''Vālmīki-Pratibhā'' (, ''Balmiki Protibha'', lit. ''The Genius of Vālmīki'') is an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

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 ...

. The Bengali

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

was written by Tagore himself based on the legend of Ratnakara the Thug who later became Sage Valmiki and composed

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

, a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

. Composed in 1881, the opera was first performed at the Jorasanko Thakur Bari on 26 February 1881. Tagore himself played the role of Valmiki. It was staged in front of some eminent literary personalities of contemporary Bengal like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Gooroodas Banerjee and Haraprasad Shastri. The first edition of the opera was also published this time. The second and final edition was published on 20 February 1886. The music of this opera was a "fusion of classical, folk and European strains."Ghose (2006) p.61 The story narrates how Ratnakara, a robber chief turns into a great poet by the grace of

Saraswati Saraswati (, ), also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal Devi, goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture. Together with the godde ...

, the goddess of wisdom.

Name

Tagore wrote in his reminiscence, ''Jibansmriti'', “ n ''Valmiki-Pratibha''I played Valmiki and my niece Pratibha played Saraswati – this history remains in the naming of ''Valmiki-Pratibha''.”

Synopsis

Balmiki Pratibha Barisha Udayan Palli 2010 Arnab Dutta

One night, Valmiki, the robber chief, and his men captured a young girl to be sacrificed before

Kali Kali (; , ), also called Kalika, is a major goddess in Hinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the ten Mahavidyas, a group of goddesses who p ...

, the goddess of death. As Valmiki approached to behead the girl, her cries melt the robber chief's heart and she was released. Later Valmiki's men found that their leader was taking no more pleasure in bloodshed. Considering it as a sign of shameful cowardice, they abandoned him. Valmiki began to wander in the forest. One day he saw a young hunter killing two innocent love birds. Enraged, he uttered a curse which curiously enough, came out in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, the language of the gods that he never learnt. Valmiki saw an image of Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom being worshipped by the forest-nymphs. He renounced Kali and began his long search for the goddess of knowledge. In the meantime,

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

, the goddess of fortune, approached to distract him, but he refused her. At last his penance was rewarded and Saraswati herself appeared to him. It turned out that the little girl that he had saved from beheading was none other than the goddess herself in disguise, who had come to melt his 'stone' heart. Later, the goddess offered her '' Veena'' to Valmiki and blessed him with music. She blessed the former robber chief to become the greatest poet in the whole world, to be worshipped next to the goddess herself by every poet or artist ever since.

Roles and historical cast

In the list below, the role is followed by the original cast member from the 1881 production. * Valmiki, the robber chief –

. *

, goddess of wisdom – Pratibha Devi, Tagore's niece. *

, goddess of fortune – Sushila Devi, Tagore's niece. * Robbers – Sarada Prasad Ganguly, Kedarnath Majumdar, Akshay Majumdar.

Recording

* 1967, Santosh Sengupta (conductor), Hemanta Mukherjee ( Valmiki), Suchitra Mitra (

), Tarun Bandyopadhyay (robber), Sagar Sen (robber), Arghya Sen (robber), Sumitra Sen (forest-nymph), Ritu Guha (

) etc. (The Gramophone Company of India Limited, EALP 1313)

Notes and references

Sources

*Ghose, Sisir Kumar (2006)
''Rabindranath Tagore''
Sahitya Akademi. *Guha-Thakurta, P. (2000)
''The Bengali drama: its origin and development''
Routledge. *Hochman, Stanley (ed.) (1984)
"Tagore, Rabindranath"
''McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama'', Volume 5, pp. 1–2. VNR AG.

External links

''Valmiki-Pratibha'' (main text in Bengali) from Rabindra Rachavali

''My Reminiscences'' by Rabindranath Tagore: Ch. 29: Valmiki Pratibha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valmiki-Pratibha Plays by Rabindranath Tagore 1881 operas Operas