The study of world literature has developed since becoming a trend in America as a branch of comparative literature discipline in the context of English translation. Which then gave rise to the reflection of experts in the discovery of world literature and English lessons, the question of “what is world literature?”.
As was done by David Damrosch who tried to parse the topic from various writers, such as the German poet John Van Goethe who gave rise to the concept of Weltliteratur, then a similar concept also emerged from Rabindranath Tagore’s “Vishwasahitya” in which Tagore departed from the point of view of comparative literature that focuses on literary relations and human relations under the world.
Tagore chose to translate “comparative literature” as vishwasahitya (bishshoshahitto) rather than tulanatmaksahityain. Where the term vishwasahitya comes from two syllables in Sanskrit, which can be translated and cannot be translated because the term vishwasahitya is an epistemological sense.
However, if we continue to parse the words the closest possibility is, Sahitya is taken from the word sahit (together), that Sahitya is an idea of unity. Not just unity in a narrow sense, but unity of ideas and ideas, unity of language through books. As we know that literature can build an intimate bond between one person and another between the past and the present. His vishwasahitya is a form of research and explaination of his analysis of comparative literature and world literature that had previously appeared in the literary treasures.
Vishwa Sahitnya, as the term is used is Shanskrit which means “World Literature”. This term appeared for the first time when Rabindranath Tagore gave a guest lecture in Kolkata, precisely at the invitation of a Member of the National Education Council in a comparative literature lecture in February, 1907. Considering that this institution was founded as part of the Indian nationalist movement, the concept that Tagore brought was the goal in order to against colonial education that was taking place at that time then gave rise to several scribes and translators. As a poet and director of Bengali studies within the institute, Rabindranath Tagore delivered a lecture on the existence of comparative literature which at that time was not a study that originated in the West but was also unheard of in India.
In this paper, we will explore what Vishwasahitya is which is translated as ‘Comparison of Literature’ or ‘World Literature’ from Rabindranath Tagore’s views. According to David Damrosch, World literature in Tagore’s view is to move beyond the boundaries of space and time or we can call it beyond national boundaries in moving the spirit of universal culture through the power of literature or imagination. In his book also mentioned, Tagore wrote that “Nations should serve one another as guides. So, every country will do good to welcome foreign thoughts; for in such things hospitality makes the host rich.” (Damrosch, David, 2014). This shows that Tagore interprets world literature or literary comparative studies as a humanist project that originates from an aesthetic when it has reached the limits of human rationality and ethics in creating a bond of change.
We can underline in the description above, Tagore focuses on ‘Aesthetic Bonds’ in his Vishwasahitya. This aesthetic bond is the most important point which refers to David Damrosch’s point of view in reading Tagore’s Vishwasahitya, where when a human individual opens himself to the outside, it will create the possibility to cross the boundaries of space, time, nation, and culture.
That is, world literature in Tagore’s view symbolizes the aesthetic bond that allows change and exchange between oneself and others. It is called ‘aesthetic’ because all individuals basically make changes in themselves as individualities who travel between themselves and the world, between their homes and the world, physically and mentally, or nation and world. In this case, Damrosch mentions that according to Tagore every individual human being has an innate tendency to form a bond between himself and the universe or the world. “Whatever faculties we have within us exist for the sole purpose of forming bonds with others.” And such bonds give meaning to one’s existence and the things that exist. The bonds are three in kind: “The bonds of reason (buddhi), of necessity (prayojan), and of joy (ananda). (Acharya, Puspa Raj. 2022)
Of the three bonds, David Damrosch unraveled the three in World Literature in Theory. According to Damrosch, first the bond of reason is likened to a kind of contest between the hunter and his prey. Reasons builds a dock and builds the truth like a defendant who forces to reveal the secrets and truths one by one. Individuals feel the power within themselves along with real understanding. Second, the individual’s bond with necessity such as work which leads to collaboration between individual strengths and truth.
Third, the individual’s bond with joy. In this regard, Tagore also re-questioned “What is this bond of joy?” and raises the understanding that the bond of individual truth with joy is when individuals position others as ourselves, and conversely position others as ourselves. In this bond, it gives rise to the essence of unity where in the bond, beauty or joy erases distance.
Damrosch reiterates in his writings, that a person does not ask why he loves himself but he feels happiness in loving himself, similarly “When we feel the same feelings with other people, there is no need to ask why ‘I’ likes someone else”. Tagore also uses the Viswa Sahitya to disentangle the relationship between the self and its bonds with others: atman, “Soul” and its derivative atmiya, “compassion”. The other outer becomes atmiya to self because “Makes my atman (soul) true even beyond myself.” (Acharya, Puspa Raj. 2022). This explains that every individual is aware of a desire where the self realizes its own truth more understandably.
Rabindranath Tagore‘s concept of the “Aesthetic Bond” in his Vishwasahitya explores the relationship between totality and singularity in human life. This bond allows individuals to see themselves in others and others in themselves. Tagore’s “as if” in literature refers to the self’s ability to realize others, resulting in aesthetic imagination. Self-expression in literature and labor are concurrent yet complementary paths, with work serving as a means to express goals, and literature as a pure expression of self and others.
