Tagore and Sri Lanka
Professor K N O Dharmadasa
*Highlights of an abiding relationship
*Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth
anniversary falls on May 7
Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore is how he is referred to by the Sinhala
people. Some of those who are conversant with Bengal and the Bengali
language refer to him by the authentic name Thakura, but as he was
introduced to Sri Lanka society during the colonial period by the
Anglicized form Tagore, that name has remained and he is generally
referred to as Tagore. Tagore is fondly remembered by a wide spectrum of
Sri Lankan society, by artistes, poets, dramatists, literary critics as
well as by common people and if we are to mention one foreign figure who
has had the widest influence over the cultural life of Sri Lanka the
name that will come up readily will be that of Rabindranath Tagore.
This is in spite of the fact that he has visited this country only
three times and that too has been long ago. But even today his works are
being enjoyed and writers are keen to translate his writings to the
national languages. The inspiration he has provided for nationalist
thinking and for artistic creativity remains highly visible historical
facts.
Tagore’s most well known visits to Sri Lanka were in 1922, 1930 and
in 1934. But there is a record of a visit to the island in the early
1890’s, when he was a student at the University of London. It is said
that Tagore from his young days was deeply impressed by the humanistic
philosophy of Buddhism and while it had almost disappeared from the land
of its birth he was aware of its thriving life in Sri Lanka and was in
touch with scholars from the island.
In fact Rabindranath’s father Maharishi Devendranath Tagore had
visited Sri Lanka in the 1860’s and he was accompanied by his son
Satyendranath along with Keshab Chandra Sen, social reformer and orator
and this visit is said to have created a profound sense of respect for
Buddhism in young Satyendranath. Such information leads us to believe
that the Tagore family has had an abiding interest in the island of Sri
Lanka and that it would have paved the way for the later more
substantial contacts between Randranath Tagore and the Sri Lankans as we
shall describe in the present study.
In the 1890’s Anagarika Dharmapala, the great Buddhist reformer and
activist had arrived in Calcutta and launched a movement to revive
Buddhism in the land of its origin where it had disappeared after a
period of about 2000 years. Dharmapala, who had won the hearts of the
Indian people by helping in the relief work during the famine of the
closing years of the century, was able to found the Mahabodhi Society
with its headquarters in Calcutta.
The first and foremost task Dharmapala had in mind was restoring to
Buddhist hands Buddha Gaya, the site in which the Buddha had attained
enlightenment, which had by then being owned by a non-Buddhist priestly
landlord. He was helped by several Bengalis such as Norendranath Sen and
we hear that Rabindranath Tagore too was aware of the work Dharmaopala
was engaged in for the cause o Buddhism in India.We find in
Daharmapala’s writings of the early years of the 20th century many
complimentary references to the Bengalis.
When Rabindranath Tagore founded that great seat of learning and
center of art, Santiniketan, in Bholpur near Calcutta, the interest in
Buddhism created in his young days prompted him to include the Pali
language and Buddhism as subjects of study. Pandit Vidhu Shekhara Sastri
compiled a Pali Reader to help Bengali students to learn the language
and he is said to have helped Rabindranath’s son to translate into
Bengali the Life of the Buddha (Buddhacaritha) compiled in Sanskrit by
Asvaghosa.
The University of Calcutta by this time had become a famous seat of
learning and great scholars such as Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee inaugurated
post-graduate studies at Calcutta attracting students from many parts of
Asia including Sri Lanka. D B Jayatilaka, a great Sinhala scholar who
eventually was to become one of the leading figures in the national
politics of the island was one of the early students in Calcutta. It is
said that Sir Ashutosh gave strong support to Anagarika Dharmapala in
founding the Maha Bodhi Vihara at the College Square in 1919 and at its
inauguration ceremony Rabindranath Tagore too sent a felicitation
message.
During the early 1920’s Tagore, prompted by his profound respect for
Buddhism, got down to Santiniketan one Maha Stavira, an erudite Buddhist
monk to teach Ahidharma, Buddhist metaphysics. By this time the Bengal
Buddhist Association had been formed in Calcutta and a lively cultural
and spiritual collaboration between India and Sri Lanka had been
sponsored by Daharmapala, Sir Ashutosh and Tagore. It is on record that
when Tagore founded the International University of Vishvabharati in
1921, he had made adequate provision for the study of both Theravada
Buddhism, as found in Pali texts, as well as of Mahayana Buddhism as
found in the texts written in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and Central
Asian languages.
|
Tsinghua
University, 1924 |
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With Albert
Einstein |
During this time Tagore as well as Dharmapala had invited Buddhist
monks to come and study in Calcutta. Some such were Ven Rambukwelle
Siddhartha, who later became a lecturer in the Ceylon University College
(which was the first university institution in the island and was an
affiliate of the University of London), Ven. Udakendawela Saranamkara,
who got attracted by the Marxist movement in Bengal and eventually
became a prominent member of the Cylon Communist Party, and Ven
Bamabarande Sivali, who studied at Kasi Vidyapeeth in Benares and
returned to Sri Lanka to be a teacher at Vidyalamkara Pirivena, one of
the leading institutions of Buddhist learning in the island.
Rabindranath Tagore’s fascination with Sri Lanka seems to have been
prompted by two factors. One was the generally held belief, in Sri Lanka
as well as India, that the Sinhala people, who form the preponderant
majority of Sri Lankans, were descended from immigrants from Bengal.
This idea is expressed by Dharmapala in many of his writings and Dr.
C.W.W.Kannanagara, the Minister of Education in the 1940’s, states in
one of his writings that “the Sinhalese race is proud to trace its
connection to the ancient people that dwelt in the plains of Bengal.”
Furthermore it was his belief that Tagore himself “treated Lanka as a
daughter of Bengal.” The other factor prompting Tagore to be attracted
to Sri Lanka was, as stated above, the fact that it was home to
Theravada Buddhism. He had the deepest respect for the Buddha and year
after year he contributed verses for the festivals commemorating
Vaishakha Purnima, marking the birth, attainment of Buddhahood and
demise of the Buddha. He was fascinated by Buddhist literature and wrote
several plays obtaining the themes from Buddhist stories.
The founding of Santiniketan, Sri Niketan and Vishvabharati were
practical steps to rejuvenate the national spirit in all aspects - the
arts, the crafts, the economic productivity and cultural refinement. The
national heritage in all these spheres had been almost forgotten due to
historical vicissitudes, the most obvious being foreign domination. It
was painful for Tagore to see those “who by some unfortunate external
circumstance have forgotten their own past and who are ready to disown
their richest inheritance.”
The visits of Tagore to Sri Lanka had an electrifying effect on many
young people of the island who readily came forward to follow his
footsteps. We note several among them changing the European names their
families had given them and adopting names derived from the Indic
tradition which was the common heritage of the South Asian region. Some
among them proceeded to Santiniketan, to study in particular music and
dancing. The details will be given later in the present study.
Tagore’s visit of 1922 was on the invitation of the scholar,
politician and philanthropist, Dr W Arthur de Silva, who was an alumnus
of Calcutta University. By this time Tagore was famous in the region as
an anti-imperialist. He had returned the knighthood conferred on him by
the British soverign in 1915, to mark his protest against the partition
of his beloved Bengal and the Jalliyanwala Bagh massacre (1919) had
disturbed him greatly. This was the period in which the political elite
in Sri Lanka were forming the Ceylon National Congress, following the
example of the Indian National Congress and although there was some
dissensions among them they were all united on the occasion of welcoming
the great Indian savant.
Tagore addressed three gatherings in Colombo, one at the Teachers’
Training College on the topic “The Example of Vishvabharati.” Two
lectures were delivered to gatherings in the YMCA Hall, one was on the
subject of “Forest Universities of India.” and the other was on “The
growth of my life’s work”. Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, who had been
elected the first president of the Ceylon National Congress (1917)
presided at these meetings. Next Tagore visited Galle, the main town in
the southern province, where he addressed a gathering at Olcott Hall. In
the course of his speech he stated,
“Although the political constitution of modern Ceylon separates this
country from India, it is no secret that its history, religion,
language, morals, culture and everything else are closely linked to
India. Briefly stated, the fact that Ceylon became great because of
India is no exaggeration. Although the spiritual bond between two
countries that was there in the past has collapsed, time has come to put
that together again and strengthen it.”
The sentiments expressed by Tagore provide a cue to his abiding
interest in Sri Lanka. His next visit was in 1928. It was a longer visit
and it lasted ten days. One of the highlights of this visit was the
opportunity he availed himself of taking part in the Vesak festival held
at the historic city of Anuradhapura which in ancient times was a great
center of Buddhism. We learn that although physically indisposed, he
took part in the celebrations ignoring the advice of the physicians,
because of the deep respect he held for the Buddha and his teachings.
The third and last visit of the Gurudev to the island was in mid
1934. It also happened to be the longest and most memorable of his
visits. The invitation this time was extended by an admirer, Wlimot A
Perera, who was a business magnate and a philanthropist. Having visited
Santiniketan two years earlier he was so much impressed by working of
the institution and what it stood for, that he resolved to found an
institution on similar lines in the island. Having made the necessary
arrangements he wanted the Gurudev to come and lay the foundation stone
for the buildings. The site selected was Horana with a salubrious
climate. Tagore arrived by ship and was welcomed by Sir D B Jayatilaka,
the seniormost among the Sri Lankan political leaders. On May 20, 1934
Tagore laid the foundation for the new institution and proposed that it
should be named “Sri Palee.”
Another memorable event that occurred during this visit was the
staging of Tagore’s dance-drama Saapmochan. Tagore was accompanied by a
troupe of 40 artistes and they held five performances in Colombo, i.e.
on May 12, 14, 16, 28 and 29. These performances seem to have had a
tremendous impact on the world of Sri Lankan art. Several leading
figures coming from different backgrounds in contemporary Sri Lanka have
referred to these performances.
For example, Martin Wickramasinghe, one of the greatest figures of
modern Sinhala literature, Ediriweera Sarachchcandra, university
academic and another outstanding figure in the Sinhala world of arts, P
B Alwis Perera, leading poet, and S W R D Bandaranaike, politician who
was eventually to be Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister. Interestingly, several
plays came to be modeled on Saapmochan and they were staged in Colombo
as well as in provincial towns.
We do not have much information on those early attempts at producing
dance-dramas. But eventually some Sri Lankans who had gone to
Santiniketan for studies came to produce the first Sinhala ballets,
which came to be identified as Mudranataka, and they were undoubtedly
inspired by Tagore and his works. Chitrasena and Premakumara Epitawala
are the pioneers of Sinhala ballet.
Both of them were in Santiniketan in the early 1940’s. Chitrasena’s
early ballets were Vidura (1944) and Ravana (1949) and Nala Damayanti
(1950). Premakumara produced Selalihini Sandesaya (1948) and Titta Bata
( 1953). The other major figure of Sinhala ballet is Vasantha Kumara,
who also had studied at Santiniketan. His major works were Kumburu
Panatha and Hiroshima produced during the late 1950’s. These three
artistes were teachers to many young dancers during the 1960’s and the
‘70’s. Chitrasena founded a school of dancing in Colombo and it is
active even today.
Sri Lankan students of music were also attracted to Santiniketan in
the 1930’ and the ‘40’s. Thus we can mention Edwin Samaradiwakara, Surya
Shankar Molligoda, Ananda Samarakoon, Sunil Shanta Lionel Edirisinghe
and W.B.Makuloluwa. who after their return to the island became major
figures in the Sinhala art world. Samaradiwakara was appointed the
leader of the Radio Ceylon orchestra, Molligoda taught at Sri Palee,
Samarakoon was the creator of Sri Lanka’s national anthem, Sunil Shanta
along with Samarakoon were creators of a national idiom of music and
Edirisinghe became the head of the music section of the Government
College of Fine Arts and Makuloluwa became the chief inspector of Music
in the Department of Education.
Several Sri Lankan painters were also trained at Santiniketan.
Ananada Samarakoon in addition to being a musician was also an
accomplished painter. Of the other painters who studied at Santiniketan
the most famous was Somabandhu who was also the costume designer for the
ballets of Chitrasena and Premakumara. His paintings adorn the famous
modern temple at Bellanwila in the outskirts of Colombo.
Tagore’s poetry too has influenced our poets. His Gitanjali has been
translated into Sinhala at least twice. One translation was by Kusum
Disanayake and the other is by Vinnie Vitharana in 2004.
Myriad-minded and multifaceted
H Kamal Premadasa
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Tagore In
England, 1879 |
Creator, they say, is averse to bestow the entirety of excellence on
any single being but he might have made an exception by choosing
Rabindranath Tagore to be a myriad minded multifaceted man.
In the heart of Calcutta, in Dwarakanath Lane, there stands a
manorial residence, structured to suit and in keeping with the orthodoxy
and flamboyant lifestyle of Tagore family. Rabindranath Tagore was born
on May 7, 1861, as the 14th and youngest child of Debendranath Tagore, a
scholar of repute in Sanskrit, Persian Indian and Western Philosophy.
Contrary to the character of his father, Dwarakanath Tagore, a man of
flamboyance, Debendranath was given to scholarship and spirituality.
Rabindranath inherited the worldliness of his grandfather and
spirituality of his father, which he fused into harmonious
un-conflicting duality. His character thus became an amalgam of
secularity and spirituality.
Having been born in the residence Jorasanko, Rabindranath by birth
had claim for affluence and orthodoxy, but he never allowed
consequential vanity to contaminate his being. Jorasanko was in itself a
veritable seat of learning. Therein, men of letters, those replete with
philosophical thoughts, painters of repute and a cross section of the
intelligentsia of the Bengali community constantly met.
They met under the patronage of Maharishi Debendranath Tagore for
dialogue, discussion, debate and matters relevant to their respective
spheres. This generated in Jorasanko an atmosphere of variety, vivacity,
celebration and eccentricity, with a touch of dynamism.
Rabindranath, a young dreamer with intellectual faculty, ventured to
imbibe the essence of dynamism of the atmosphere nursing his seed of
talent and creativity. Tagore belonged to the genus of romantic poets.
He had an abiding love for nature: a love akin to a teen aged youth of
exuberance passionately in love.
The silver flush of light in the dawn, dusk painting the canvass of
the western sky with brushstrokes of gold and a riot of variegated
colors, the fullness of the moon in the sky accompanied by starry maids,
silvery drifting clouds caressing the purplish mountain peaks, crystal
clear waters cascading down precipitous falls akin to silver in liquid
form, rivers, rivulets and brooks flowing down in an amble making
gargling music and forming foamy glory, mass of blossoms in full bloom
in a dream of colors in spring time, butterflies with wings of rainbow
hues in zigzag flight, youthful birds resonant with their chirpy songs
intoxicated with joy, their formation flight silhouetted against the
backdrop of the cerulean sky, autumnal leaves swaying in the scent laden
breeze making rustling lyrics fire-flies in clusters rupturing the
obscurity of the night.
Those and such other enthralling picturesque features of nature would
have prompted his mind a piquancy for creativity with which he engaged
in zealously from the age of eight to eighty. Tagore loved life and did
not seek to renounce or run away from it. He perhaps, had reason for
such love, for his life had been blissfully eventful, fulfilling and
rewarding. He therefore commented:
I do not want to die in this beautiful earth.
I wish to live among humans.
In this sunshine and blooming garden.
And at the center of loving hearts.
Tagore spoke against the wrongs of humanity, yet he said that he
shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in man.
With all his multiple facets Tagore was essentially a poet: a poet of
distinction, of par excellence. His poetic imagination stood as a
sentinel above all his other facets.
In his lifetime Tagore lost his wife in 1902, his daughter in 1903,
his father in 1905, his youngest son Shamindra in 1907. Two years later
he lost his daughter Bela, two brothers and his great grandson Nitindra.
Such calamitous vicissitudes might have driven any man of sensitivity
into a frenzy of emotional stress. But loss and pain, not self pity,
found sublime expressions in his poems. He said that the sorrows made
his lyre sing. Tagore had the proclivity to make his lyre sing not when
his soul was in ecstasy, but when his whole being was in a state of
turmoil.
But the death in 1884, of his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, friend
and inspiration, whose touch he felt in every aspect of his being, was
the most gripping sorrow of his life. “In the mid of suffocating
darkness, however, Tagore felt,”there would suddenly blow over my heart
now and again a breeze of gladness taking me by surprise, for life has
to move on”. Tagore wrote copiously and indefatigably, poems to the
approximation of three thousand. They bore rhythm depth, vivacity and
flowing lucidity.
Many of his poems have achieved immortality for their profundity and
lilting rhythms of beauty reflected in his thoughts and feelings. He has
commented that the joy of writing one poem far exceed the satiation of
writing shelves of prose. On approaching his adulthood as a poet, a
strange phenomenon favoured him by its visitation. Dispelling his
earlier pervading gloom, the poet was elevated to a mood of exaltation
consequent to a sudden spiritual awakening, which lasted for a period of
four days. The publication of Manasi (of mind) in 1890 was described as
Tagore’s first book of genius. It was after the publication of Sonari
Tari (Golden Boat) that Tagore emerged as a poet of maturity, and placed
his golden stamp on Bengali poetry.
The writer is the President of the Tagore Society of Sri Lanka.
Biographical sketch of Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath
Tagore and Sharada Devi. He was educated at home. Although at seventeen
he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his
studies there. From time to time he participated in the Indian
nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary
way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted
friend.
Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but
within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British
policies in India. He also started an experimental school at
Santiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his
translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West.
In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across
continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he
became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India,
especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was
first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are
Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat],
Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs],
andBalaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his
poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and
The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes
in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song
Offerings(1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other
works besides its namesake.
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].
Besides these, 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. |