About

To those of us who grew up with Tagore's songs in the 21st century, and whose love for Rabindrasangeet has not waned despite the moth-eaten states of their Gitabitan and Swarabitan at home — this website is for all those enthusiasts.

Although multiple digital archives of Gitabitan exist on the interwebs, one of the main differentiators for gitabitan.io lies in it’s modern, user-friendly and super-fast interface. Start typing any song's Bengali or English lyrics in the search box (activated by using keyboard shortcut ⌘K) to get a list of songs starting with those letters. From there, you can access a wealth of information about your favourite song (such as composition place, date, raag, taal, tradition, translation, illustrations, paintings, and music-related quotes from Tagore and his admirers).

Another innovative feature of gitabitan.io is the library of 1800+ digital Swaralipis. Each song is also accompanied by a Swaralipi player. Click the play button to hear an accurate rendition of the Swaralipi accompanied with Tabla. The site also provides the option to view & download the Staff notation for the song, for those of us who are adept at reading between the staves.

And for those of us who wish to practice or record Rabindrasangeet, sing along versions of Swaralips also exist for playback and download.

The goal of gitabitan.io then, is to create a modern, technically backed, user-friendly & lasting digital archive of Tagore's musical genius. In this endeavour, one of the key goals is to also house an archive of accurate renditions of every Rabindrasangeet. Currently, on the Recordings tab of a song’s page, listening to renditions is possible from a few key singers like Upal Das, Namita Das, Prafulla Kumar Das, Sailaja Ranjan Majumdar and Surangama Music School, but if any of you reading this wants to contribute to this goal, we have a submission form here to send us your Rabindrasangeet renditions.

Gurudev’s relevance has not waned in the modern world, in spite of the advent of the AI era. And this project started as a tribute to him and the tradition of Rabindrasangeet that my family has carried. It all started with a marriage. My grandmother (Namita) marrying into the Das family. She brought with her a rich legacy of Classical music and Rabindrasangeet. She held a B.Mus. degree from the Bengal Music College.

My grandmother’s maternal uncle – Prafulla Kumar Das, was one of the most prominent Rabindrasangeet teachers, practitioners and researchers of his time. Having studied under the tutelage of Sailaja Ranjan Majumdar, he curated the Swaralipis for many of the songs in Gitabitan. He also served as the long-time principal of the Rabindrasangeet teaching and research institution Surangama.

Surangama - a school for Tagore music and culture was founded on August 16, 1957 by the Late Rabindra Sangeetacharya Sailaja Ranjan Majumder, one of the most distinguished disciples of the Nobel Laureate poet, Rabindranath Tagore with endorsing efforts from such luminaries as Pravas Niyogi, Nilima Sen, Debojyoti Dutta Majumdar and Prosad Sen. The inauguration ceremony for Surangama took place at the Netaji Bhavan in Calcutta with initiative from the Sarat Bose Academy.

The culmination of this rich legacy of classical music and Rabindrasangeet in my family was eventually passed onto my parents, father Late Upal Das and mother Late Gopa Das. Both of them trained in music at Surangama, acquiring a diploma. While my mother did not pursue music further, my father went on to become a very accomplished Rabindrasangeet teacher and practitioner. He taught and performed with Surangama for many years, and was a recognisable figure in the Rabindrasangeet scene in Kolkata. He directed many dance-dramas and music-dramas at Surangama, and both his group & solo performances are documented in gitabitan.io.

Through tutoring from my grandmother and my father – my love for Rabindrasangeet started. And since those childhood days, Tagore’s music has been an essential part of my life. Often being the much needed refuge during life’s stressful times. My hope is that with gitabitan.io I will be able to spread the same joy and discovery of Rabindrasangeet that I’ve gained through my family.