Thursday 18 June 2009

Kuthibari


Shilaidaha Kuthibadi a historic place associated with RABINDRANATH TAGORE and a tourist spot. It stands on the south bank of the river Padma in Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia district and is five miles north of the district headquarters across the Gadai and opposite to the Pabna town on farther north across the Padma. Shilaidaha is also famous for the kachhari of the Birahimpur zamindari and the historic kuthibadi of the Tagore family of Jorasanko.

Shilaidaha is a relatively modern name; its old name was Khorshedpur.The Thakurs of Jorasanko acquired the village in the middle of the 19th century there stood an indigo-Kuthi reportedly built by a planter, named Shelly. A deep daha (whirlpool) was formed there at the confluence of the Gadai and the Padma, and hence the village came to be known as 'Shelly-daha', which ultimately took the form of 'Silaidaha'. There the poet lived for more than a decade at irregular intervals between 1891 and 1901.


During his stay there, eminent scientists, litterateurs and intelligentsia of Bengal such as Sir JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE, PRAMATHA CHOWDHURY, MOHITLAL MAJUMDER, Lokendranath Palit visited him on various occasions. Sitting at his desk in the Kuthibadi or on a boat on the Padma, Rabindranath wrote a number of masterpieces: Sonar Tari, Chitra, Chaitali, Katha O Kahini, Ksanika, most of the poems of Naibedya and Kheya, and the songs of GITANJALI and Gitimalya.


Kuthibadi is a picturesque three-storied terraced bungalow, constructed with brick, timber, corrugated tin sheets and Raniganj tiles. Silaidaha Kuthibadi is nestled within about eleven acres of beautiful orchards of mango, jackfruit and other evergreen trees, a flower garden and two ponds. Silaidaha has an enchanting natural beauty and rural landscape. The Villa, enclosed within a boundary wall, is entered through a simple but attractive gateway on the south. It's looking out side is very wonderful.


It accommodates about 15 apartments of various sizes with a large central hall on the ground and the first floors. Each of the open terraces on the ground and the first floors is partly covered with a sloping roof of Raniganj tiles, while the central part over the ground floor has a pitched roof with gable ends. A short pyramidal crest farther variegates the roof over the second storey. Silaidaha Kuthibadi is now a protected national monument where a Thakur Memorial Museum has been established by the government.

The birth and death anniversaries of the poet are observed at Silaidaha on a national level on 25 Baishakh and 22 Shraban respectively. Many scholars from home and abroad attend these celebrations and take part in discussions on the life and works of Rabindranath. Cultural functions follow, during which prominent artistes present TAGORE SONGS.

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