Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Wednesday decided to restore Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s house in Puri and convert it into a museum, a minister said.
The decision in this regard was taken at a high-level review meeting held under the chairmanship of Minister of Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department, Suryavanshi Suraj.
“It has been decided to restore Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s residence ‘Pather Puri’ in Puri and convert it into a museum in his memory,” the minister said.
He said that the house located near the sea beach was earlier used as Boys’ hostel for students of Samanta Chandra Sekhar (SCS) College before being abandoned.
According to historian and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), Odisha chapter, coordinator, Anil Dhir, the land at Chakratirtha Road was allotted to Tagore in 1939 by then prime minister of Odisha of British India. Tagore family had built a palatial building over the land and subsequently donated it to the state government to use the building for promotion of education, Dhir said.
“When there was a move by Puri Municipality to demolish the building as it was completely dilapidated, INTACH took up the matter by drawing the attention of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and then Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The building was saved, but its boundary wall was demolished to widen the road to the sea beach,” Dhir told PTI.
He said that it is believed that Tagore stayed at this heritage building for some time and composed his famous poems like ‘Pravasi’, ‘Janmadin’, and ‘Epare Opare’.
A portion of his celebrated work, Gitanjali, was also written in this house, he said.
Keeping in view the heritage importance of the building, local people, intellectuals, writers and many eminent persons have been demanding restoration of the building, Dhir said, adding that the building is now in a dilapidated state and needs restoration.
“The building was not repaired after it suffered huge damage in Cyclone Fani that hit Puri in 2019,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state government has consulted INTACH for the conservation of the building.
The high-level meeting also resolved to set up a ‘Theme Pavilion’ on eminent writers of Odia literature and their works in the upcoming Cuttack Bali Yatra starting from November 5.
Indonesia will be invited as a partner country this year, and under ‘Ek Bharat Sreshtha Bharat’, a major state of the country will also be invited as a partner state. Some countries of South Asia will also be requested to send their cultural teams, the minister said.
The meeting also decided to provide financial assistance to Gajalakshmi Puja pandals in Kendrapara district and fill up all vacant posts in the Culture University, Utkal Music College, Bibhuti Kanungo and Khallikote Charu and Karukala Colleges under the Culture Department.
Apart, the meeting also decided that the State Archaeology Department will take over the responsibility of restoring the Kalidas Temple in Kendrapara district, and the state-owned Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation (OBCC) has been directed to expedite the construction work of the Odia Ashmita Bhavan near the Sainik School in Bhubaneswar.
