There is always a dichotomy between public and private faces of celebrated figures.
There is always a dichotomy between public and private faces of celebrated figures. Those who stand as vanguards for modernism and women emancipation may often crouch at the receiving end of societal pressures and even stoop to conventional canons for honouring the patriarchal platitudes. Well, women of Tagore household would certainly seem to second this statement as most had to endure some kind of ordeal under egoistic male chauvinism. They were real characters of day-to-day lives and not from the pages of Tagorean classics who occasionally represented the enlightened Brahmo Samaj, voiced their power of opinion and even opposed to toe in the line, as per the inane traditional mores. Pivoting around this subject, reputed author-academic and translator Aruna Chakravarti conversed about “The Real Tagore Heroines” at a recently held literary meet in Kolkata. Incidentally, Chakravarti’s latest creative work is Jorasanko (published in 2013), a bio-fiction on the significant women of Thakurbari. The session was both promisingly engaging and thought-provoking as the inside stories of a progressive aristocratic edifice emerged out in the open. The palatial building of North Kolkata vicinity is steeped in with great historical events, interesting anecdotes and rich cultural practice. “Jorasanko Thakurbari is a colossal witness to the transitional phase from tradition to modernity. It was a bubbling cauldron of theatre, music, arts, dance and literature. It still bears an integral testimony to the times of Bengal Renaissance in which it had played an active participation. A brigade of both exceptional men and women performed a prolific role in the resounding movement. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather Prince Dwarakanath, his wife Digambari Devi, his father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore and mother Sarada Devi, Rabindranath himself, his wife Mrinalini Devi, nieces, children, and grandchildren — all were catalytic to this hegemonising upheaval of reformation and revolution,” informs the book’s writer whose compilation concentrated on an era spanning 80 odd years. “But there were lot more untold stories left to be communicated to not only the staunch Tagorites but also to common masses at large,” she further volunteers. But what drew her to this theme “Back in our time, there was this quintessential Bengali urgency injected into every other child of a family to read about Tagorean class and culture and mine wasn’t any different situation even if I was born and brought up in Delhi. The Tagorean pedigree begetted a posse of great stalwarts, visionaries, multi-talented reformers, writers, poets, musicians, imbued with a strong sense of Bengaliness. And it’s just remarkable to learn about these erudite thinkers and philosophers who were much ahead of their times,” she reminisces. While the author on one hand cannot provide the exact quantum of both fact and fiction, she however admits that she has taken some literary liberties to pepper realism with snippets of fantasy. Before embarking upon a magnum opus, any author must do an extensive researchwork, accumulates study material, scans out substantial resources to put everything in black and white. Listing her bibliography to which she resorted for occasional help, Chakravarti suggests that she gathered enough valuable information from several books available on the Jorasanko branch of Tagore family started by the affluent, British Raj-adherent Prince Dwarkanath. While for stray references and instances here and there, she took recourse to her secondary sources — Prasanta Kumar Pal and Prabhat Mukhopadhyay’s writings. “There was also a book by Chitra Deb titled Thakurbarir Andarmahal besides another prose called Rabindranather Attiya Sajan which comprises dates from the Roman calendar. But mostly I preferred turning to the original material like small monographs and articles prominently written by the women of Tagore’s household themselves. But sadly enough, there were immense gaps as only men were mostly talked about and not women per se. Here, I therefore specifically wanted to dramatise my treatise so that it reads engrossly like a little novel,” she ascertains. It could be argued that the bowers of the fairer sex had equally exercised their impactful presence through Tagorean corridors notwithstanding the women breathing under the brows of their more “famed and distinguished” husbands or the male counterparts. The female members from across different generations of the Jorasanko pantheon were no less liberated in their attitude and mindset. Be it Jogmaya Devi (spouse of Girindranth, second son of Prince Dwarkanath), her mother-in-law Digambari Devi, Gyanadanandini Devi (wife of Satyendranath Tagore, Rabindranath’s elder brother), Mrinalini Devi (the Nobel Laureate poet’s better-half), Kadambari Devi (Tagore’s sister-in-law and wife of elder brother Jyotirindranath) or their ancestors and successors — each woman had left behind her imprints over the next century to allude to. “In fact, I thought that a chapter on the women of Tagorean bastion would make for a wonderful revelation. There was this hush-hush affair brewing up between Tagore and his sister-in-law Kadambari Debi. His near relations and contemporaries have often allegedly described this phase in Tagore’s life as a dark streak. Incidentally, the imposing age-difference of 10-12 years between the married couples invariably prompted the women to bond with the younger brothers-in-law of their same age bracket instead. For instance, the intimate friendship between Balendranath and Mrinalini Devi, Gyanadanandini and Jyotirindranath and the alleged proximity developed between Kandamabri Devi-Rabindranath Tagore,” says Chakravarti. Weaving a fascinating tapestry of women’s issues, her account chronicles the intriguing past of the Tagorean mansion. It is no secret that the very much-upwardly mobile Tagore who did at one point of time internally confront a clash between his orthodox Hindutva dogmas and the more autonomous Brahminical ideologies, had married off his daughters at an early age of 10 or 11 years. “He even accepted to pay dowry for his elder daughter’s wedding. Whereas Gyanadanandini on the other end was definitely far ahead of her conservative era. Her daughter had tied the knot at a mature age of 26 by those days’ standards with a man of her own choice, whom she loved and liked,” she marks out the major difference. As a matter of fact, Gyanadanandini as a lady was highly fashion conscious, had an aesthetic bent of mind and also gave an ad in the paper to spread the word around that she can actually teach and demonstrate how to drape a sari in the right manner. She was always willing to care, share and was indeed a very friendly person by nature. A mother of three, she travelled alone to England, made acquaintances there, waited for her husband to arrive and even managed to set up her own house. Adding her individual observations to the saga, the Sahitya Akademi Awardee and a retired professor from the Delhi University said that “the inner murky world of Kadambari is purely fictional in the book. There is no mention of this part of her character anywhere. That she would be dogged with a barrage of hallucinations, nightmares, premonitions, bizarre dreams and even suffered from malaria have no documentary evidence anywhere. It is strictly a figment of mine own imagination.” Though Kadambari Devi did commit suicide in reality later on but whether there was this strange death wish of hers is not yet known. “She was conventionally beautiful but a childless woman who always felt demeaned because of an unwealthy father. She had a tremendous lack of self-worth and confidence. But one very admirable quality of hers was that she was at the peak of her poetic sensibility. She even spurred Tagore on to discover his own poetic potential. She was a discerning critic, who even pushed the bard to reach great heights with his creative genius. She understood his verses from an analytical point of view,” she corroborates.
