Maharishi Tagore, beloved spiritual leader for the time aspired that Rabi be the first barrister in the family and soon he was dispatched to England. Here Tagore's eldest sister-in-law and his niece and nephew who were close to him in age, were sent to live with him and keep him company - an uncharacteristic move considering the same thoughtfulness had been absent for most of his childhood. Perhaps to ensure that he didn't leave school out of home-sickness. Or possibly, the family had awakened to his extraordinary bond with Kadambari and wanted to ensure he didn't run back to her and resume a path that would lead to the unthinkable. Nevertheless, after reading briefly at University college Tagore left school yet again for an independent study. He returned in 1880 without the degree his father had hoped, but resolute in his ambition to blend European novelty with Brahmo customs. He moved in with his elder brother and Kadambari yet again.
There is no information on his activities in the three years spanning his return to Kolkata in 1880 until 1883. That is the year when things finally came to a steam. The calculated silence of the Tagore family and the absence of data seem to indicate that the three years following his disappointing return sans education were one during something so powerful had happened as to warrant a blackout. All we know is that in 1883, one fine day the Maharishi summoned Tagore to see him in Shimla. No one knows what happened but a few days later Rabi was married to a hastily procured bride, a child of one of their estate hands. An illiterate, uncultured 10 year old who was dispatched to a Loreto convent immediately for education.
Two months following this hasty marriage Rabindra published his next collection of poems and songs under the title " Chabi O Gaan " . As in the past and as would be in the future, this book was also dedicated to Lady He. What Kadambari felt about his marriage is unclear. Some say that she herself was involved in the selection of Bhabatarini, hoping that a thin, unattractive girl would be rejected by Rabi but was taken aback by his acceptance and had spiralled into depression. Some say she was the one person in the Tagore Manor who was uninterested in seeing him get married or being of aid in the matter. But all the above are mere speculations and fade in the light of a poem that was included in Rabi's first book post marriage.
Rahur Prem.
Rahu, in Hindu mythology is the name of the demon who swallows the moon as eclipse through his shadow. Ponder, if you will the lyrics of this poem ....
"I am your companion from the beginning of time, for I am your own shadow.
In your laughter, in your tears, you shall sense my dark self hovering near you, now in front, now behind.
At the dead of night when you are lonely and dejected, you’ll be startled to find how near I am seated by you, gazing into your face
Wherever you turn, you will see me. My shadow will taper off to the sky but it will enshroud the whole world.
My miserable voice and sinister smile will resound in all directions because I am the hunger never appeased, the thirst never quenched.
I am always there, a dagger in your breast, a poison in your mind, a disease in your body.
Just as the night comes at the end of the day, I am behind you and that is your destiny".
("Rahu"s love).
Imagine, if you will, a woman trapped in a loveless, childless marriage, perhaps broken hearted at the marriage of her childhood lover. Imagine her inner turbulence caused by a dilemma of the highest moral order, her increasingly feeble attempts at propriety. Her self-denial and helplessness in fighting off the passion of her childhood playmate, friend and soul mate.
Then imagine, this woman reading the verse above.
For the first time in the history of poetry, a bard had compared the all-consuming obsessive love that blossoms between two souls with the consumption of the beautiful, virginal moon by the shadow of the eclipse, the demon Rahu. Here, unlike his earlier romantic works there was no talk of sentiments. Rahu's love is not the platonic love of friends or playmates.
Rahu's Love is the insatiable hunger of frustrated desire, pursuing the object of it's passion ,as dark as his own shadow self. The imagery that Rabindra used in this poem was not only crude and sordid, it was blatant to the point of mockery. Whether directed at his father and family or at Kadambari herself we will never know. But we have to be blind to not know that the poem was a counter assault in response to his forced marriage and separation from his beloved.
Through this poem Rabi the boy was asserting the end of his boyhood romanticism and tenderness that marked his poems. Gone was the shy boy whose poems spoke of platonic and universal love. Rahu's love, his declaration of his inner self was his war cry. Rahu's love, declares that it is the love that is all consuming, devoid of discipline and kindness towards the moon, the object of passion. He declares that he will hang about her, his dark love a knot that will never be untied, his ruthless desire to consume her again and again in his shadow will be an iron chain fastened to her feet. Whether she likes him or not, there is no escape for her, for his shadow is her fate, her companion and soul mate since the beginning of time.
Hekate, the moon goddess however would have the last say over the love of the Demon, she wouldn't be the prisoner of his desire. She would change her fate. She would end her inner conflict between love and family honour on her own terms, leaving Rahu, Bhanu Simha, Rabi and Ravindra, all composites of her soulmate in an agony worse than death.
Two months after the publication of Rahur Prem, Jorasanko manor was shaken to it's core when it's young, beautiful 25 year old daughter-in-law took her own life through an opium overdose and Rabindra's criticism of his family business as Death Trade became the greatest irony of his life.
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