Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Bichitra and Rabindranath (contd-5)

No news of Bichitra was available, after Rabindranath had gone to foreign in 1916. Because he was the centre of gravity under whose attraction people assembled here. On 31st Aug, 1916, Rabindranath wrote a letter to Pratima Devi;
" I was shocked at the news of closure of the functions of "Bichitra" These programmes are  not meant for satisfying our fashion, These are our dedication to our country. One has to dedicate himself completely." He did not forget Bichitra, even when he had gone to abroad. He had spent enough money for copying a Japanese picture -- to demonstrate before the Bengali artist a different kinds of painting so that they could find new avenues of paintings. He had sent a Japanese artist Kampo Arai
to Bichitra so that the students could learn the technique of their drawing .
Kampo Arai [ 1878-1945] having been  joined in Bichitra, it had got accelerated.He started  from Tokyo  with his friend and artist Nampu Katayama on 13 Nov 1916 and reached  Calcutta on 17th Dec. Andrews and Rathindranath came on the next day to receive them from the port so as to fetch them to Jorasanko. Gaganendranath, Abanindranath, Satyendranath, Pratima Devi, and others greeted them at Jorasanko. The diary maintained by Kampo during his journey was  printed, after translating it into Bengali, by Prof. Dr. Kajuo Ajuma titled "Bharat Bhraman Dinapanji"[1993]. The material incorporated in this book gives valuable information about the history of Bichitra.
after his arrival, he went to Shantiniketan with Rathindranath. He began teaching the students in the new (Japanese) method on and from 29th Dec, 1916. Pratima devi, Nandalal Basu, Surendranath Kar were his first batch of students. This number was gradually increasing.