His master's works

PUBLISHING: It's advantage readers as publishers compete with each other to reproduce Rabindranath Tagore's works.

The year 2002 was a momentous year for Bengali language publishing for that was the year Visva-Bharati University's copyright over the works of Rabindranath Tagore expired. It's been five years since and time, perhaps, to take stock of the effect on Tagore publishing and scholarship.

The biggest impact, of course, has been on the price. To give an example "" Visva-Bharati's Rabindra Rachanabali (complete works) sells for Rs 2,250, while publishing houses like Reflect, Punascha, Kamini, and others offer it at between Rs 800 and Rs 1,000. Reflect's edition of Gitanjali sells for as little as Rs 7.

And it's gone down very well with readers "" Reflect claims to have sold 40,000 copies of its Gitanjali.

As Professor Shyamal Mukherjee, former professor of Visva-Bharati explains, "People who just look at the price, not caring too much about authenticity, buy these cheap editions, while others who look for annotations, notes, and so on, pay more "" so the market expands for everyone."

Visva-Bharati, naturally, denies that the cheaper editions have made any dent in its sales. Says Bhabesh Chandra Hazra, deputy director (sales), publishing department, Visva-Bharati, "Compared to 2001, we haven't suffered any losses. We did a market survey at the Kolkata book fair, and found that consumers still looked to Visva-Bharati for dependability, and didn't mind the price given the quality."

Significantly, however, prices of Visva-Bharati publications have not been raised in the last five years and, last year, the price of one top-selling title, Sanchayita, came down by Rs 50 to Rs 200.

Besides price, the alternatives to Visva-Bharti have not had much to recommend themselves to readers. Some, especially the editions published soon after the copyright expired, were simple reprints, without any editorial intervention, often on bad paper and in such small print that it hurt the eyes "" and worse, with spelling mistakes.

The most radical effect of the expiry of the copyright has been on the English translations of Tagore's works.

Earlier, the only available translations were from Macmillan, now, numerous publishers have jumped into the space, led by Rupa (the Rabindra Rachanabali series, attractively priced at Rs 50), Penguin (Chokher Bali, Ghare Baire, some short stories), Oxford University Press (a major translation series, with eminent scholar Sukanta Chaudhuri as general editor).

But price is fast ceasing to be the sole criteria, as new publishers of Tagore look at better production values, more graphics, and specialised compilations to plug perceived gaps in the market.

For example, Mitra & Ghosh has come up with a two-volume Sahaj Patth, with large print and illustrations by artist Ramananda Bandopadhyay and visually more attractive to its target readers "" children "" than the Visva-Bharati edition.

At this year's book fair, Dey's Publishing will launch its first Tagore book "" a compilation of the poet's nationalist songs, a first of its kind.

For the new year later this year, it will unveil an edition of Gitabitan, the reprint, for the first time, of the original compilation edited by Tagore (the Visva-Bharati edition has many significant, and unexplained, changes). None of these are cheap "" Sahaj Patth costs Rs 150, while Dey's books will cost around Rs 400.

Deep Prakashan's Rabindra Rachana Abhidhan, a compendium to Tagore, is an important aid to Tagore scholarship. Then there are specialised compilations of Tagore's speeches, or his writings on specific subjects like communal goodwill, and medieval Bengali literature. Clearly, competition helps.