Rabindranath Tagore's handwritten letters to be auctioned next week

Time of India

3 hours ago

Kolkata: A set of 35 handwritten letters of
Rabindranath Tagore
along with 14 envelopes will go under the hammer next week for an estimated price of '5-7 crore - the biggest auction of the works of the Bengali polymath in terms of price and scale.
A heart-shaped sculpture, the only known sculptural piece attributed to Tagore, will also be sold for an estimated price of '55-70 lakh.
AstaGuru Auction House
will hold the online auction on June 26-27.
The rarity and the historical significance of these works by the first non-European to win the
Nobel Prize in literature
make this event special. The auction is expected to generate interest and enthusiasm among art and literature lovers, scholars and institutions. "This auction presents collectors and institutions with access to two exceptional works that provide unique insight into Rabindranath Tagore's creative evolution, across literature, visual art and even sculpture," Astaguru chief marketing officer Manoj Mansukhani told ET.
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The letters, written between 1927 and 1936, detail Tagore's engaging correspondence with the sociologist, musicologist and his confidante, Dhurjati Prasad Mukherji.
Each letter bears the weight of a distinct moment, and 12 are written on different letterheads - from Visva-Bharati, his Uttarayan residence, Glen Eden in Darjeeling and aboard his houseboat, Padma - tracing Tagore's intellectual and geographic journey, AstaGuru said in a catalogue.
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"Tagore's letters to Mukherji have pivotal historic value and are important documents for understanding his literary mastery as well as his reflection on his own music," Abhra Ghosh, a prominent
Tagore
researcher, told ET.
Though deeply personal in tone, several of these letters are preserved through a string of publications in journals such as Parichay and books like Chhanda, Sahityer Pathe, Sur O Sangati and Sangit Chinta. "These letters should be in the possession of Rabindra Bhavana of Santiniketan which preserves Tagore's manuscripts, correspondences, paintings and sketches, other than his personal belongings. I would urge the auction house or the collector of these important documents to think to this end," Ghosh said.
In some of these letters, one would find Tagore's criticism of Bengal's rigidity as he argues that real creativity comes from adaptation. Just as Bengali literature flourished by moving beyond Sanskrit, he expressed hope that Bengali music too could grow independently but he stressed on the need for disciplined creation rooted in deep inner realisation, drawing on the classical rigor of dhrupad or Hindustani music.