Tagore’s house in Puri to be converted into museum

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday decided to restore Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s house in Puri and convert it into a museum, a minister said. A decision in this regard was taken at a high-level review meeting held under the chairmanship of Odia Language, Literature and Culture Minister Suryabanshi 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 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 road to the sea beach,” Dhir said. He said 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 a huge damage in cyclone Fani that hit Puri in 2019,” he said.

Meanwhile, the State government has consulted INTACH for 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.