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6/4 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane, Calcutta - 700 007
Telephone - 2239-6601

VICHITRA BHAVAN .

Built upon a sprawling area in Jorasanko, Calcutta, the palatial ancestral house of the illustrious Tagore family stands against a picturesque backdrop. The house, wherein the poet Rabindranath lived, has been tranformed into the Rabindra Bharati Museum - an integral part of the Rabindra Bharati University was establised for advancement of the highest education in various disciplines of Humanities and Performing Arts.

The Museum was declared open to the public on 8th 1961 by the then Prime Minister Sri Jawajarlal Nehru and it conserves and exhibits many of Rabindranath's creative works as well as some of his personal belongings.

The Galleries cover an approximate area of 30,000 sq.ft. and contain collections of paintings and other curios of art. Some of the most notable publications of the Museum have been the two books, "Contributions of Tagore family in Art of India" and the "Art of Rabindranath Tagore", as also a few picture postcards and an album of the portraits of Tagore at different ages. The Museum primarily displays the life and activities of the Poet in visuals, represented through his personal habitat in the building, his personal belongings, his paintings and a wide variety and publications.

The first of the building is known as the 'Maharshi Bhavan'. Through the stairs the visitor could reach the galleries which consists principally of abjects pertaining to the life of the Poet.Then one could gradually find the 'Prayan Kaksha', the living rooms of the poet and his wife, dinning hall, kitchen and adjoining store room.

The 'Vichitra' hall is a house adjoining the Maharshi Bhavan. The Hall came into existence in 1887 and it accomodates many of the creative activities of the Poet just as it also gives an idea about other cultural activities in his life. Select gatherings, under the aegis of the ;Vichitra Club', used this spacious hall for holding literary and cultural programmes. One of the room, adjacent to the Vichitra Hall belonged to Mrinalini Devi, the Poet's wife. Beside this room is the Poet's study, where he used to receive his guests. On the outside corridor of the Vichitra Hall most of the 'first-edition' books of Tagore and translationsof his works in different languages are displayed in a couple of shoecases. A detailed illustrations of his family-tree and a map showing the countries visited by Tagore are kept on the corridor. The small ante-chamber in the second floor of the 'Maharshi Bhavan' displays many of the objects connected with the cultural upheaval of the time live Portraits of Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Michael Madhusudan etc. along with notable literacy documents and a unique collection of the personal belongings of Iswarchandra Vidyasagar.