Lyric and background history of song tomar bina amar manomajhe

Parjaay: Puja (7)

Upa-parjaay: Gaan

Taal: Jhampak

Raag: Ashabari-Bhairavi

Written on: 1926 (2 Chaitra 1332)

Swarabitan: 3

Notation by: Dinendranath Tagore

Notes: This song was written on 16th March, 1926 at Kolkata.

Prashantakumar Mahalanabish used to stay in his official bungalow at Alipur where Rabindranath had been staying as a guest while this song was penned. In this connection Nirmalkumari Mahalanabish has written in her book – 'Baishe Srabon' –

… I was going to him with some fruit-juice when I saw a young man sitting at his feet, reading something from a bulky notebook and he was listening to him sitting on the easy-chair. His fingers touched his cheek and his face looked gloomy. I chose not to face an unknown person and sent the juice with my aid.

It was my duty to pick him up from his writing table for his daily routine; I found that young-man sitting there the other day. After waiting for brief while I saw him gone and the poet was sitting alone, his face looked serious. He said as I entered the room – ‘He is insane, you know! I feel for the poor fellow. He had come down with his volume of poems to make me listen to them. I could not deny him despite my significant backlogs. He might have been a renowned poet lest he had no mental problem. He begins quite affluently with the poems, although after a few lines his themes would break and he is unable to finish them. He doesn’t know that he has a mental problem, and hence unable to understand why his writings do not conclude. So he had come to see me if I could help him. Can you justify his misfortune? I feel so sorry for the poor fellow that I had discarded all my morning errands, to respond to his request and listen to him. I could not hurt him saying – I am busy, please go. His has not been deprived of the bestowal of lyrics by much. We all have a certain amount of insanity within us. Or else writing poetry would not have been possible. The only difference is that his insanity is of higher degree.’

He abstained from his writings after lunch. He was seen writing a poem sitting on the table at evening tea-time. ‘Tomar Beena Aamar Mono-maajhe…’.

He had composed the tune of the song by the evening and imparted on to me. He could not hide his anguish while singing – ‘I could not ignore him all day long and so the song erupted from my soul. The poor fellow could not make his entry to the courtroom of Beenapani because his strings snapped so often. …

People have been enticed to Rabindra Sangeet for long time. A number of them have tried to compose a new melody on his lyrics, a few people are still engaged with similar interest. This song had been subjected to distress from one of the poet’s followers. Dilipkumar Roy, son of Dwijendralal Roy had composed a tune for the song and published it completed with notation in the Jaishtha number of ‘Bharatbarsha’. He continued with his commentary –

… Poet the great had asked me to compose a melody for this song on 12th April at Shantiniketan. I had presented the song to him after I had done it with critical maneuvers. I would like to refrain from publishing those maneuvers. Although it is, I think, worth mentioning that the poet was glad with the form I had presented to him despite the fact that it did not conform to his normal style. He had also stated that regarding composition of a melody by others on his song his earlier view had been amended. Therefore, according to him, if a singer presents his song with a complete new tune it should not be regarded as improper. …

Pundits of philosophy of Rabindranath and his biographers have vehemently opposed the view of Dilipkumar while the poet’s letters to him written only a year ago on 29th March, 1925 bears exactly the opposite expression.