President lauds 'Bichitra', says title very appropriate

'Bichitra', an online collection of Rabindranath Tagore's works, would inculcate the essence of humanity and eternal values of civilisation as propagated by Tagore in his creations,President Pranab Mukherjee said today.
"Scholars, researchers and students in general will also be immensely benefited through this excellent technical innovation, which will be accessible to all world wide," the President said while launching the website at the Jadavpur University here.
The website, in English and Bengali, was developed to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the poet.
The President described the title 'Bichitra' as most appropriate as Tagore's creations involve an all-encompassing variety.
The head of the Bichitra project, Prof Sukanta Chowdhury, said Tagore was a voluminous writer and his vast corpus of writing would feature in the website using techniques available in the electronic medium.

Pointing out that various software programmes had been specially developed for Bichitra, Chowdhury said it would provide all variant texts and all specialised tools needed by Tagore scholars.

"No less importantly, it will bring Tagore's works in all versions in their original format with full supporting apparatus to the general reading public," he said.
'Bichitra' provides a complete online resource of Tagore's works in both English and Bengali with its chief components including digital images of all available manuscripts and all important printed versions totalling 47,520 pages of manuscripts and 91,637 pages of printed books and journals, Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Prof Souvik Bhattacharyya said.

There is no comparable integrated "knowledge site"s for any other author in English or any other language, he noted.
Union Special Secretary of Culture Ravindra Singh said the project was sponsored by the Centre on the occasion of the Bard's 150th birth anniversary to promote research on his work world wide.
West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee and Education Minister Bratya Basu were also present.