Madhurilata, first daughter of Rabindranath, was born on 25 October 1886 and was married on 15 June 1901, i.e., when she was 15 years and his second daughter Renuka was born on 23 January 1891 and was married on 17 July 1901 (within one month of the marriage of his elder daughter) when she was 10 years old. Other than becoming a world famous poet Rabindranath had two great qualities. He was, amongst his all brothers, a true heir of his father relating to worldly affairs, and he was an efficient negotiator in domestic affairs. He arranged the marraige of his elder daughter with a son of the poet Biharilal Chakraborty after long negotiation via Priya Nath Sen, the neighbour of Biharilal Chakraborty, the details of which had been unearthed by Prasanta Prasanta Kumar Paul in his book "Rabijibani". After long negotiation the marriage of Madhurilata was settled with a dowry of Rs. 10,000.00 only. 
The initial demand from the groom's side was for a dowry of Rs.20,000. Rabindranath returned to for final round of talks but on hearing their demand and managed to halve the amount.
(From left) Mira, Rathindra, Rabindranath, Daughter-in-law (Pratima), and Madhurilata.Within one month of the marriage of the eldest daughter, Madhurilata, the second daughter Renuka or Rani was married to Satyendranath Bhattacharya, an LMS passed Doctor. After his marriage Satyendranath was sent to America for studying Homeopathy.
At the time of her marriage, Bela (Madhurilata) was 15 years old and Renuka was 10 years. Since Renuka was so young, there was no ceremony for 'bed of flowers' (phulsajya, in such cases the custom was to have second marriage after the girl had attained womanhood.)It could be mentioned here that Rabindranath himself was against the child marriage. But he was unable to implement it in his family life. He said himself that 'the poet was not as he appeared in his writings'.
Child marriage was the rule in Tagore's family. Only exceptions were Indira Devi and Sarala Devi, because their fathers lived outside the perview of Jorasanko. The other members of Tagore family were dependent on Maharshi Devendranath.
After marriage, Bela went to Muzaffarpur to live with her husband, Saratchandra and Renuka remained with her parents till she attained womanhood and she had a second marriage after that.
Family of Rabindranath
