Jorasanko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jorasanko is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata. It is so called because of the two (jora) wooden or bamboo bridges (sanko) that spanned a small stream at this point.
[edit] History
The distinguished seat of the Tagore family, traditionally known as the Jorasanko Thakur Bari, it was also home of the Singhas (including Kaliprasanna Singha), the Pals (including Krishnadas Pal), and the families of Dewan Banarasi Ghosh and Chandramohan Chatterji. “The area thus became the cradle of Bengal Renaissance.” [1] It was earlier known as Mechuabazar. [2]
The earliest list of thanas (police stations) in Kolkata was prepared in 1785 for both police and municipal administration. Jorasanko was one of the 31 thanas then recorded. [3]
Amongst the institutions in Jorasanko are – Adi Brahmo Samaj, the Jorasanko Bharati Natya Samaj, the Kalikata Haribhakti Pradayani Sabha, the Minerva Library and Oriental Seminary. [4] The Oriental Seminary started in 1829 by the educator Gour Mohan Addy, was one of the earliest privately run, first-rate, Hindu supported modern school in Kolkata, open to middle and lower middle-class Hindu boys only. [5]
Jorasanko is located on Rabindra Sarani (earlier Chitpore Road.) “The great thoroughfare, which commencing in the extreme south, assumes the various names of Russa Road, Chowringhee Road, Bentick Street, Chitpore Road, and Barrackpore Trunk Road, forms a continuation of the Dum Dum Road and was the old line of communication between Morshedabad and Kalighat. It is said to occupy the site of the old road made by the Sabarna Roy Choudhurys, the old zemindars of Calcutta, from Barisha, where the junior branch resided, to Halisahar, beyond Barrackpore, which was the seat of the senior branch.” [6] Some people refer to the entire stretch through which Chitpore Road ran as Chitpore or Chitpur. That includes Jorasanko.
Rabindra Bharati University, the third university in Kolkata, was set up in 1962 in the Tagore family’s house at Jorasanko, primarily as a centre for music and fine arts, but extended subsequently to arts and humanities. [7]
[edit] Reference
- ^ Nair, P. Thankappan in The growth and Development of Old Calcutta in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, p 17, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-563696-1.
- ^ Deb, Chitra, Jorasanko and the Thakur Family, in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, p 64, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-563696-1
- ^ Nair, P. Thankappan, p 15.
- ^ Nair, P. Thankappan, p 17.
- ^ Kopf, David, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind, p 49, Princeton University Press.
- ^ Cotton, H.E.A., Calcutta Old and New, first published 1909, revised edition 1980, p 283, General Printers and Publishers Pvt Ltd.
- ^ Chaudhuri, Sukanta, in Education in Modern Calcutta in Calcutta, the Living City, Vol II, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, p 205, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-563697-X.
[edit] External links
- Banglapaedia on Theatre Stage – see Jorasanko Natyashala. The last stage performance at Jorasanko Natyashala was on 23 February 1867.
- PIB Press Release on Film Awards - The award for the Best Direction for the Year 2001 was given to Buddhadeb Dasgupta for the film Jorasanko Thakurbari for artistically unfolding the history of the house of the Tagores.
