred fires, accompanied by a hundred thousand chantings of the Gayatri mantra. After
eighteen years, the goddess Gayatri was finally pleased with his devotion and manifested
herself before him saying: "King! I am happy with your self-discipline and control over the
senses. Ask whatever boon you want.”

The king replied: "Kindly grant me a son to carry on my family name forward. The goddess gave
an intriguing reply: "Dear king, I have already spoken to Lord Brahma regarding your desire for
a son. However, he has instructed me to instead grant you a daughter who will outshine the
world with her qualities. We should not question nor doubt Brahma’s judgement.” The king
bowed and with folded hands accepted the divine plan laid out before him.
Soon a daughter was born to him, whom he named Savitri, another name for goddess Gayatri,
by whose grace he had been blessed. Savitri grew up to be so beautiful that anyone who saw
her took her for a divine being rather than human. Her personality was powerful and luminous,
so much so that she outshone all princes who thought of winning her hand.
One day, she made an appearance before her father to pay obeisance to him. She stood before
him with folded hands. Seeing his fully grown daughter who had not yet been sought out by a
suitor made the king extremely sad and he spoke out: "Dear daughter, the time is ripe for me to
hand you over to a suitable husband. However, none has come forward to ask for your hand.
Therefore, as per the scriptures, please go ahead and choose a husband yourself, someone
who equals you in qualities. Let me know of the person of your choice and after due
consideration, I will marry you off to him. Don’t worry, whatever I am asking you to do is strictly
according to Dharma only because the scriptures say: ‘A father who does not give away his
daughter at the suitable age is contemptible; a husband who does not have physical relations
with his wife just following the days of her monthly cycle is contemptible; and the son who does
not look after his widowed mother is contemptible.’ Hence, for my sake, so that I am not a culprit
in the eyes of the gods, please go ahead and start looking for a suitable boy yourself.”
The king then instructed his elderly ministers to make necessary preparations for the trip and
also asked them to accompany Savitri on her journey. The princess, though bashful, did not
even for a moment doubt her father’s words, and set immediately out to fulfil his wish.
Accompanied by her father’s mature and trusted advisors, she sat on a golden chariot and set
out to the forests and various places of pilgrimage to seek out a husband for herself.
Some days later she returned to her father’s house. By chance, the great sage Narada too was
visiting them at that time. The virtuous Savitri touched the saint’s feet with her head. On her
father’s enquiry she revealed that she had seen a king who had lost his eyesight and
consequently his kingdom, and who had retired to the forests to practice severe penances
there. He had a son named Satyavan, who though born in the city, had been raised and brought
up in the forests only. It was him that Savitri had chosen as her husband.
Hearing this, Narada exclaimed that Savitri had unknowingly brought misfortune on herself.
Even though undoubtedly Satyavan was unmatched in terms of qualities, he was destined to
live for only one more year. The king pleaded with his daughter to select another man for
marriage. To this the great Savitri replied: "Father! Just like wealth is divided between brothers
only once, a daughter too is given only once. Whether he have a long life or a short one,
whether he is full of virtues or devoid of them; I have already chosen him as my husband and
can therefore never chose another. First it is the mind that decides what’s to be done, then the
speech utters it and finally we perform the action. It is my mind’s firm decision to have him and
only him as my husband.”
Narada applauded Savitri’s speech saying that she had a firm mind and could not be deviated
from the path of Dharma. He then told the king that it was best that she be married to Satyavan
only. The king answered: "O sage! You are my guru. Your wish is my command. I will start off
immediately to seek the permission of the groom’s parents.”
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Savitri’s father used his chariot only till the edge of the forest. From there he proceeded on foot
to where the hut of the blind king was. He introduced himself with all humility and requested
Satyavan’s father to accept his daughter as a wife for his noble son. The blind king replied: "Sir,
we have lost our kingdom and now live in the forest as reclusive hermits performing severe
penances. It is not befitting that your princess be subject to the hardships of the forest.”
Savitri’s father replied: "Dear Sir! Pain and pleasure come and go. Me and my daughter both
are aware of this. I have come to you with a firm resolution and with great expectations. Please
don’t disappoint someone who has taken refuge under you with great hope.” Hearing these
humble words, Satyavan’s father was greatly satisfied and respectfully agreed to the match.
Savitri and Satyavan were then married in the forest and king Ashvapati, having handed over
his daughter along with a large number of gifts to Satyavan, returned to his palace.
Satyavan was delighted to receive the glorious Savitri as his wife and so was she to have him
as her husband. After her father had gone, Savitri removed all her ornaments and rich clothes
and donned clothes made of barks and leaves as befitting forest-dwellers. Very soon she won
the heart of all the residents of the hermitage by her spirit of service, humility, restraint and by
acting according to the wishes of the elders. She satisfied her mother-in-law by physical service
and gifts of clothes etc. and her father in law by maintaining restraint of speech in his presence.
Similarly she gave immense satisfaction to her husband through sweetness of speech,
efficiency of her work, maintaining peace in the house and through pleasurable activities when
they were alone. Some time elapsed in this manner.
However, Savitri, who could not for a single moment let Narada’s words out of her mind, was in
constant turmoil. The day soon approached when Satyavan was to give up his body. His
devoted wife was counting each day and four days before, she took a severe vow (Vrata) that
she would remain standing for three nights and days without taking any food. On seeing her
strict regimen the father in law was extremely pained and addressed her thus: "O Princess! You
have taken up a very tough Vrata. It is very difficult to be without food for three days.”Savitri
said: "Father, please don’t worry. I will complete this Vrata. The cause of success of a Vrata is
the firmness of one’s resolve only. I have taken it up only after making a firm decision.”
Satyavan’s father then blessed her for the successful completion of her Vrata.
Savitri, reduced to a lifeless piece of wood, spent the last night standing immersed in the
thought that tomorrow would be the last day of her husband’s life. The next morning, after
finishing her early morning chores, she went down to seek the blessings of her in-laws and the
elderly Brahmins of the hermitage. All answered her with words which blessed her with a long
married life. Savitri became situated in Dhyana Yoga and received these words into her heart
with the silent acceptance: ‘This is how it will be’.
Sometime later in the day, her in-laws addressed lovingly said to her: "Dear Daughter! You have
successfully finished your Vrata. Now the time has come for you to take food.” Savitri replied:
"Father, after sunset when I have achieved my desire, only then will I take [Link] is my firm
resolve.”
As she was speaking these words, Satyavan, putting an axe on his shoulders was setting out to
gather wood for the sacred fires (Agni) from the forest. Savitri requested that she too wanted to
accompany him. Satyavan tried to dissuade her by pointing out that the trails of the forest were
difficult and as it is she was considerably weakened by her severe fast. Savitri however replied
that she was not feeling any weakness at all due to the fast and was very desirous of
accompanying him and therefore he should not say no to her. Seeing her enthusiasm, Satyavan
agreed but asked her to take the permission of his parent’s first. She went before her in-laws,
bowed her head before them and said: "Dear Parents, it’s been a year and I have never
stepped out of the hermitage. It is my heart’s desire to go along with my husband today and see
the beauty of the forest.” Her father-in-law replied: "Daughter, ever since you have come here
you have not asked for anything. This is the first time you expressed a desire for something. Go
daughter, May God fulfil your desire.”
Thus did Savitri, after having obtained permission from both her in-laws set out with her
husband towards the deep forests. Outwardly she seemed normal and happy but inside she
was burning in the fire of torment. Her loving husband meanwhile, oblivious of his impending
fate, set out to entertain his wife by pointing out the beauties of the forest. Savitri was constantly
watching over her husband. She was convinced that Narada’s words were definitely going to
come true. Walking slowly, Savitri seemed to be divided into two parts - one which followed her
husband and the other which dreadfully waited for the looming moment.
Within a small time, Satyavana, with his wife’s help, had collected a basket of fruits. Then he set
to split wood with his axe. The hard labor made him sweat and his head began aching.
Tormented by the pain he went to his beloved wife and said: "Savitri, today the job of cutting
wood tires me out and my head and body are aching. My heart too seems to be burning and I
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feel as if someone is piercing my head with needles. Dear, I want to sleep. I don’t seem to have
enough power to remain standing.”
Hearing this, Savitri rushed to his side and sitting down, placed his head in her lap. Just then
there appeared in front of her a divine being wearing red clothes. He was of dark complexion
and fierce disposition, and was holding a noose in his hand. He was continuously looking
towards Satyavan. Seeing him, she gently placed her husband’s head on the ground and stood
up with folded hands. With her heart pounding and voice faltering she said: "Sir, it seems you
are a divine being. If you wish can you let me know who you are and what you want to do
here?” The divine personage replied: "Savitri, you are a devoted wife (Pativrata) and also lead
an ascetic-like life. Therefore, I can converse with you. I am Yamaraja – the god of death. Your
husband’s life is over, hence I am going to tie him up and take him with me.” Saying this,
Yamaraja tied up the jiva who was the size of a thumb (angushtha-matra), and extracted him
from Satyavana’s body. Then, because of losing his Prana, Satyavan stopped breathing, his
body lost all lustre and lay lifeless on the ground like an undesirable object. Yamaraja carried off
with the jiva in the southern direction. Savitri, beside herself with grief, kept on following him. On
way, the following conversation took place between the two - a conversation unparalleled in the
annals of world literature:
Yamaraja: Savitri, you should return now and prepare for your husband’s last rites. You gave
him company till the very last possible and are now free from any debt towards him.
Savitri: It is a wife’s eternal Dharma to go wherever her husband takes her or go wherever he is
going; and this is what I am doing. Due to Tapasya, Guru-Bhakti, love for my husband,
performing Vratas and your blessings, I have access to all worlds and hence can follow my
husband and you. Wise persons say that two people become friends even if they have walked
seven steps together (and we have already covered more ground). Keeping this friendship in
front of me I will say something, please hear: Situated in one’s own Dharma one reaches the
highest goal. One should not desire to follow Dharma other than one’s own. Therefore, virtuous
people give preference only to Dharma.
To Savitri’s these words, soaked as they were in Dharma, Yamaraja, also known as Dharmaraja
(The King of Dharma) replied:
Yamaraja: Your words are almost like poetry to my ears. Ask any boon you want except for
your husband’s life.
Savitri: Lord, my father-in-law has to suffer a lot because of his blindness. I request that his
eyesight be restored.
Yamaraja: So be it. You should return now as you look very tired.
Savitri: How can a wife feel any tiredness when she is near her husband? I am going to end up
wherever my husband does. Wherever you take him, it is mandatory that I follow you there.
Lord, listen to my one more thing. The company of saints (like you) is greatly desirable, even if it
be for once only. It is even better to have friendship with them (which I have already developed
with you). The company of saints is never futile, it is bound to always yield some happy fruit.
Therefore, one should always strive to be in the company of the great.
Yamaraja: Savitri, you have uttered words which are beneficial for all. It conforms exactly to
what is held by me too. I am extremely happy at your words. Ask for another boon except that of
Satyavan’s life.
Savitri: Please restore my father-in-laws lost kingdom.
Yamaraja: So it will be; and now that your wish has been fulfilled, you can go back.
Savitri: Dear Lord! It is you who control the world through the various rules (Niyama) laid down
by you. That is why you are known as Yama. Please listen to what I have to say. Never hurting
others either mentally, verbally or physically is the eternal Dharma practiced by virtuous people.
Dharma also has compassion and charity as its necessary components. Saints (like yourself)
have compassion even towards your enemies who come under your refuge (then how cannot
you have compassion upon us who have gained your friendship?).
Yamaraja: Your words are as soothing to me as water is to a thirsty man. Go ahead and ask for
any boon except Satyavan’s life.
Savitri: Dear Lord, my father is without a son. Please grant him a hundred sons who can carry
his family name forward.
Yamaraja: So will it be. Dear Lady, now that your wish has been fulfilled, go back as you have
already come too far.
Savitri: How can I be far from anywhere when I am near my husband? We can keep walking as
you listen to me. You treat all equally according to Dharma, hence you are known as
Dharmaraja. Actually, man does not have as much faith in himself as he has in saints like you.
One person trusts another due to sympathy and compassion and saints have the maximum
compassion in them and so all have faith in them.
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Yamaraja: The type of words I have heard from you I have never heard from anyone else. I am
very satisfied with what you have said. Ask for a fourth boon, other than his life and then you
can return from here.
Savitri: May there be born from me and my husband Satyavan a hundred sons to expand our
family name. This is the fourth boon I want from you.
Yamaraja: So be it. There will be born to you a hundred sons who will be a source of immense
joy to you. Now go back before you are exhausted.
Savitri: Virtuous people are always engaged in the performance of Dharma. They desire the
company of saints and never fear them. Actually, it is the Dharma of the virtuous and Tapasya
of the saints which holds up the world. Living under such saints (like you), followers of Dharma
(like us) are never subjected to grief. The blessings of saints never go waste. Indeed, they are
the ones protecting this world.
Yamaraja: O Chaste Woman! Your voice, loaded with serious import and populated with
beautiful words pleases me and my devotion towards you continues to increase more and more.
Ask any boon from me.
Savitri: Sir, the boon you have given me of a hundred sons is not possible alone without my
husband being with me. This boon is not like the other boons I had asked for. Therefore, I
request that my husband be restored to life because I am as good as dead without him. If there
is any pleasure in this world without my husband I don’t want it. I don’t wish for a heaven without
him. I don’t want any riches without him. What more can I say, I do not wish to live without my
husband. You have blessed me with a hundred sons, and you yourself are carrying away my
husband from me. Therefore, I repeat my request for being reunited with my husband.
 Afro-Asian Literature | iv

C. Gītāñjali, a collection of poetry, the most famous work by Rabindranath Tagore, published in India in 1910. Tagore
then translated it into prose poems in English, as Gitanjali: Song Offerings, and it was published in 1912 with an
introduction by William Butler Yeats.

Medieval Indian lyrics of devotion provided Tagore’s model for the poems of Gītāñjali. He also composed music for
these lyrics. Love is the principal subject, although some poems detail the internal conflict between spiritual longings
and earthly desires. Much of his imagery is drawn from nature, and the dominant mood is minor-key and muted. The
collection helped win the Nobel Prize for Literature for Tagore in 1913, but some later critics did not agree that it
represents Tagore’s finest work.

Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali Rabīndranāth Ṭhākur, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—

died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who
introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it
from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West
and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he
became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The son of the religious reformer Debendranath Tagore, he early began to write verses, and, after incomplete studies
in England in the late 1870s, he returned to India. There he published several books of poetry in the 1880s and
completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius. It contains some of his best-known
poems, including many in verse forms new to Bengali, as well as some social and political satire that was critical of
his fellow Bengalis.

In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to manage his family’s estates at Shilaidah and Shazadpur
for 10 years. There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (the main channel of the Ganges River), in
close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for them became the keynote of much of his later writing. Most of his
finest short stories, which examine “humble lives and their small miseries,” date from the 1890s and have a
poignancy, laced with gentle irony, that is unique to him (though admirably captured by the director Satyajit Ray in
later film adaptations). Tagore came to love the Bengali countryside, most of all the Padma River, an often-repeated
image in his verse. During these years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894; The
Golden Boat), and plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra). Tagore’s poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his
more than 2,000 songs, which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society.

In 1901 Tagore founded an experimental school in rural West Bengal at Shantiniketan (“Abode of Peace”), where he

sought to blend the best in the Indian and Western traditions. He settled permanently at the school, which became
Visva-Bharati University in 1921. Years of sadness arising from the deaths of his wife and two children between 1902
and 1907 are reflected in his later poetry, which was introduced to the West in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912). This
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book, containing Tagore’s English prose translations of religious poems from several of his Bengali verse collections,
including Gitanjali (1910), was hailed by W.B. Yeats and André Gide and won him the Nobel Prize in 1913. Tagore
was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar (Jallianwalla Bagh)
Massacre.

From 1912 Tagore spent long periods out of India, lecturing and reading from his work in Europe, the Americas, and
East Asia and becoming an eloquent spokesperson for the cause of Indian independence. Tagore’s novels in Bengali
are less well known than his poems and short stories; they include Gora (1910) and Ghare-Baire (1916), translated
into English as Gora and The Home and the World, respectively. In the late 1920s, when he was in his 60s, Tagore
took up painting and produced works that won him a place among India’s foremost contemporary artists.

Gitanjali: 1 Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and
fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through
it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to
utterance ineffable. Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou
pourest, and still there is room to fill.

Gitanjali: 2 When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face,
and tears come to my eyes. All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony—and my
adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea. I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know
that only as a singer I come before thy presence. I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feet
which I could never aspire to reach. Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.

Gitanjali: 3 I know not how thou singest, my master! I ever listen in silent amazement. The light of thy music illumines
the world. The life breath of thy music runs from sky to sky. The holy stream of thy music breaks through all stony
obstacles and rushes on. My heart longs to join in thy song, but vainly struggles for a voice. I would speak, but
speech breaks not into song, and I cry out baffled. Ah, thou hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes of thy
music, my master!

Gitanjali: 4 Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I
shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of
reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou
hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart. And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is
thy power gives me strength to act.

Gitanjali: 5 I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side. The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.
Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a
shoreless sea of toil. Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying
their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove. Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing
dedication of live in this silent and overflowing leisure.
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ACTIVITY 1: Written work: In a 400 word essay, write a critical analysis of the stories provided above from
Panchatantra (THE LIONMAKERS and THE DUEL BETWEEN THE ELEPHANT AND THE SPARROW. Critic the
following; THEME, PLOT, SETTING, MORAL, STRUCTURE.

ACTIVITY 2: Savitri’s Love

1. What was Yama’s reason for giving Savitri her first wish?

2. What was Yama’s reason for giving Savitri her second wish?

3. How did Savitri’s third wish save her husband’s life?

4. In what ways do you find Savitri a remarkable woman?

ACTIVITY 3: What are the moral of Gitanjali numbers 1-5?

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