Balaka comprises Sanskrit renderings of Tagore’s songs from his anthology of the same name. It re-captures the spirit and beauty of original in lucid Sanskrit. Chakrabarti has adopted the form of easy going anustup meter, and has invested it with the lyric quality of Tagore. In doing so, he has switched over to a rhythmic pattern of anustup, which is somewhat different from its classical structure but close to Tagore’s rhythm. The translation also evinces Tagore’s affinity with Sanskrit and its traditions.

Nagendra Nath Chakrabarti (1912-1978) was born in Pabna (presently in Bangladesh). He joined Shantiniketen at the instance of Pandit Bidhusekhar Sastri, a close companion of Tagore and retired as Reader from Vishvabharati in 1977.

Notable amongst his works are a critical edition of Kubjikamatam, A Study on the Poetic Convention (kavisamaya) in Sanskrit Literature (Vishvaharati’s Journal of Research, 1976-77) and a Bengali work on Kavyamimamsa (Vishvabharati, 1960) comprising a Bengali translation of Rajasekhara’s Kavyamimamsa with detailed introduction to its author.