Tag: #tagore

Chapter 2. Rabindranath Tagore – Off to the Himalayas

Many years later Rabindranath wrote about his childhood regretting that his mind had almost been frozen in the hands of the servants.

Rabindranath had only a couple of pairs of clothes till he was ten, not having worn socks till then. While his elder brothers used to go to school, a tutor used to visit for teaching the younger children at home as was the culture at that time. One day Rabindranath insisted on going to school like his elder brothers, following which he was admitted to Oriental Seminary School when he grew a bit older. In that school, children used to be physically punished due to which Rabindranath was heart-broken. He was then admitted to another school but the same bad experience continued. Why were these schools called temples of learning, his young mind used to question. At such times the Gayatri Mantra used to give a lot of peace to Rabi. He was attached to this mantra till the end of his life.

Rabindranath’s father, was of a saintly nature. One day he asked Rabi, would you like to go with me to the Himalayas? Being fed up of schools, Rabindranath agreed immediately. Father and son started off on this long journey. We can well imagine how difficult it would have been to travel from the plains of Calcutta to the Himalayas, about a hundred and fifty years ago. This journey in a way changed the direction of Rabi’s life.

The first stop of their journey was at a place which is now known the world over as Shantiniketan. From there they went to Amritsar and stayed there for a few days. They used to visit the Golden Temple daily. The life story of Guru Nanak left a deep impression on Rabi’s mind. Their next stop was Dalhousie, nestled at a height of 7000 feet at the foothills of the Himalayas. During this journey his father used to teach him English, Bengali, Sanskrit, Astronomy and theology. The four months spent in the Himalayas deeply influenced the thought process of Rabindranath. He memorised the entire Ramayan in Sanskrit so much so that he could recite it line by line. Poetry, literature and love for nature was in Rabi’s blood. These were further sharpened by the Himalayas. Although his father gave him a lot of independence, he was also a strict disciplinarian in the sense that some duties had to be observed at all costs. Memorising the Ramayan was one such example.

The world of Rabindranath had changed by the time Rabindranath returned from the Himalayas. He was looked upon with respect by all around. The women who used to visit the Tagore household used to listen to Rabindranath’s stories about the Himalayas and also recitation of the Ramayan in Sanskrit. His mother adored him a lot for his brilliance. At the age of twelve, Rabindranath wrote a long poem titled Abhilasha. It got published in Tattwabodhini Patrika, a prominent magazine of those times.

His father now got him admitted to Saint Xavier’s school. But he left going to school in 1875 at the age of thirteen years.

THE BEGINNING

During the later half of the 18th century, a Brahmin by the name of Panchanan Thakur, used to supply goods and items of daily necessities to the British ships which used to dock in the seaports of Bengal. Although he was a Brahmin, but due to his immense wealth and influence, he was called Thakur.

The ancestors of Panchanan Thakur had settled down in Kannauj about a thousand years back. They were Daksh Brahmans but a member of the family had smelled the aroma of mutton being cooked in the house of one Pir Ali. From then onwards, the family started being called as Pirali Brahmans. This was a type of social ostracisation of the Thakur clan. Englishmen could not pronounce Thakur properly, so they used the more pronounceable word “Tagore” instead.

The extremely wealthy Thakur family were quite influential in Calcutta of the 19th century. Rabindranath, the fourteenth son was born in this family to Debenndra Nath Thakur and Sharda on 7th May 1861 in the palatial house of the Tagores’ in Calcutta.

Jorasanko, the anscestral house of the Tagores’ in Kolkata

Debendranath’s father, Dwarkanath had earned a lot of wealth during his lifetime. His lifestyle was no less than a king because of which he was called Prince Dwarkanath. He had thousands of acres of land, sugar mills, tea factories, jute mills, coal mines and hundreds of cargo ships and boats. He cultivated silk, spices and indigo in his estates. All these businesses were conducted under the banner of Carr, Tagore & Co.

Prince Dwarkanath had visited Europe on his own ship. He was the first Indian to have met the Queen of England. He founded many well known institutions in India like the National Library, Kolkata; and the Union Bank of which he was a founder Director.

It was a period of Renaissance in Bengal dominated by many well known social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Dwarka Nath Thakur was a close friend of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Dwarkanath’s son, Devendranath did not have any interest in expanding the vast commercial empire of his father. He was of saintly nature and became the chief patron of the Brahmo Samaj after the death of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Having given birth to fourteen children, Sharda Devi used to maintain indifferent health. Consequently, Rabindranath was brought up mainly in the hands of servants. Rabindranath felt the loss of mother’s affection throughout his life. The servants used to be quiet perturbed due to the daily mischiefs of Rabindranath. In order to control him, one of the servants narrated the story of Sita haran to him and drew a circle with a chalk around Rabindranath. The servant told him that if you come outside this circle, Ravan will take you away.