Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali has held a special pride of place in the hearts of all Indians. This slim volume of song-offerings catapulted India on to the literary map of the world. The literary world has since seen this book in innumerable editions-it has been translated into almost all Indian languages, into nearly all major languages of the world; there is also an edition in Braille. Photographers have tried to capture its essence in images, composers in music and artists in graphic form. From the first limited edition in 1912 by the India Society, London, when a very excited William Rothenstein informed Rabindranath, “The book is out, and looks very pure and virginal in its covering of white and gold...” this book has travelled a long way in the last nine decades, touching the lives of statesmen, poets and the ordinary man.

When UBS Publishers’ Distributors expressed a desire to bring out a very distinctive edition of Gitanjali incorporating the original Bengali lyrics in facsimile, we at Visva-Bharati welcomed the idea. This is a well-documented edition supported by material from the Rabindra Bhavana archive and one that, we hope, will also give the new generation the necessary perspective in which to place this much-loved book.