Скачать или смотреть ABANINDRANATH TAGORE'S GARDEN HOUSE//KONNOGOR

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Of the many eminent personalities and families that have taken the Bengali Community into the realm of international exposure, the Tagore family would be at the forefront. Personalities like kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore, the internationally renowned Nobel laureate poet and Abanindranath Tagore, the famous painter and child litterateur belonged to the influential family. With over three hundred years of illustrious history, this family has been widely considered to be leading force in the Bengal Renaissance. And like every community whose origin is deeply rooted in its history, culture, and past, the Bengalis have been instrumentally active in preserving the intellectual heritage of the Tagore family since the last many years. But the efforts come with a catch- in preserving the legacy of the Tagore lineage, we have only considered the intellectual properties to be worthy of conservation. While the literary and artistic contributions of the family has been stored, preserved and widely worked upon, we as a responsible society have completely forgotten to pay any attention to the legible heritage that the Tagores have left behind- the heritage that is built, that stands the test of time, that can be walked upon, lived in, touched with bare hands

It’s the buildings of the Tagore Gharana that we are talking about here- the built heritage that people have so comfortably ignored for the last many years till date. Of the handful structures that bear the stamp of being a ‘Tagore’ establishment, only the Jorashako Thakurbari is widely known and revered while the few others have slipped down the lost pages of history. Apart from the monumental Jorashako, there are quite a few buildings belonging to this illustrious family- the Pathuriaghata Tagore ‘Castle’ and Ramnath Tagore’s Koilaghata residence being two of them. However, this feature will deal with another of the important establishments of the family that has been long forgotten and is threatened by the real estate and construction industry of late- the garden house of Abanindranath Tagore at Konnagar, Hoogly.



Aban Thakur’s Garden House
Located at 2 Mirpara Lane, Konnagar, Hoogly, this precinct was declared as a heritage on the 28th of May, 2007 by the West Bengal Heritage Commission. Originally belonging to the father of the master artist Abanindranath Tagore, this house is the seat of an innumerable number of memories for a young child who took his first lessons in painting and art while here. Sitting just beside the river Ganges, this vast plot of land is richly canopied by a variety of indigenous species like mango, jackfruit and coconut trees. The compound also had multiple animals in a small caged area having dogs, horses, deer and pet monkeys as well. The child Abanindranath Tagore had the plebian pleasures of watching a bahurupi perform or seeing the evening aarti at the temples while staying by this riverside villa; the taste of an upper-class Bengali lifestyle combined with the variety of experiences he received from his family members forged Abanindranath Tagore into what he would go on to become in the coming days- an artist of international caliber and repute, a child litterateur and a staunch supporter of the Swadeshi movement. This garden house also finds mentions in Rabi Tagore’s biography; the master poet used to visit this house often with his family for enjoying nature. The book named ‘Jorashakor Dhare’ by Abandranath Tagore and published by Viswa Bharati also mentions that it was here that Aban Thakur first learned to draw the picture of a hut.


The Tagore family permanently abandoned this stately bungalow following the unfortunate death of Gunendranath Tahore in 1881. Abanindrinath Tagore goes on to describe the incident as “a terrible night which destroyed our lives in an instant”. The long-lasting bond between the young artist and the home by the Ganges was instantly severed. He writes: “It is as if a curtain descended between that life and the life that came after, and remained in place for a long time.”