Thursday, February 24, 2011

(Horisan) First Japanese Student in Santiniketan (Contd-6)

A Japanese Budhist monk named Okakura came to Surendranath when Rabindranath was with him at his Ballygunge home. Horisan, a Japanese student of 25 years, came with him to India to learn Sanskrit. He too was a Budhist priest. After travelling through different places like Bodhgaya and Banaras he came to Belur Math to learn sanskrit. But as he was not keeping well there, Surendranath, on 10 June 1902, sent him to Santiniketan. Rabindranath was happy to receive a foreign student in Santiniketan. He wanted to make Santiniketan a global institution and this was the first step. Rabindranath wrote to Jagadish Chandra on 20 June giving him the good news:
'A Japanese student was admitted in my School at Santiniketan' . He wanted to get the whole world in his nest and this was the beginning and he added, 'The boy is good. He has become close to us. Your friend Mira made him her fan by supplying a cup of flowers everyday and learning a Japanese word every day from him.'
The letter written to Brajendra Kishore by Rabindranath was a bit longer. He wrote, 'A Japanese student got admitted here. His name was Hori but he gave his name as Chidananda. He was very polite and calm. He was so attentive in his lesson that it surprised everybody because he came here from a long distance, leaving all his near and dear ones to live in a so lonely a place. The servants living here are also moved at his polite behavior. His main aim was to study Tripitak, the Budhist religious book,  in sanskrit. He would take much time in learning Sanskrit because he could not pronounce a single sanskrit word. He faltered every time. Once he became ill, but his eagerness to learn did not decrease.'
Rabindranath was also taking care of him. He wrote to Manoranjan Bandyopadhyay 'employ Rathi or someone to look after Hori. Hori might be busy during his Entrance Examination so some senior student should look after his food timely  etc'.
Jagadish chandra became acquianted with Hori after coming from London. He prepared a long programme  on how Hory should complete his study.