Saturday, March 31, 2012

Rabindranath and South India (contd-2)

Rabindranath reached Bangalore via Madras on 11 Jan, 1919 in the evening. Mysore Patriot wrote on 21 Jan;
" greeted him at the Cantonment Station on Saturday evening where a crowd awaited him. Every station between Madras and Bangalore must have presented similar spectacle and he was evidently tired."
12th Jan was fixed for the inauguration of Art Exhibition. On the day before the ceremony Rabindranath met a gathering in a homely get to gathering the house of B.D.Subba Rao at 159 Sultan Pete. Among many Mr. and Mrs Kajins were also present.  Andrews also had come to Bangalore  at the same time. When Andrews and Rabindranath entered the hall, they were greeted with Vedic hymn and  rains of yellow rice."
In the evening Rabindranath inaugurated the Art Exhibition of Bangalore Natyaniketan. Rabindranath was offered a a written felicitation in a silver plated sheet. He read an essay on " The message of the forest".
He read three essays in this tour of South India of which this was one of them.
On 14th July Rabindranath was greeted by the students of different schools and colleges of Karnatak. In reply to their welcome he delivered a lecture containing fun and jokes. He said, " There are men who are old ,old not in the tenth century after Christ or tenth century before Christ, but in the 20th I mean ; and some who are 57 like myself , but in reality not older than "27"  
On 19th Jan, in the evening, Rabindranath delivered a lecture on "Education in General" in the Rangacharlu Memorial Hall at Mysore presided over by Sarder Lakshmikanta rahursh.
On 20th Jan, he was greeted by the students Maharaja College and other local Colleges and offered Rs. 500/- as a token gift to Santiniketan.Rabindranath recited the poetry "Gandharir Abedan". In the evening he visited Maharani college and recited the poem "Lakshmir Pariksha" ( The Mother's Prayer).
Mysore culture was a mixed one of national and European and Rabindranath liked it but he was not satisfied with the performance of the University of Mysore. He wrote;
" There is nothing that can  be claimed as ours. Everything here is nothing but imitation. For that I conclude that India has completely lost its own lesson. We are afraid of giving a place of our own method of education in the University. As if there is nothing in the world outside Europe in education. And that is why India is crippled in all the affairs of construction of building, chair-tables, books and manuscripts, of the University. The want of confidence of Indian attitude towards education, the want of honour of Indian system has damaged our self-reliance completely for good that we have lost the sense of understanding the whole thing. I hope that since Mysore has taken the western line of thinking, one day will came when she  will find the value of the Eastern education and Culture and will assimilate the whole thing keeping its own seat at the top."