Hence the question of studying translation or of discussing it was not considered worthwhile either in India or elsewhere before the publication of Gitanjali (1912). Nobody could even dream of such a separate discipline at that point of time simply because translation was still considered a ‘secondary’ activity traditionally known as the foreign language-learning method. But when he began to discuss his own translations, there was no such discipline either in the East or in the West known as Translation Studies.

It needs also to be mentioned here that Gitanjali (1912) was regarded as ‘a miracle of translation’ and that it fetched Tagore the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 making him overnight the literary ‘superstar’ of the time. But what is not known to the West is that he also began, for the first time, the discussion of the myriad aspects of translation after the publication and worldwide popularity of Gitanjali (1912).

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first Nobel Prize winner from Asia, is known to the West for Gitanjali: Song-Offerings (1912), an anthology of assorted poems translated by the poet himself. Key Words: Translation studies, Academic discipline, study of translation, central issues etc This paper attempts to show how Tagore addresses its main issues and problems well ahead of its appearance in the West. Though not historically connected with the discipline, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) perhaps began, for the first time, the discussion / or study of translation in India way back in 1913 touching upon its central issues and assumptions at a time when the discipline was yet to make its appearance in the West. In Translation Studies (1980) Susan Bassnett, discussed and summed up its basic issues as an emerging discipline. Translation Studies emerged as an academic discipline in the Western world in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

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