Monday, May 3, 2010

From Servocracy to Aristocracy

After about a four-months' tour to the Himalayas, Rabindranath came back  home with one of the assistants of Devendranath and was placed in the "Andarmahal"- amongst his near and dear ones. When he was under the administration of the 'retinue of servants' which he termed  'servocracy' he had his foundation of learning. His third elder brother Hemendranath, strong in Science and Mathematics, believed that before learning English one must be sufficiently strong in one's mother tongue (in this case Bengali).  Since then English spellings and meanings did not lie heavily on his shoulder like a nightmare.
Until then , even when he was within the house the day long, still  he felt that he was in exile. Now he got his seat inside his mother's room and got his friend, the youngest daughter-in-law of the family, wife of Jyotirindranath named Kadambari, who also took him with love and affection because he was the youngest brother-in-law, the most beloved one.
But he, again, had to go to Bengal Academy which he did not like and felt as if he was being imprisoned within the four walls of a prison. He expressed his feeling in the poem "Abhilas" written at the age of eleven. The poem was published in "Tattwabodhini" in 1281 (Bangabda) without mentioning his name. The previous eassay on Astrology published in the same magazine was also without his name.
The number of days he could not attend the school gradually became more than  the number of days he attended the school. As a result, one home tutor, named Gnanchandra Bhattacharya, was appointed. He was meritorious and his method of teaching was also unique. He taught Kumarsambhab of Kalidas and Macbeth of Shakespeare in the original and opened a new world to the mind of the young poet.  The teacher forced the learners to translate those pieces in  other languages also.
One day Rabindranath had to go to Vidyasagar  to recite before him one such  translated piece. On seeing the number of books in  the library of Vidyasagar, Rabindranath became overwhelmed with joy.
At this time he used to  publish his eassays and poetry anonymously. The first poetry in his own name was "Hindu Melar Upahar" published  in Bi-lingual Amrita Bazar Patrika  in February 1875. His age at that time was 13 yrs and 8 months.
The meeting of the Hindumela usually took place at Parsibagan of Upper Circular Road: Rajnarayan Bose was its Presidsent.  Rabindranath wrote this poem imitating the poetry , "Bajre Shinga Bajre", written by Poet Hemchandra Bandyopadhaya. In those days, the Bengali elite had memorised the " Bharat Sangeet". Once Rabindranath recited in a meeting of the elite, another poem, 'Prakritir Khed", which was written by him and was also expressed uniquely the pathos of the country. This was published in "Pratibimba" magazine in 1282, Baishakh (Bangabda).
He also wrote a song "Jwal Jwal Chita" for the dramma "Sarojini" written by Jyotirindrannath.
In this year, from Agrahayan, 1282 to Kartik 1283, he wrote a serial, "Banaphul".