The relationship of Rabindranath with four generations of the Maharajas of Tripura began in the year 1882. When seeking refuge from the intense grief caused by the death of Maharani Bhanumati, his prime queen, Maharaja Bir Chandra found solace in Tagore’s Bhagna Hriday, written when the poet was a teenager. Maharaja Bir Chandra was so deeply moved by the heart-rending poems of Rabindranath that he sent his minister, Radha Raman Ghosh, to Jorasanko, Calcutta (now Kolkata), miles away from Tripura, to bestow on him the honourific title of a ‘Great Poet’.
Rabindranath unhesitatingly acknowledged that in this period, when he was struggling as an amateur poet and was yet to become famous, he had received cordial recognition as a ‘Great Poet’ only from Maharaja Bir Chandra Manikya of Tripura. He said, ‘For the first time, I have received felicitation from the country.’ After that, in praise of Maharaja Bir Chandra’s farsightedness, he added:
In my immature beginnings, his wisdom could foresee the picture ahead in the future and that was why he honoured me as a “Great Poet”. The fame that I am getting in my life; he was the first person in the entire world who had predicted. A person who stays on the peak can see what is not normally visible to others; Bir Chandra identified what would make me distinctive.
He further termed the relationship with the father-like Maharaja Bir Chandra as historical and said, ‘It is difficult to obtain in the history of literature an account of such a spontaneous and open friendship of a king with a tender-aged poet whose road to fame was totally uncertain and doubtful.’
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After the death of Maharaja Bir Chandra, during the twelve years of Maharaja Radha Kishore’s reign, like Kautilya, Rabindranath as a true friend took full responsibility of running the administration of the state. He proved his wisdom by counselling Maharaja Radha Kishore in all matters of administrative reforms: social, economic and political—ranging from cautioning the Maharaja against the antagonism of courtiers, unveiling of conspiracies, to aiding him in the appointment of ministers and solving family complexities and feuds. Tripura was singularly fortunate to have witnessed the most astonishing, multifaceted talent of Rabindranath. During Maharaja Radha Kishore’s regime, Rabindranath was deemed as the one who enjoyed absolute authority in all fronts of the government. This relationship of two intimate souls led to the widespread development of Bengali literature, culture and science—towards which Maharaja Radha Kishore made generous financial contributions.
In fact, any donation given by voluntary self-denial and with immense pleasure is peerless. If the Maharaja had not financed the scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose’s travel to England, the history of science in India would have been a very different story. In fact, the Maharaja has been instrumental in funding scientific and literary research in India.
Rabindranath knew what sacrifices Radha Kishore had to make. He was certainly aware that the royal treasury was draining; he himself had been directly involved in taking a loan of 15 lakh rupees from the bank—despite that, the Maharaja never hesitated to be as generous as possible to turn Rabindranath’s dreams into reality.
On 7 Poush 1308 Bengali Era ( January 1901), Rabindranath established Brahmacharya Ashram and a school at Shantiniketan. The poet told the Maharaja that he had no monetary capability to run the school; it could be possible only by the Maharaja’s favour. Apart from yearly assistance of 1,000 rupees, the Maharaja gave his word to provide help as and when required. These regular donations and occasional extra amount donated in critical times saved the institution from disaster. All these assistances continued for more than half a century. As long as Tripura was a princely state (up to 1949), the next generations of Maharajas also did not break the promise. All the Maharajas had sent good numbers of students to Shantiniketan with a stipend so that the institution would not need to bear any expenses for the students of Tripura. If not for the assistance of Tripura, Shantiniketan would have faced a sudden death in its embryonic period and failed to flourish to the levels it has today.
The shadow of grievances that was cast in the minds of the courtiers and the people of Tripura regarding the charities of Maharaja Radha Kishore Manikya, and the involvement of Rabindranath in all acts and deeds of the state, soon broke out into the open. In their opinion, the first duty of the king was to develop his underdeveloped kingdom. Tripura needed help rather desperately from outside. Prosperous and advanced Bengal did not require charity from Tripura, which was then very much below the poverty line. Above all, the handover of absolute power to a minister from outside the state (at the insistence of Rabindranath) led to agitations within the kingdom. The people of Tripura did not like the idea of Tagore converting their Maharaja into a magnificent cipher; they raised their voice against the move and labeled Rabindranath as ‘selfish and ambitious’.
An infuriated Rabindranath now emerged full-scale on the political stage to counter the charges levelled against him. In doing so, an entirely different Rabindranath came forth: (the form in which Bengal had not seen him, not to speak of the whole world, that appeared only in the small state of Tripura) a shrewd, pragmatic, partisan Rabindranath hitherto unknown, unseen. He wanted to see Tripura as an ideal native state and, for that matter, he did not give a damn about any resistance.
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The sincere friendship that had grown with the royal family of Tripura from 1882 made Rabindranath feel as if he had become equally involved in all their joys and sorrows. He could not remain stoic in their calamities as is evident from a letter that reveals his sympathies:
I feel God has conferred on me a vow that the system in the kingdom of the Maharaja will have to be settled. My heart is eager to take leave from service, but I have clearly understood that this work must be accomplished by me. I am religiously bound by it—even the Maharaja will not be able to set me free from this. In the midst of all my present problems relating to property, the thought of the Maharaja’s kingdom is by no means leaving me. It is not for the Maharaja only; I shall have to apply my mind to his work to release me from anxiety. The connection that my grandfather had to the history of Tripura; I shall have to maintain that. For that purpose, by the will of God, the late Maharaja had tied me with Tripura.
Rabindranath came to Tripura five times during the reign of Maharaja Radha Kishore and once each in the times of Maharaja Birendra Kishore and Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya. Never had he returned empty handed—the bounties as promised continued unabated with further additions by the subsequent Maharajas.
In world history, this sort of incident had never happened. The celebration of Rabindranath Tagore’s eightieth birth anniversary was held in the royal durbar (royal court in the Ujjayanta Palace) and for felicitating him with the royal honour of ‘Bharat Bhaskar’. It was a matter of immense pride for Tripura that the love and affection of Rabindranath for the state did not deter him from performing the last ritual duty of his life despite his severe illness. Tripura was always treated specially by the poet.
This excerpt from Khagesh Dev Burman’s ‘Tagore in Tripura’ has been published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers India.