| Tagore, Jyotirindranath
(1849-1925) playwright, musician, editor and painter, was born
on 4 May 1849 in the Tagore family at Jorasanko in Kolkata. debendranath
tagore was his father, dwarkanath
tagore his grandfather and rabindranath
tagore his younger brother. He was educated at St Paul's School,
Montague Academy and the Hindu School. After passing the Entrance examination
from Calcutta College in 1864, he enrolled for FA classes at the Presidency
College, but abandoned his studies for the stage. He formed a home theatre
group and staged Krsnakumari and Ekei Ki Bale Sabhyata (Is
this civilisation?) by madhusudan
dutt. He was also instrumental in organising the hindu
mela in Kolkata and wrote the opening song for the organisation
in 1868. He was elected a secretary to the organisation in its ninth year
of existence.
Jyotirindranath Tagore was influenced by western thought. He
instituted a secret society called Sanjibani Sabha (1876)
dedicated to the improvement of the country. He also pioneered
the publication of the famous literary magazine bharati
(1877) and worked as the vice-president of the vangiya
sahitya parishad for a year (1902-1903). He was the
organiser of the literary convention called Bidvajjan-Samagam
(1874). He worked actively in a literary organisation called Saraswata
Samaj (1882), dedicated to enriching Bangla language and literature.
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Jyotirindranath Tagore |
Jyotirindranath is also noted as a writer. He has 46
volumes of published works to his credit, including translations. He wrote
popular plays such as Purubikram (1874), Svapnamayi (Lady
of Dream, 1882), Sarojini (1875), Ashrumati (Woman in tears),
etc. His noteworthy satires include Alik Babu (Strange man, 1900),
Eman Karma Ar Karba Na (I will never do such a thing again), etc.
A few of his works have been translated into other Indian languages such
as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, etc and some of his plays have also been
staged at the great
national theatre.
Jyotirindranath is principally remembered for works that
introduced French and Sanskrit literatures to Bangla-speakers. He translated
stories, novels, poems, philosophical treatises, history volumes, and
travel accounts from French into Bangla at a relatively young age. He
also translated a number of Sanskrit plays into Bangla.
Another branch of art he excelled in was
music. He was skilled in playing the
Sitar, violin, harmonium, piano and other such instruments. He composed many songs in classical tunes and devised a means of musical notation. He composed love songs as well as patriotic ones. He published a volume of his songs as Swaralipi Gitimala (1897); Brahmasangit Swaralipi, compiled by Kangalicharan Sen, has also many songs written by him. Moreover, he earned fame as a composer. He founded the Bharatiya Sangit Samaj (Indian music society, 1897) to work on Indian music and founded two monthly music magazines called Vinavadini (1897) and Sangit Prakashika (1901). Jyotirindranath was secretary to the Adi Brahmo Samaj (1869-88) and to Brahmodharmabodhini Sabha. He founded the Adi Brahmo Samaj Sangitvidyalay (School for Brahma songs) to make brahma sangit popular. He was very adept in stage performance and painting. He selected some of his paintings for a volume which was published from London in 1914. Most of his 2000 paintings are now preserved in the Rabindra Bharati Samiti collection. He was also involved in businesses such as trading in
jute, indigo and the running of a local steamer service.
Jyotirindranath was in the forefront of the movement
for women's education and emancipation. He not only arranged for the education
of his wife, Kadambari, but also taught her horse-riding in the public
grounds of Kolkata, defying the conservative society of the time. He staged
ramnarayan
tarkaratna's Nabanatak, ridiculing the polygamy of Brahmins,
at the Jorasanko auditorium. He died in Kolkata on 4 March 1925. [Shipra
Dastider]
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