Where poetry meets the plough

"Rabindranath Tagore and the forgotten village of Odisha's Pandua

- AMBIKA PRASAD KANUNGO

In the quiet heart of Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district lies Pandua a village unmarked by grandeur, its lanes still edged by palms and ponds, its fields breathing the same pastoral calm that may once have touched Rabindranath Tagore's imagination.

Few travellers pause here today, yet Pandua holds a story that binds the poet of Santiniketan to the enduring soil of rural Odisha.

Roots in the soil

The Tagore family's connection with Odisha runs deep. Rabindranath's great-grandfather Nilamani Thakur served in Cuttack as a Sirastadar (revenue officer) under the British. In 1840, his grandfather Prince Dwarkanath Tagore bought a small estate near Pandua, while the family maintained a residence at Tulasipur, Cuttack. His father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, came to Odisha around 1851 to manage the estate and visit Puri.

When Rabindranath himself arrived in 1891, it was with quiet curiosity to see the land his ancestors had tended and to understand the life that grew from it. Not far from where the Mahanadi meets the sea, he found Pandua, a village of ponds, betel vines and mango groves.

The two men shared a belief that India's regeneration must begin in her villages in the moral and creative life of her people.

Responding to Gopabandhu's call, Tagore journeyed again to Pandua, not as a guest of honour but as a seeker, walking through its narrow lanes, speaking to peasants, teachers, and children.

Local accounts recall that the Tagore estate once covered 53 villages across Jagatsinghpur. Pandua became one of the poet's favourite retreats, and it is believed that he penned parts of "Chitrangada" here, inspired by the rhythms of Odisha's landscape.

Beyond Bengal