Friday, 17 June 2016

Shelaidaha 1878 - 1901


                                                Tagore's house in ShelaidahaBangladesh
Because Debendranath wanted his son to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1878.[27] He stayed for several months at a house that the Tagore family owned near Brighton and Hove, in Medina Villas; in 1877 his nephew and niece—Suren and Indira Devi, the children of Tagore's brother Satyendranath—were sent together with their mother, Tagore's sister-in-law, to live with him.[42] He briefly read law at University College London, but again left school. He opted instead for independent study of ShakespeareReligio MediciCoriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra. Lively English, Irish, and Scottish folk tunes impressed Tagore, whose own tradition of Nidhubabu-authored kirtans and tappas and Brahmo hymnody was subdued.[27][43] In 1880 he returned to Bengal degree-less, resolving to reconcile European novelty with Brahmo traditions, taking the best from each.[44] In 1883 he married 10 year old[45] Mrinalini Devi, born Bhabatarini, 1873–1902; they had five children, two of whom died in childhood.[46]
In 1890 Tagore began managing his vast ancestral estates in Shelaidaha (today a region of Bangladesh); he was joined by his wife and children in 1898. Tagore released his Manasi poems (1890), among his best-known work.[47] As Zamindar Babu, Tagore criss-crossed the riverine holdings in command of the Padma, the luxurious family barge. He collected mostly token rents and blessed villagers who in turn honoured him with banquets—occasionally of dried rice and sour milk.[48] He met Gagan Harkara, through whom he became familiar with Baul Lalon Shah, whose folk songs greatly influenced Tagore.[49] Tagore worked to popularise Lalon's songs. The period 1891–1895, Tagore's Sadhana period, named after one of Tagore's magazines, was his most productive;[28] in these years he wrote more than half the stories of the three-volume, 84-story Galpaguchchha.[40] Its ironic and grave tales examined the voluptuous poverty of an idealised rural Bengal.[50]

Tagore and his wife Mrinalini Devi, 1883.


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