The King of the Dark Chamber

The King of the Dark Chamber (Raja, 1910) was first published in 1914. It was translated by Kshtish Chandra Sen and revised by Tagore. The play is an allegory of man's spiritual adventure. It is about a king who is ugly and lives in a dark chamber. Sudarshana, his queen, seeks him in beauty but finds him only in suffering.

One of India's most cherished renaissance figures, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) put India on the literary map of the world when his Gitanjali was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Myriad-minded, he was a poet, short story writer, novelist, dramatist, essayist, painter and composer of songs. His worldwide acclaim as a social, political, religious and aesthetic thinker, innovator in education and a champion of the 'One World' idea makes him a living presence.