''Raja'' () (also known as ''The King of the Dark Chamber'' in the English translation) is a play by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

written in 1910. This play is marked as a symbolic play as well as a ‘mystic play’. The story is loosely borrowed from the

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

story of King Kush from ''

Mahāvastu The ''Mahāvastu'' (Sanskrit for "Great Event" or "Great Story") is a canonical text of the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda school of Early Buddhism which was originally part of the school's Vinaya pitaka. The ''Mahāvastu'' is a composite mult ...

''. A short stage version of ''Raja'' was published under the title of ''Arupratan'' in 1920. The theme of the play is "the secret dealing of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

with the human heart."

Reception

Sukumar Sen described ''Raja'' as "the first really symbolic drama by Tagore." The play became one of philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

's favourite books; he found in it an expression of his own religious ideal.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1910 plays Plays by Rabindranath Tagore Bengali-language plays