Rabindranath Tagore and his sojourn in Sri Lanka ...
 

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Ravindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore with a Bengali Artist

The Kandian dance Tagore admires

Tagore’s birth centenary celebrations

Historic occasion of Tagore’s visit to Sri Palee where Here Tagore laid foundation for Grantha Bhawana (Library) and Silpayathanaya on May 8, 1934.

Shantiniketan (Abode of Peace) in Surul

A building that Tagore laid foundation in Sri Palee

“Harvest Time” in Surul.

Rabindranath Tagore (Born May 7, 1861 and died August 7, 1941 in Kolkata) was also known as Sobriquet Gurudev, a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj (syncretic Hindu Monotheist), philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, novelist whose works redefined Bengali Literature in the late 19th and 20th centuries. A cultural icon of Bengali, he became Asia's first Nobel Laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature for his magnum opus Gitanjali (Song Offerings).

A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta (Kolkata), India, Tagore first wrote poems at age eight. He published his first completed poetry under the pseudonym of Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") in 1877. He wrote his first short stories and dramas at age sixteen. Largely educated at home, Tagore's life in Shilaidaha, and travels made him a nonconformist and pragmatist. However, increasing disillusionment with the British Raj compelled Tagore to support the Indian Independence Movement and befriended Mahatma Gandhi.

He mourned at the declining economic state of Bengal. However, his life-long arts and his life's work remains immortal with his cherished Visva-Bharati University or Shantiniketan. Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was born the youngest of fourteen children in the Jorasanko mansion of parents Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. Following his upanayan (the sacred thread ceremony, a coming-of-age) rite at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta on 14 February 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father's Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie.

It was here that Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Klidsa.

Intended to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, England in 1878 and subsequently at University College London. However, he returned to Bengal in 1880 without a degree. On 9 December 1883 he married Mrinalini Devi; they had five children, four of whom later died before reaching full adulthood.

Tagore also compiled fifteen volumes of writings, including the prose-poems works Punashcha (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and Patraput (1936). He continued his experimentations by developing prose-songs and dance-dramas, including Chitrangada (1914), Shyama (1939), and Chandalika (1938), and wrote the novels Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), and Char Adhyay (1934). Tagore took an interest in science in his last years, writing Visva-Parichay (a collection of essays) in 1937. He explored biology, physics, and astronomy; meanwhile, his poetry - containing extensive naturalism - underscored his respect for scientific laws. He also wove the process of science (including narratives of scientists) into many stories contained in such volumes as Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa (1941) Tagore's last four years (1937-1941) were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. The prolonged illnesses began when Tagore lost consciousness in late 1937.

The poetry Tagore wrote in these years is among his finest, and is characteristic for its preoccupation with death; these more profound and mystical experimentations permitted Tagore to be branded a "modern poet".

Subsequent to extended suffering, Tagore died on 7 August 1941 in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised. His death anniversary is still mourned in public functions held across the Bangla-speaking world. He travelled more than 30 countries around the globe including Sri Lanka.

In 1921, Tagore, together with an agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction (which Tagore later renamed Shantiniketan - "Abode of Peace") in Surul, a village near the ashram at Santiniketan.

He recruited scholars, donors, and officials from many countries to help the Institute use schooling to "free village from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitalizing knowledge". In the early 1930s, he also grew more concerned about India's "abnormal caste consciousness" and untouchability, lecturing on its evils, writing poems and dramas with Untouchable protagonists, and appealing to authorities at Kerala's Guruvayoor Temple to admit Dalits.

Tagore's visit to Sri Lanka in 1934 was significant not only for the fact that he and his ensemble performed live in Colombo (one of his Sapmochans) but also for his visit to Sri Palee in Horana where he laid the foundation for Grantha Bhawana (the library) and Silpayathanaya. It is also noteworthy that the Nobel Laureate appreciated the Kandian dance stating that it was a form of dance unique to Sri Lanka.

His numerous poetry include Manasi (1890-The Ideal One), Sonar Tari (1894-The Golden Boat), Gitanjali (1910-Song Offerings), Gitimalya (1914-Wreath of Songs), and Balaka (1916-The Flight of Cranes).

The English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), are not exact copies of their corresponding Bengali originals. In fact, his most acclaimed work Gitanjali; Song Offerings (1912) contains poems from other works.

Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. In addition, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.

[email protected]