Kathak maestro Shovana Narayan pays tribute to Tagore

Among the multitude of themes in Rabindranath Tagore’s creations, loss and loneliness have an important place in his corpus of works.
But it was not only because the litterateur grew up a lonely, motherless boy, but also because he suffered the loss of his confidante and best critic, Kadambari Devi, who was also Tagore’s sister-in-law.
It is this relationship – often put under the microscope by scholars and critics – which inspired Kathak maestro Shovana Narayan to come up with her new dance production, “Kadambari: The Poet’s Muse”, in which she explores various facets of Kadambari’s relationship with Tagore.
“I have always been hearing about Kadambari, the mysterious sister-in-law, and I kept wondering what it was, and why is it that everyone keeps on giving that reference,” says Shovana, adding, “She was the one who had introduced him to middle-class values, because she came from that background.”
Kadambari was married to Tagore’s elder brother, Jyotirindranath. But the marriage was rather lonely. It was her untimely death – she committed suicide in 1884 for reasons not really known – that left a young Tagore distraught.
“Till the end, Kadambari remained Tagore’s muse, influencing a gamut of his creations that touched upon the varied shades of human existence – love, pain, happiness, loss and longing,” shares Shovana.