The Poet’s Planchettes: Stories of Rabindranath and the Other Worldly

Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer

Aadrit Banerjee

Rabindranath Tagore, the sensuous poet whose unmatched poetic musings on love and divinity are known all over the world, had a different side to him, that which is much less known. That was his interest with the other worldly, with the supernatural — the Nobel Laureate, whose stories such as “Khudito Pashan” (The Hungry Stones), “Monihara” (The Lost Jewels), Nishite (In The Night) and “Konkaal” (Skeleton) are hailed as milestones in the genre of Bengali gothic fiction, would throughout his life participate and hold séances to communicate with spirits starting from those of deceased poets to his beloved youngest son.

Sukumar Roy

On November 6 1929, for instance, Tagore communed with the spirit of the deceased Sukumar Roy, the famous nonsense verse writer, in a séance session organized at his Jorasanko residence, in which the painter, Abanindranath, Rabindranath’s nephew, was also present. Mohitchandra Sen’s daughter Uma Devi, called endearingly as Bula, acted as the medium in this session where Tagore had asked Sukumar: “(Sir Arthur) Conan Doyle receives messages from the other world, are they true?”, and the specter had replied, “True, but laced with imagination.” The spirit of the “Abol Tabol” poet had prophesied the triumph of Rabindranath’s paintings in Europe, and requested for the admission of his son Satyajit as a student at the Santiniketan ashram. Satyajit who regularly wrote about séances in his stories and was a member of the West Bengal Parapsychology Society, might have heard of this dialogue from his mother.

With Bula, Tagore would hold routine sessions between October and December 1929. During one of these sessions, held at Santiniketan, the spirit of Abanindranath’s son-in-law, Manilal Gangopadhyay was conjured, and made to paint a picture with Nandalal Bose’s assistance. Poet and scholar Amiya Chakravarty, who transcribed some of these sessions, later described them as products of Rabindranath’s childlike whims, while Amitabha Chowdhury in his “Rabindranather Paralokcharcha” explains how Rabindranath had an open, and curious mind.

In a letter to Pramathanath Bishi, dated 1937, Tagore had once recounted how he had met the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta but that was through a “pretbanibaha chakrajan” or “a wheeled vehicle carrying the messages of ghosts”. What Tagore was referring to was definitely a planchette. In his memoir, “Jibansmriti” Rabindranath says how when “the spirit of Kailas Mukherjee, a cashier of the Tagores, was convened, he bluntly refused to reveal to the living what he had learnt only after his death.”

On many occasions, Tagore would try to interact with his beloved ‘notun bouthan’, his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, with whom he shared a very special relationship and who had been the Muse of many of his poems, after her suicide in 1884. Whereas, he would consult the spirit of Mrinalini Devi, his wife, on significant family matters.

Jnanadanandini Devi, Satyendranath tagore, Kadambari Devi and Jyotirindranath Tagore

Among all the several tragic personal losses that the poet of Geetanjali had had to endure throughout his life, perhaps the most difficult was the death of his youngest son Shamindranath during the cholera epidemic of 1907. Tagore wrote:

“I saw the vision of my son lying in the heart of the Infinite and I was about to cry to my friend, who was nursing the boy in the next room, that the child was safe, that he had found his liberation.

I felt like a father who had sent his son across the sea, relieved to learn of his safe arrival and success in finding his place. I felt at once that the physical nearness of our dear ones to ourselves is not the final meaning of their protection. It is merely a means of satisfaction to our own selves and not necessarily the best that could be wished for them.”

It was this son, young Shami, who had shown the sensibilities like his father at that early age, that Tagore would conjure frequently in these séances. Even to the other souls he would enquire of his little Shami. To the specter of his elder daughter Madhurilata whom he had invoked once, he would request to take care of her ‘chonchol’ — naughty little brother. Shami’s presence had informed Tagore that on the other side of life Shami was building his own world: ‘Shamir Prithibi’, and the curious ‘Biswakabi’ would forever enquire his son about the progress he had made in building this world, about whether he remembers his father, his childhood memories, and about whether he would allow his father an entry to his world after his death. To the other souls he would call, Tagore would ask them too about the world of Shami.. From an innocent, poetic curiosity, perhaps now, the supernatural had become the poet’s way to forget, and yet hold onto, one of his deepest sorrows.

An archival photo of the Tagore family: (On left) The eldest son Rathindranath and youngest daughter Meera; (On right) daughter-in-law Protima and eldest daughter Madhurilata(HT file photo)

Tagore’s interest in séances, in planchettes, reveal a very different side of the poet. Yet, that is how the man was — it is difficult to guess whether he really believed in these instances, or whether or not these were also a product of his creative imaginations. Yet that is a debate for some other time, what we must rather analyze is how these wide array of experiences influenced and enriched his works. And how even till date Tagore remains to us, as that one single poet who best describes both the joy of life, the peace of death, and the intrigues of a life after death.

References:

• Tagore, Rabindranath. “Letter to Maharajkumari Vidyavati Devi (27 December, 1935).” Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 462-63.
• Tagore, Rabindranath. My Reminiscences, trans. Surendranath Tagore. The Macmillan Company, 1917.
• Chattopadhyay, Purnananda. Rabindranath O Rabindranath. Ananda
• Chowdhury Amitabha. Rabindranather Paralokcharcha. Saptarshi Prakashan.
• Dasgupta, Mahua. “Rabindranath, Planchette, Ebong ‘Shamir Prithibi'”. Bongodorshon, 20 Jul. 2021, bongodorshon.com/rabindranath-tagore-planchette-and-shamindranath-tagore
• Sarkar, Abishek. “Planchette and séance: Bengali authors seeking messages from the dead”. Dhaka Tribune, 30 Aug. 2021, dhakatribune.com/magazine/arts-letters/2021/08/30/planchette-and-s-ance-bengali-authors-seeking-messages-from-the-dead