A seminar, organised recently by Bidhannagar Sanskriti Angan, discussed the connection between Bengali kirtan and Rabindrasangeet.

Held at Rabindra Okakura, the talk was conducted by Rabindrasangeet exponent Arun Basu.

The first Rabindrasangeet in kirtan style was Gahon kusum kunjo majhey in Bhanusingher Padabali. At the age of 23, Tagore composed Ami jeney suney tobu bhuley thaki and Majhey majhey tobo dekha pai in Rajshahi district in present day Bangladesh in kirtan style. At the age of 36, he composed Bhalobeshey sokhi nibhritey jataney, a romantic song, in kirtan style and in 1905 again, he composed Kon alotey praner prodip jaliye.

Even in Gitanjali, there are kirtan-style songs like Oi asonotoley matir porey lutiyey rabo. In his play Prayaschitwa, Tagore wrote Orey agun amar bhai to be performed through the character of Dhananjay. Tagore was highly influenced by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and this song was probably dedicated to him.

During Mahatma Gandhi’s non-co-operation movement the bard wrote Varshamangal, in the same style. At the age of 65, when modern poets like Bishnu Dey and Buddhadeb Basu were labelling him as outdated, Tagore composed Purano janiya cheona. At the age of 70, he wrote songs like Krishnakali ami tarei boli, which gave a whole new dimension to folk and kirtan-inspired music.

Rohini Roy Chowdhuri, grand daughter of poet Jyotirindra Moitra, and Surojit Roy, faculty of Visva-Bharati University, sang in between the narration.