Some changes in the family of Debendranath (1817-1905), before and after the birth of Rabindranath, had occured. 1. Debendranath at the age of 26 ( 22nd Dec. 1843) was initiated in Brahmmo Dharmma and discarded all sorts of idolatry which could not please Dwarakanath (1794 -1846), 2. Debendranath and his brother Girindranath (1820-1854) lived in a joint family in the same house and the children of both Debendranath and Girindranath were being brought up together. But they were being separated after the death of Dwarakanath and Debendranath had to live his 3.After the death of Dwarakanath, Debendranath had to repay all the loans incurred by Dwarakanath with a great difficulty. The death of Dwarakanath caused separation of his property among his children and Debendranath had changed his dwelling place.
It was customary for the rich to hand over the child after birth to two attendants. One had to provide the child by breast feeding and the other had to look after the child. The name of one of the attendant of Rabindranath was Digambari or Digmi.
Saudamini Debi (1847-1920),photo left, the
fifth child or first daughter of Debendranath wrote about the religious ceremony connected with the child birth was withdrawn by Debendranath since he became Brahmo. Hence after the birth of Rabindranath all types of idolatry on the day of his first eating rice was cancelled. The priests used to take part on these occasions had severe exchanges with Debendranath. The low wooden seat where white paintings were done for first eating rice of Rabi were perforated with holes on all sides at the instruction of Debendranath. Candles were placed on the holes in rows and they were asked to kindle those candles. Thus on the day of first eating rice of Rabindranath candles were burning around his name and blessings were ushered on him from these burning candles.
Among the important incidents 1863 when Rabindranath was two years old , the eldest son, Dwipendranath, of Dwijendranath was born . He was one year and two months younger than Rabindranath. Another important incident was taken on lease a land, 20 Bighas, attached to the dam of Bhubandanga near Bolpur owned by Pratap Singh of Roypur on 1 March 1863. the youngest brother Budhendra of Rabindranath was born in 1863.Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 Jan 1863.
He (called Rabi) was born in a family of mixed culture of East and West. He wrote in his autobiography - My life in my words -
"there was something remarkable in our family. it was as if we lived close to the age of pre-Puranic India through our commitment to the Upanishads. As a boy, I grew up reciting slokas from the Upanishads with a clear enunciation. We had no experience of the emotional excesses prevalent in Bengal's religious life. My father's spiritual life was quiet and controlled."
They had a genuinely deep love of English literature. Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott had a strong influence over their family.
Rabi felt proud of having witnessed three revolutionary movements in his family during his father's time.
1. He was proud, for his father was one of the great leaders of the movement, a movement for whose sake he suffered ostracism and braved social indignities.
2. A literary revolution of which Bankim Chandra Chatterjee of Bengal was the pioneer.
3. The third one was the emergence of nationalism. He was proud that the people of his country started asserting their own personality and began to raise their voice against the indignity and the humiliation imposed upon them by the British colonisers.
Rabindranath Tagore had a sweet voice from his childhood .Thakurbari was always full of literary activities, songs and dramas. But that was amongst the elders, children were not allowed to enter. Dwijendranath, the eldest son of Devendranath, was then writing a Kabya, "Swapnaprayan", which he used to recite for others to listen. Rabindranath, standing by the side of the door, listened and learnt the verses by heart. Rabindranath said that he could not remember how he learnt to sing. Sreekantha Singh, a friend of Devendranath and el Singing was his passion. He was always absorbed in music. He was appointed for teaching songs but he did not teach songs, he gave them lessons only. Bishnu Chakraborty was a singer of Adi Brahmo Samaj; he gave them the first lesson in how to sing. Rabindranath did not take regular tuition. Finally, Jadu Bhatta became their vocal music teacher. But Rabindranath learnt singing in his own way- from servants, from gypsy women, from Bauls and from here and there, from whatever he heard. These were the first lessons of Rabindranath before he went into formal education.
He and the other children had to pass most of their time with Ishwar or to be more precise, Brajeshwar. Once he was a village-teacher. He was entrusted to train the children. At that time there was no electricity, there were Kerosene or other oil lamps. Childrens used to sit around him and hear the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata in the dim light of the lamp. After dinner, when they went to bed, a maid told them bed time stories of galloping horses on vast stretches of land, till all of them were sound asleep.
Rabindranath mentioned in his Jibansmriti and Chelebala the names of attending servants as Ishwar (alias Brajeshwar), Shyam, and Bente Gobinda. Ishwar was a village teacher.
The elder brother Somendranath and nephew Satyaprasad were two years older than Rabindranath but they were being brought together. Rabindranath wrote that Rabindranath started his lesson when they were going taking their lessons from their teachers. Books for his first lesson were purchased when he was three years and eight months old. After finishing the lesson " kara,khala" Rabindranath started sentences " Jal Parhe, pata narhe".
It was customary for the rich to hand over the child after birth to two attendants. One had to provide the child by breast feeding and the other had to look after the child. The name of one of the attendant of Rabindranath was Digambari or Digmi.
Saudamini Debi (1847-1920),photo left, the fifth child or first daughter of Debendranath wrote about the religious ceremony connected with the child birth was withdrawn by Debendranath since he became Brahmo. Hence after the birth of Rabindranath all types of idolatry on the day of his first eating rice was cancelled. The priests used to take part on these occasions had severe exchanges with Debendranath. The low wooden seat where white paintings were done for first eating rice of Rabi were perforated with holes on all sides at the instruction of Debendranath. Candles were placed on the holes in rows and they were asked to kindle those candles. Thus on the day of first eating rice of Rabindranath candles were burning around his name and blessings were ushered on him from these burning candles.
Among the important incidents 1863 when Rabindranath was two years old , the eldest son, Dwipendranath, of Dwijendranath was born . He was one year and two months younger than Rabindranath. Another important incident was taken on lease a land, 20 Bighas, attached to the dam of Bhubandanga near Bolpur owned by Pratap Singh of Roypur on 1 March 1863. the youngest brother Budhendra of Rabindranath was born in 1863.Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 Jan 1863.
He (called Rabi) was born in a family of mixed culture of East and West. He wrote in his autobiography - My life in my words -
"there was something remarkable in our family. it was as if we lived close to the age of pre-Puranic India through our commitment to the Upanishads. As a boy, I grew up reciting slokas from the Upanishads with a clear enunciation. We had no experience of the emotional excesses prevalent in Bengal's religious life. My father's spiritual life was quiet and controlled."
They had a genuinely deep love of English literature. Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott had a strong influence over their family.
Rabi felt proud of having witnessed three revolutionary movements in his family during his father's time.
1. He was proud, for his father was one of the great leaders of the movement, a movement for whose sake he suffered ostracism and braved social indignities.
2. A literary revolution of which Bankim Chandra Chatterjee of Bengal was the pioneer.
3. The third one was the emergence of nationalism. He was proud that the people of his country started asserting their own personality and began to raise their voice against the indignity and the humiliation imposed upon them by the British colonisers.
Rabindranath Tagore had a sweet voice from his childhood .Thakurbari was always full of literary activities, songs and dramas. But that was amongst the elders, children were not allowed to enter. Dwijendranath, the eldest son of Devendranath, was then writing a Kabya, "Swapnaprayan", which he used to recite for others to listen. Rabindranath, standing by the side of the door, listened and learnt the verses by heart. Rabindranath said that he could not remember how he learnt to sing. Sreekantha Singh, a friend of Devendranath and el Singing was his passion. He was always absorbed in music. He was appointed for teaching songs but he did not teach songs, he gave them lessons only. Bishnu Chakraborty was a singer of Adi Brahmo Samaj; he gave them the first lesson in how to sing. Rabindranath did not take regular tuition. Finally, Jadu Bhatta became their vocal music teacher. But Rabindranath learnt singing in his own way- from servants, from gypsy women, from Bauls and from here and there, from whatever he heard. These were the first lessons of Rabindranath before he went into formal education.
He and the other children had to pass most of their time with Ishwar or to be more precise, Brajeshwar. Once he was a village-teacher. He was entrusted to train the children. At that time there was no electricity, there were Kerosene or other oil lamps. Childrens used to sit around him and hear the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata in the dim light of the lamp. After dinner, when they went to bed, a maid told them bed time stories of galloping horses on vast stretches of land, till all of them were sound asleep.
Rabindranath mentioned in his Jibansmriti and Chelebala the names of attending servants as Ishwar (alias Brajeshwar), Shyam, and Bente Gobinda. Ishwar was a village teacher.
The elder brother Somendranath and nephew Satyaprasad were two years older than Rabindranath but they were being brought together. Rabindranath wrote that Rabindranath started his lesson when they were going taking their lessons from their teachers. Books for his first lesson were purchased when he was three years and eight months old. After finishing the lesson " kara,khala" Rabindranath started sentences " Jal Parhe, pata narhe".
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