ABSTRACT
As a dramatist, Rabindranath weaved his playtexts around ideas or themes drawn from varied sources, ranging from actual events to dreams and epiphanies. But whatever the nature of the source, it was always refashioned to cater to his individual needs. Many playtexts, therefore, moved through several phases of revisions/modifications/alterations, often prompted by the need to meet such purposes – social, cultural, ideological, even theatrical. Many playtexts, therefore, moved through several phases of revisions/modifications/alterations, often prompted by the need to meet such purposes – social, cultural, ideological, even theatrical. The early Raja o Rani, despite being one of the most revised playtexts, still left the author with a sense of discontentment on several counts – the irrelevance of the Kumar-Ila subplot, the unwieldy length of the play, the dependence on the European model and the excessive lyricism of the blank verse used.
