For almost two hundred years from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, Bengal was a melting pot of revolutionary thoughts and ideas. Now known as the Bengal Renaissance, the period saw the consolidation of British colonial power over Bengal and the rest of India, but also the emergence of a coeval cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic movement that altered the course of Bengali history and society.
The Bengal renaissance was characterised by sociopolitical enlightenment; questioning of prevalent customs and rituals of Hindu society like the caste system and the practice of sati, or immolation of widows; and a shift towards humanism and modernism in the fields of arts, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and science. Kolkata, then Calcutta, was the epicentre of this societal transformation, and the Jorasanko Thakurbari — the home of the Tagore family — was at the heart of it all.
The Tagores were an influential aristocratic family in 19th century Calcutta, and produced a prodigious number of pioneering industrialists, musicians, poets, artists, actors, and activists. The metaphorical air at Jorasanko was heavy with the spirit of enlightenment and pursuit of knowledge, and this led to the cultivation of Tagores as people of culture. From Dwarakanath Tagore, the first Indian to enter an equal-partnership business with Europeans, to Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian — and Asian — to win a Nobel prize, Tagores represented a lineage of men who were pioneers in their fields.
Tagore women were no exception — except in their exceptionalism. At a time when Indian women were still largely purdanashin, or cloistered within the inner quarters of conservative Indian societies, Tagore women were vanguards of the 19th-century women's emancipation and empowerment movement in India. They were poets, painters, artists, playwrights, musicians, and actors — they were extra-ordinary in their own right.
Jnanadanandini Devi (née Mukhopadhyay; 26 July 1850 – 1 October 1941) was married to Satyendranath Tagore, Rabindranath's elder brother, and a social reformer who made significant contributions to the Bengal Renaissance. She was a regular contributor to the Bengali literary magazine Bharati — published from the Thakurbari — and proposed a nationwide grass-root level anti-colonial organisation to mobilise the Indian commons in her article 'Ingrajninda O Deshanurag' (Criticism of the British and Patriotism) in 1881 — four years before the establishment of the Indian National Congress. Her love for literature and the arts influenced the careers of Rabindranath and Abanindranath greatly. Her improvisation of the saree changed how Bengali women wear the ethnic garment forever.
Jnanadanandini's sister in law, Swarnakumari Devi (1855/56 - 1932) was also a polymathic writer, editor, poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, music composer, and social reformer. The elder sister of Rabindranath Tagore, she was the editor of the Bengali literary monthly Bharati for more than 30 years. Between 1880 and 1889, she published several essays on science for lay persons and expanded the modern Bengali language by creating new scientific terminology as well as standardising many terms coined by Rajendralal Mitra, Madhusudan Gupta, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. She was among the first Bengali women to write a novel and wrote over three hundred songs.
Jnanadanandini's daughter, Indira Devi Chaudhurani (29 December 1873 – 12 August 1960) was — like her mother and aunt — an author, musician, and actor. Indira was educated in the Western tradition at Auckland House in Simla and Loreto Convent in Calcutta and graduated from the Calcutta University with a First Class Honours in French. She was the translator of John Ruskin's works into Bengali, and translated many of her uncle Rabindranath's songs and poems into English. She was a proficient pianist, violinist, and sitar player trained in both Indian and Western classical music and instrumental in the establishment of Sangit Bhavana at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, Bolpur.
Mrinalini Devi (1872/1874 – 23 November 1902) — the daughter of Benimadhob Roy Choudhury, an employee of the Tagore estate — was married to Rabindranath Tagore in 1883 at the age of 9 (Tagore was 22 at the time) in a match arranged by Rabindranath's father Devendranath Tagore. Although Mrinalini did not have a formal education, she was tutored at home in English and Sanskrit, and became proficient at both — to the point that she translated the Katha Upanishada and the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata from Sanskrit into Bengali — the manuscripts of which are now kept at the Visva-Bharati University library. She also participated in the plays that were often staged at the Jorasanko Thakurbari and acted in the role of Narayani in the first-ever dramatisation of Raja O Rani (The King and The Queen) by her husband Rabindranath Tagore.
Sunayani Devi (18 June 1875 – 23 February 1962), was the younger sister of Gaganendranath and Abanindranath Tagore, and, like her brothers, an artist in her own right. Although she did not have a formal training in art, she self-learned to paint in her late 20s and early 30s. An early proponent of the Bengal School of Art, she took inspiration from the Patachitra folk art form of Bengal and painted scenes from Indian myths and epics. Some of her notable works depict mythological figures like Sadhika, Ardhanarisvara, and Yashoda and Krishna. According to American art historian Stella Kramrisch, she was among the first modern painters in India. In 1922, her paintings were part of the Bauhaus artists' exhibition in Calcutta.
Jnanadanandini, Swarnakumari, Indira Devi, Mrinalini Devi, and Sunayani Devi were not the only Tagore women to make their mark in Bengali history. They represent only some of the extraordinary women who were born or married to the Tagore family and paved the way for women's emancipation and empowerment in India. From educationists like Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and Purnima Devi to actors like Devika Rani and Sarmila Tagore, the women of Tagore family were as exceptional as the men — sometimes because of them, and often despite.
To learn more about the extraordinary women of the Tagore family, read Chitra Deb's 'Women Of The Tagore Household' and Aruna Chakravarti's 'Jorasanko' and 'Daughters of Jorasanko'.
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