Patna, May 13: Eclipsed by concrete buildings, Patna's famous Fraser Road sports a handsome old red-brick house ‘Shanti Niketan', which marks Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore's tryst with the city.
Patna's most recognizable and historic landmark, the Dakbungalow Chouraha which was rechristened to commemorate the visit of great poet Rabindranath Tagore to the city, now remains a forgotten legend, almost.
‘Shanti Niketan', the house with Burmese teak staircase hides behind its sturdy walls the story of the visit of Tagore who stayed at this beautiful house as a guest of the renowned barrister P R Das, during his two-day visit to Patna in 1936.
Tagore visited Bihar's capital with his dance drama troupe on March 16 and 17 that year, during his north India tour in aid of Visva-Bharati.
During his sojourn, the bard and his troupe had performed dance-drama ‘Chitrangada' at the city's oldest theatre the Elphinstone Picture Palace.
While people of Patna may be oblivious to this historic event the Bengali community in Bihar has been striving to sustain the legend of Tagore's landmark visit, by commemorating his visit for the past few years.
Dilip Sinha, president of Bihar Bengalee Association dug into archives and old newspapers like ‘Behar Herald' to get details about Gurudev's visit.
“He arrived by Danapur-Howrah Express and was received by Rajendra Prasad at the Patna Junction. He was also provided a special saloon for his travel by the Indian railways,” says Sinha.
The Association with generous support of the Patna University, for the past few years has been reliving this heritage as they recall and ‘reenact' his visit, at the historic Wheeler Senate Hall where the bard was felicitated by a citizens' committee on March 17, 1936.
Octogenarian Dilip Sen, a Patna-based pathologist, who was a special guest at the first reenactment, recalled the ‘Chitrangada' experience with delight.
“We were small kids and were excited to catch a glimpse of Gurudev. He had a peaceful calm on his face like a saint. At that time we had 25 paise and 50 paise seats in theatres.
It was a memorable occasion,” says Sen. However, despite the community's attempts to revive a lost legend and get the house declared as a heritage building, are seen to have not born much fruit.
“The house is currently in private hands and we did try convincing the owners to sell it to the government so that it could be converted into a memorial or a museum of sorts but the family doesn't wish to do that,” says Provas Roy, General Secretary, Rabindra Parishad Patna.
‘Shanti Niketan', the legend goes, got named so after Tagore, but the period building itself had an impressive history of its own before becoming synonymous with the poet's life.
“The house was built and owned by legendary barrister and Congressman Hasan Imam, who along with his barrister brother Sir Ali Imam practically owned most of the properties on Fraser Road. Hasan Imam later either gave or sold the house to P R Das, as they were contemporaries and good friends,” Sinha says.
Muniba Sami, professor of English in Patna University and descendant of Hasan Imam, who spent her early days in the adjoining ‘Al Mehrab' house recalls the old days.
“It was a beautiful red-brick house, a veritable landmark along with other palatial bungalows on this street, which have nearly all disappeared. ‘Shanti Niketan should have been preserved as a memorial, a museum to Tagore's life in Patna. But, do we have a sense of history,” says Sami.
Dilip Sinha, further says he had approached the Bihar Government's Department of Art and Culture earlier and had apprised them of the “horrible condition” of the house but of no avail.
“The once handsome house is today in horrible condition. Half of it has already been dismantled but the front half with it grand staircase is still there and I still request to the government to save and declare it as a heritage property. That would be the fitting tribute to Tagore on his 150th anniversary,” Sinha adds.
While ‘Shanti Niketan' may have been half-dismantled, ‘Elphinstone', which was the first theatre in Patna, has vanished.
Shanker Dutt, Sami's husband and also a professor of English at the Patna University attributes the loss of heritage to a “society which now values commerce more over its history”.
“Elphinstone, a city landmark too was allowed to be dismantled without much as the feeblest of protests from any quarters. The poor conditions of ‘Shanti Niketan', now in private hands stands as a proof that the city in its blind race for development is fast losing its landmarks associated with great men like Tagore and allowing its own history to be obliterated,” says Dutt.
“Very much like the Imam brothers' other houses on Fraser Road, it was a unique architectural specimen. I still recall the Patna of 1960s when this red-brick house would attract everyone's attention. People of Patna should have taken pride in it and helped preserve it for posterity in its entirety,” he adds.
Provas Roy also recalls the story behind rechristening of ‘Dakbungalow Chouraha' to ‘Kabiguru Rabindra Chowk'.
“When Tagore came to Patna in 1936, it is said, he stood at the Dakbungalow Chouraha which was close to the Patna railway station. And, it is then that P R Das took him to his house on the Fraser Road as his guest.
Sometime in 80s we had requested the then Bihar government to rename the city landmark in his honour and they did oblige. But, hardly anyone knows about this renaming let alone the visit” Roy added.
In 2011, noted danseuse and wife of cricketer Sourav Ganguly, Dona Ganguly and her troupe visited Patna on Tagore's 150th anniversary to perform the same dance-drama ‘Chitrangada' at the Rabindra Bhavan.
