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

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

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.

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