Hemendranath Tagore(contd-1)

Hemendranath was concerned with three things.  His family- in the broader sense, which included father, mother, brothers, sisters, and his own family, Tattwabodhini Sabha and the estates of  the Tagore family.
But his life-span was so brief, only 40 yrs, 1844-1848, that he could not do any justice to any of the three excepting that he could get married of his daughters to well placed grooms in different parts of India.
Hemendranath's Tattwabodhini:
A series of developments in Tattwabodhini Sabha after its merger in 1843 with Calcutta Brahmo Samaj resulted in the forming of a reformist core elect Brahmin group, which stood apart from Calcutta Brahmo Samaj during the fractious period of 1858 to 1865, to later emerge as Adi Dharma. This core was initially under Pt. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who later entrusted it to Hemendranath in 1859. Finally in 1865 Hemendranath took charge, firmly insisting on the expulsion of non-Brahmins from preaching posts. He thereafter organised research on the formal practices, rituals and observations for Brahmo adherents which were privately circulated in early 1860 as Brahmo Anusthan. This Anusthan was limited for the Brahmin families of the 1843 First Covenant only and was first used publicly in 26 July 1861 for the marriage of his second sister Sukumari. The Anusthan involving discarding the Sacred Brahmin Thread, which created considerable controversy and was thereafter adopted for the non-brahmins also with some small modifications for those who possessed no thread.
Vision of Brahma :  
Hemendranath explained his peculiar experiences while he was meditating. This was known as "description of Vision of Brahma in 1848".
       Then I went out and sat underneath an ashvatta tree and according to the teaching of the saints began meditating on the Spirit of of God dwelling my soul. My mind was flooded with emotion, my eyes were filled with tears. All at once I saw the shining vision of Brahma in the lotus core of my heart. A thrill passed through my whole body, I felt a joy beyond all measure. But the next moment I could see Him  no more. On losing sight of that beautific vision which destroys all sorrow, I suddenly rose from the ground. A great sadness came over my spirit. Then I tried to see him again by force of contemplation, and found him not. I became as one stricken with disease and would not be comforted. Meanwhile I suddenly heard a voice in the air, "In this life thou shalt see Me no More. Those whose hearts have not been purified, who have not achieved the highest Yoga, cannot see Me. It was only to stimulate thy love that I once appeared before thee.'

Hemendranath Tagore (1844-1884)

Rammohan Roy

This is the only Photo obtained on search from internet which claims to be the photo of Hemendranath Tagore.
Debendranath Tagore's third son, is notable for being the first ever Brahmo as he was the first child born in 1844 to any of the 21 Brahmos who swore the first Brahmo Covenant on 21st Dec 1843 at Kolkata.
An intesely private person, he was also known by his three qualities.
 1. A strict disciplinarian entrusted with responsibility of looking after the education of his younger brothers,
 2. As the administrator of the large family estates of Debendranath's branch of the Tagore family, and
 3. While alive, he was also the constant spiritual companion  to his father, Debendranath Tagore, who founded Brahmoism, and despite his extreme youth, acted as the channel between his father and the seniors of the Tattwabodhini Sabha.
Educational career :
Like most of Debendranath's children, he had varied interest in different fields and was a polymath. He had much interest in science and attended the Calcutta Medical College  (established by his grand father Dwarakanath Tagore). He wrote articles on Physical Science which he planned to compile and edit into a text book for school students. If his early death had not prevented him from completing the project, this would certainly had been the first science text book to be written in Bengali.
From 1867 Hemendranath Tagore began conducting his first experiments into radio waves and electromagnetic propagations. Between 1872-1873 he wrote several articles on the results of his research, these were transcribed by another Brahmin, Ramendra Sundar Trivedi. In 1874, he compiled the first scholarly Asian work on physics entitled Prakritik Vijnaner Sthulamarma which was updated in 1878-79.
Since the knowledge contained within was potentially explosive, its circulation was restricted only to Brahmins of the Adi Brahmo Samaj.
Built like a bull, he was known for his extraordinary physical strength and prowess in wrestling contests - described as being a "renowned wrestler", as also his expertise in martial arts like judo and ninjitsu. He was also an adept of ancient Raj Yoga at  the highest levels with control over time and space.
Exceptionally modern for the times,  after siring three sons, he sired only daughters thereafter and insisted on formal education for all of them. He not only put them through schools but trained them in music, arts, and European Languages such as German and French. It was another mark of his forward looking mentality that he actively sought out eligible grooms from different parts of India for his daughters.
He arranged marriages for his daughters in UP and Assam. A staunch modernist, he instituted various financial trusts for the womenfolk of Tagore family (specially his sisters) and was responsible for settling the Santiniketan estate near Bolpur which later evolved into Viswa Bharati.
A practical and scientific humanist, he was deeply loved by the peasants of his estates in India and Bangladesh. After his death in 1884, his brothers especially Rabindranath Tagore and Satyendranath Tagore revoked all the trusts, destroyed the papers of Dwarakanath Tagore, cheated their sisters from their patrimony, squandered the family money, and rack-rented the peasantry who rose up in revolt ( Ref: Hemendranath Tagore encyclopedia topcs/ Reference.com, http://www.ask.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/). 

Tattwabodhini Patrika and the Tagore family

Tattwabodhini Patrika was the organ of  Tattwabodhini Sabha. The journal was first published on 16th August 1843 from Calcutta to propagate the Brahmo faith and to enable regular contact among members of  Tattwabodhini Sabha. Akshoy Kumar Dutta was the first editor, and Debendranath Tagore was charged with its overall supervision. The best known prose writers of the 19th century- Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Rajnarayan Basu, Debendranath Tagore- contributed regularly to the journal, spawning a new epoch in Bangla language  and literature. All its contributors and patrons were reformists.
Tattwabodhini Patrika played a key role in the propagation of Brahmoism in Eastern Bengal. Brajasundar Mitra, initiator of the Brahmo Samaj in Dhaka, was attracted to this faith by reading the journal .Debendranath Tagore wanted to limit the journal to purely religious issues but Akshoy Kumar Dutta, the editor, extended it to scientific issues to place the journal at a high level. A committee was formed with Rajnarayan Basu, Anandakrishna Basu, Shridhar Nyayaratna, Radhaprasad Roy (son of Rammohan Roy), Debendranath Tagore and others for selecting articles for the journal.
Tattwabodhini Patrika was published upto 1932. After Akshoy Kumar Dutta it was edited at different times by Nabin Chandra Banerjee, Satyendranath Tagore, Ayodhya nath Pakrashi, Hemchandra Vidyaratna, Dwijendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore and Kshitindranath Tagore.
     

Hindu Mela and Dwijendranath

Dwijendranath TagoreRajnarayan Basu
Hindu Mela was a socio-cultural organisation aimed at reviving the glory of Indian civilisation, mobilise the Hindus, especially the youth, and to cultivate the national language and ideas, so as to fight the cultural colonisation of British. This organisation was mainly supported by several members of the Tagore family, Rajnarayan Basu and Nabagopal Mitra (the editor of the National paper). 
In April 1867, on the day of  the Chaitra Sankranti (the last day of the Bengali year) the Hindu Mela was established. A formal committee was set up on the first day of the Mela of which Ganendranath Tagore became the  first secretary and Nabagopal Mitra the chief organiser. An exhibition was arranged on the occasion with National art-work, handicrafts, cottage industries etc. Among others who took active interest in the Mela were Dwijendranath Tagore, Rajnarayan Basu, Kristodas Pal, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Raja Kamal Krishna Bahadur and others. This was an early attempt to fight British Imperialism and to develop national industries.
The first three annual gatherings was also called Chaitra Mela. A national fair was organised on Chaitra Sankranti. The annual mela was inaugurated amidst the patriotic song of Dwijendranath Tagore- Malina Mukhochandra Ma Bharat Tomari (O mother India, your moon-face is so gloomy...). At the second annual Mela (1868), held at Belgachia and presided by Gnanandranath Tagore, a patriotic song composed by Satyendranath (when he was an ICS) - Gao Bharater Joy  was sung . This song was virtually the National Song till Bankim Chandra wrote Bande Mataram to replace it.. The details of the Mela was published in detail in all the news papers and magazines. In its annual gathering of 1875, Rabindranath Tagore recited his own poetry -Hindu Melar Upahar - which was publised in Amrita Bazar Patrika of 25 February 1875. The Hindu Mela gradually lost ground unable to cope with the new and complex demands of the 1880s and 1890s.  In the 1890s the Mela gradually faded away. But the spirit of swadeshi that it invoked in the minds of the Bengalis survived, which was subsequently developed during the Swadeshi Movement during the early period of twentieth century.

(Video) Descendants of Dwijendranath, eldest brother of Rabindranath

Dinendranath, son of Dipendranath, and grandson of Dwijendranath,was born  in 1882 at Jorasanko, Calcutta. Dinendranath was an excellent singer and his reach baritone, barely accompanied by any instrument, added unique dimension to Rabindra Sangeet. Inspite of being a skilled and talented musician, he is always remembered for the role he played in preserving the melodies of Rabindranath's composition. He could replicate accurately every tune in the form of notations even though Rabindranath might have forgotten his own tune. Rabindranath was in the habit of forgetting the tune of a song and he used to call Dinendranath to accurately reproduce the same after hearing once from Rabindranath. Dinendranath composed many songs of Rabindranath for future generations.he was equally adept of writing Western notations.

Dinendranath was the Pricipal of Sangit Bhavana of Shantiniketan from its very inception.. After a break of four years, 1923-27, he joined as principal again. Drama was another field he excelled in. He was an able director of Rabindranath's plays. He travelled with the Viswa-Bharati drama unit as Director on its tour to Bombay in Nov. 1933 for the staging of Taser desh.   

He was affectionately called Dinu Thakur.

Sung by Gnanprakas Goswami.

Soumendranath Tagore (1910-1974), son of Sudhindranath Tagore and grandson of Dwijendranath Tagore, was a great orator, writer and lyricist. His name was to reckon with in the cultural arena in the 1960s and 1970s. he was associated with the Communist Movement from his younger days. Revolutionary Communist Party of India was founded by Saumyendranath Tagore in 1934, breaking away from the Communist Party of India. During the period 1934-1938 the name of the party was Communist League.  The name RCPI was taken at the third party Congress in 1938. RCPI was against the new popular frontist politics of CPI and the cooperation with Indian National Congress.   During second World War, RCPI supported the Quit India movement and a large part of the leadership was imprisoned. After the war, RCPI statrted organising soviets (panchayats) amongst peasants and workers, as a first step towards the Indian revolution. Different views on the revolution led to a split in 1948, and Pannalal Dasgupta, the then General Secretary, broke away and formed his own RCPI. Dasgupta advocated armed struggle. The leadership of this party was later taken over by Sudhir Kumar. In 1960 the Trotskyist Revolutionary Workers Party merged with the RCPI of Kumar. In the state elections in West Bengal,  the RCPI of Kumar won several seats. But when the RCPI of Kumar supported Nehru's line in the war against China, many of the leading Trotskyists pulled out of RCPI. Ahead of the 1967 elections the RCPI of Tagore had been registered under the name BHARATER BIPLABI COMMUNIST PARTY where as Kumar's party had been registered under the name RCPI. What later happened to RCPI of Tagore is unclear. But If one studies the electoral  results from 1971 it appears that he switched over to Kumar's party (the election results shows a Soumendranath Tagore as an RCPI candidate, in the same constituency where Souymendranath Tagore stood for BBCP in 1969. It is also possible  that both merged at the instance of the election Commission.), at the same time BBCP lived on.

From the record of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences it is seen that a Tagore Memorial lecture arranged on Communication Language lists several eminent speakers inlcuding  Prof. Nissim Ezkiel, Soumandranath Tagore, v.v.john, J.V.Narlikar, M.G.k.menon, Amlan dutta and William Radica  were present.  

Amongst the works of Soumendranath Tagore, 1. Intrduction to Rammohan Roy : His role in Indian Renaissance (Asiatic Society-1975, p-vii to viii) and 2. Chapter one : Rammohan and the Indian Renaissance are worth mentioning.

He mentioned that the excellence that the Bengali Prose achieved in literary form under Bankim Chandra and Rabindranath owes its beginning to the Bengali prose developed by Rammohan Roy. Though there are other opinions also.

Soumendranath also had some musical talent .

Works of Dwijendranath

Apart from editing he had his own publication. In Bengali Bhratribhab (1863), Tattwabidya (1866-68), Sonar kathi Rupor kathi (1885), Sonay Sohaga ( 1885), Aryami ebong Sahebiyana (1890), Samajik Roger Kaviraji Chikitsa (1891), Adaitya- mater Samalochana (1896), Brahmagnan O Brahmasadhana (1900), Banger Rangabhumi (1907), Haramanir Anwesan (1908), Gitapather Bhumika (1915), and Prabandhmala (1920), in English : Boxometry (of Mathematics)-1913, Ontology (1871), a book on Geometry.He published innumerable writings in different magazines such as Jnankur, Pratibimbo, Tattwabodhini, Barati, Sadhana, new look Bangadarshan, Manasi, Sahitya Parishad Patrika, Santiniketan, Budhbar, Shreyasi, Prabasi, Sabujpatra, and Supravat. This is simply a quantitave estimate and not a qualitative one.

Descendants 

Dwijendranath had five sons--1. Dipendranath, 2. Arunendranath, 3. Nitindranath, 4. Sudhindranath, 5. and Kripendra.

Amongst his sons- Sudhindranath (1869-1929) was a talented author. he wrote poems, novels, and short Stories. He introduced a new literary magazine, Sadhana in 1891 and was its first editor. Later, Rabindranath edited it and subsequently it was merged with Bharati .

Amongst his grand sons, Dinendranath (1882-1935), son of Dipendranath, had exceptional talent of music. He could remember the tune of any song he heard once. Rabindranath used to compose tunes of the songs he wrote but found it difficult to remember and codify them. He used to call Dinendranath to do the job and develop notations. Rabindranath called him "store keeper of his songs."

Soumendranath Tagore (1910-1974), son of Sudhindranath , was a great orator. He was an icon of cultural arena in the 1960s and 1970s. he was associated with the communist movement from his younger days.    

Soumendranath Tagore with Rabindranath

Shantiniketan and Dwijendranath Thakur

History : Shantiniketan was previously called Bhubandanga (named after Bhuban Dakat, a local dacoit).   Devendranath Thakur, father of Dwijendranath, visited the place in 1861 and found it very peaceful, suitable for meditation and other Aradhana purpose. He purchased 20 bighas of land of Bhubandanga village from Singha family of Roypur under Bolpur Mouja in 1863 and renamed it as Shantiniketan, which means 'abode of peace' . He  used to visit the place occasionally and took Rabindranath  there for the first time in 1873 and stayed for some time, enroute to Dalhouse.
the weather in Shantiniketan is usually a peasant one although one might come across the changes of weather in summer, winter and rainy season. Nonetheless spring has its own charm, not only because of its natural beauty blooming to its fullest amidst the lush greenary but also due to the famous Vasanta utsab held to mark the festival of Holi with the on set of spring..

Rabindranath founded a school at Shantiniketan in 1901with five student.He took Rabindranath for the first time

Dwijendranath spent the last 20 years of his life in Shantiniketan, in oneness with nature for learning and writing. He wrote humorous four-line rhymes on people in Shantiniketan, which were published in Shanti- niketan Patrika. His sense of humor  was a talking point for many years. His friendship with sparrows, squirrels, and crows became legends in Shantiniketan.

He followed the advice of the Upanishads - after acquiring knowledge remain a child at heart. He read his papers at the majlis or gathering of learned men, including Rabindranath. There were an assembly of learned persons like Bidhushekhar Sastri, Kshitimohan Sen. Mahatma Gandhi and C.F.Andrews used to call Dwijendranath bardada like Rabindranath Thakur.

Dwijendranath Thakur (contd-1)

He edited Tattwabodhini Patrika for 25 years from 1884 and was  a founder of Hitabadi. He was keen on extending Tattwabodhini Patrika but his younger brother Jyotirindranath (1849-1925) proposed a new magazine Bharati and made Dwijendranath the editor. Rabindranath was 16 years at that time and was not left out of the editorial board of the magazine, Bharati. In the first year Kabikahini of Rabindranath was being published in serial.
To acknowledge the contribution of Dwijendranath to Bengali literature, he was elected President of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad from 1897 to 1900. He presided over the 1914  session of the Bangiya Sahitya Sammelan.
He was a Zamindar who always remained absent from his Zamandari, but in 1873, he advocated drastic action for "the restoration of order and tranquility " against peasants participating in the Pabna disturbances, which was severely curtailing his income.
Dwijendranath kept himself always busy with experiments of various types. He was a pioneer in the field of Bengali short hand and even coded  it in the form of poetry. He pioneered the use of notations (swaralipi) for Bengali music. The only other person who could claim credit for this was Kshetramahon Goswami, assistant to Raja Shourindramohan Tagore. In 913, he wrote a book Boxometry, the construction of boxes.He was adept in folding paper into different shapes.
He was secretary of the Adi Brahmo Samaj from 1866 to 1871 and used to serve as  Acharya or minister for Upasanas or Brahmo Prayers. He had accompanied his father to Dakha when Dhaka Brahmo Samaj was in its formative years under the leadership of Braja Sundar Mitra.
Closely associated with Hindu Mela, he was its secretary and composed patriotic songs for it. One of its devotional song , karo tomar naam gaan, jata din rahe dehe pran (sing his praise as long as there is life in the body) has been sung with the prayers on 7th of Poush for many years. He wrote many other devotional songs broadly classified as Brahmasangeet, sung with prayers of Brahmo Samaj.  One popular patriotic song he composed for the Hindu Mela was "malina mukhochandrama Bharat tomari" (pale is your face, o India).

Dwijendranath Tagore, eldest brother of Rabindranath

Prince Dwarakanath Thakur


Dwijendranath Thakur (11 March 1840 - 19 Jan 1926) the eldest son of Debendranath Thakur and grandson of Dwarakanath Thakur was born in Kolkata (Calcutta) on 11 March 1840. He was a poet, song composer, philosopher, mathematician, and a pioneer in Bengali shorthand and musical notation. He was mainly educated at home, but later he studied for some time in St. Paul's School and Hindu College of Kolkata. He was always close to his younger brother Satyendranath (1842 - 1923) but the two brothers differed considerably. Dwijendranath was comfortable with the traditions of the society, while Satyendranath enjoyed breaking down conservative rules to establish a modern society. Dwijendranath spent his time in cultivating poetry, acquiring knowledge and conducting various experiments.
His wife, Sarbasundari, died at an early age and he remained widower through out the rest of his life.
Contribution to Bengali Literature :
His first contribution to Bengali literature was the Bengali translation of Kaildasa's classical Sanskrit work Meghadut in 1860 before the  birth of his younger brother Rabindranath. It was the first time that that the great sanskrit poetic work was translated into Bengali. He had used two different Bengali rythmic styles for the translation.
Debendranath thakur
Dwijendranath's second great work of poetry Swapnaprayan, published in  1875. This novel-poetry describes the travels of a young man to different places. Prabhat Mukhopadhayaya in his book Rabindrajiban Katha mentioned  when Dwijendranath was writing Swapnaprayan and was reciting the book  in front of his friends, Rabindranath was a boy noticing all this standing by the side of a door. Dwijendranath had displayed a remarkable control over the use of different rhythmic styles in the book. The book has a historic value.

It was an age when Michael Madhusudan influenced all Bengali poets but Dwijendranath was free from any such impact. On the other hand, Michael Madhusudan had hailed Dwijendranath as a poet of the future. Dwijendranath was 'a true philosopher'. He consorted with the learned of the National Society and the Biddwajjan-Samagam, both of which he had organised. Rabindranath came back from England in 1880 and after coming from England he found that a get-together had been arranged where renowned persons would be coming from Calcutta.  Rabindranath was given the charge of writing a drama  to be staged before the audience. He wrote Balmiki Prativa and he himself took the role of Valmiki. The lyrical-dramma was excellent and the performance was grand.  Dwijendranath delved deep into the philosophy of the Bhagabad Gita.

Dwijendranath on the chair and Rabindranath sitting by his side.

The philosophical work, Tattwabidya (Knowledge of Principles), published in three vols between 1866 and 1868, was a pioneering effort in Bengali literature. Never before had such a work been published. In 1896, he published Adwaita Mather Samalochana (Criticism of Adwaita Phlosophy) and in 1899, Aryadharma O Boudhya Darmer Ghat-Pratighat (a book on the conflicts of aryan religion, Hinduism, and Buddhism). 

Rabindranath's Literary Genres

Rabindranath was a poet . He mentioned, "I say again and again that I am a poet, that I am not a fighter by nature."  No doubt that he was first of all a poet and he wrote more than thousand poems, more than fifty Kabya Granthas and constructed more than two thousands songs of which he wrote both the words and the music. But he contributed over thousand essays on literary, social, religious, political, and on other topics. he also contributed in all the branches of literary activities and wrote innumerable letters to his relatives, known and unkown friends. A detailed work of Rabindranath had been tabulated in the margin.     

Rabindranath as a poet (Bhanu Singha)-(contd-1)

(Help was taken from the essay written by Sushil Roy in Jiban Smriti). In 1874, he completed a long poem in the Maithili style pioneered by Vidyapati. Published pseudonymously, experts accepted them as the lost works of Bhanusingha, a newly discovered 17th century Vaisnava poet. It had already been said that Rabindranath had a keen interest in old Vaishnava poems which were being collected and published by Babu Akshay Sarker and Sarada Mitter. The language, largely mixed with Maithili, was difficult to understand, but for that very reason Rabindranath took more pains to get at their meaning. His feeling towards the poems were as if they were ungerminated sprout within  the seed, or an undiscovered mystery under the dust covering of the earth. Buoyed with the hope of bringing to light some unknown poetical gems, he went deeper and deeper into the unexplored darkness of he treasure-house. Then he came upon the idea of writing in the same styile--  in such a wrapping of mystery.  As he heard from Akshoy Choudhury the story of the English  boy-poet Chatterton. Though he had no idea about the writings nor had Akshoy Babu given any details about the poet,  the unknown and untold story didn't lose its hidden charm. The melodramatic element in it which fired his imagination was sufficient.           

One noon in a cloudy weather lying prone on his bed in his inner room he wrote in maithili,   "Gahana kusuma kunja majhe"and became delighted to be able to write such a line. One day he mentioned to one of his friend: "A tattered old manuscript has been discovered while rummaging in the ADI BRAHMA SAMAJ library and from this he has coppied some poems by an old Vaishnava poet named Bhanu Singha". The friend was excited and  said that  " these could not have been written even by Vidyapati or Chandidas" . Then Rabindranath showed him his manuscript and said these could not have been written by Vidyapati or Chandidas because he himself had written these.When these poems in the name of Bhanu Singha was gradually coming out in Bharati, Dr. Nishikanta Chatterjee was in Germany. He wrote a Thesis on the lyric of our country comparing with that of Europe. Bhanu Singha was given a place of honour as one of the old poets such as no  modern writer could have aspired to. This was the thesis on which Nishikanta got his Ph.D.

It was at that time a matter of discussion  amongst the elites about this Bhanu Singha and his period of existence. In the opinion of Panchkari Babu, Bhanu Singh might have been born before 451 BC, Nitai Charan Babu said he was born some times in between 1104 AD to 1799 AD, Kalachand De said thatBhanu Singha was born either before 819 BC or after 1639. Ultimately Rabindranath pointed out the mistakes of every one that Bhanu Singh was born in 1861 because he himself took the name of Bhanu Singha.

Rabindranath as a poet (Bhanu Singha)

Rabindranath started writing alphabets in 1866 at the age 5, he was admitted to school, first in Oriental Seminary and then to Normal Schhol in 1868 at the age of seven, and he started writing poetry in 1869 at the age of eight, just after  one year of attending Normal School. He was urged by his elder brother, Somendranath, to recite these poems to people in the mansion - including a  Brahmo Nationalist, a news paper editor and organizer of Hindu Mela. He became known as a poet in Normal School where he impressed his teachers of his ability in writing poetry.
He was born in an atmosphere where literary magazines were published, musical recitals were held, and theatre performed. He was influenced by his elder brothers like Dwijendranath, Satyendranath, Jyotirindranath, Hemendranath and others who were always engaged in literary and cultural activities.
In 1874, at th age of thirteen, his first  poem Abhilash (desire) was published under the alias, Bhanu Singha.

In the opinion of Rabindranath there should be freedom of reading even to the boys. He was not in favor of putting  any bar of age to readers. Might be that the juniors were not in a position to understand the difficult portion of the text. In boyhood days he used to read all the books, magazines, even those which he might  not understand. He tried to follow the meaning with his imagination.

There was a big library of old books and magazines in Thakur Bari,  kept under lock and key for safety. Rabindranath managed to get the key  and open the almirah. He was in the habit reading  books and magazines. He read BIBIDHA BHARATI SANGRAHA of Rajendra Lal Mitra, Novel of Krishnakumari, books of Science and Anthropology, a small paper ABODH BANDHU and Banga Darshan of Bankim Chandra. He was fond of reading classical books of Sarada Charan Mitra and Akshoy Sarker  and of Bidyapati written in Maithali language. He used to collect all the magazines of which Dwijendranath and Jyotirindranath were customers and read them. He also took notes of the difficult portions from those writings.

He gathered, by this time, a vast knowledge in Bengali, Sanskrit, and English by learning at home.

He got Akshoy Chandra Choudhury, a friend of Jyotirindranath, as his beloved guide for Bengali literature of Baishnabpadabali, Kabikankan, Ramprasad, Bharatchandra, Haruthakur, Rambasu, Nidhubabu, Sreedhar etc.    

( Video) Tagore's First School &150th birth anniversary of tagore round the Globe