In literature, the relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and Kadambari Devi has mostly been a play of allusions and elisions. It has been talked of only in whispers. Yet, it was a friendship where two people experienced real bonding and freedom, an attachment that perhaps deepened into love, with all its pains, but could make no promises.
Dance guru Shovana Narayan's dance drama, Kadambari: The Poet’s Muse, is an attempt to reach the essence and lift the veil on the mystery of the Tagore household’s most illustrious son and the 'Bard of Bengal'. The dance drama is set to explore the human drama through a mix of Kathak and Rabindra Sangeet and is to be staged in Delhi after a gap of 11 years on March 18 at Kamani Auditorium. The performance has been staged in the city thrice before this.
Personal connection
Sarla Devi Chaudharani, the niece of Tagore, was friends with Narayan's father KD Narayan, a civil servant. Sarla devi had rented her house to the Narayans and Shovana grew up hearing stories of Tagore--his life, his art and his muse.
“Although I could never comprehend Tagore's complex relationship with Kadambari, it always made me sad,” she says. Her mother would often sing "Tomar holo shuru, amar holo shara" (For you, it is a beginning; for me, it is an ending), and she would be overcome with emotions and start crying. Such was her connection with Kadambari right from a tender age.
When Narayan grew up, she was still captivated by this undefined relationship and was determined to stage it. Zakia Zaheer, the granddaughter of the Urdu poet Altaf Hussain Hali, helped her script it. After extensive research, with insights from Professor Aruna Chakravarti, including scenes from her novel Jorasanko, Dr Minoti Chatterjee, and theatre artist Averee Chourey, she was ready with a production and ready for the audience.
Readying for the big day
TMS dropped in during a rehearsal as the troupe was rehearsing for the upcoming show. Chakkars, tatkaar, and Narayan explaining the taal and laya set the tone for the big day. Dusty costumes were brought out of the cupboard for new measurements and redesigning. Seniors of the group corrected those new to the troupe, there were interruptions, yet the 'tehai' settled it all in calm.
“Tagore's art was deeply inspired by Kadambari, and the core of this presentation is to keep that authenticity alive,” says Narayan.
She believes “revisiting Tagore today is less about nostalgia” and more about reconnecting with ideas that still feel remarkably relevant at present. “We talk a lot today about an integrated education system,” she says, “Tagore created that kind of environment at Santiniketan long ago, where philosophy, education, performing arts and literature all flowed together.” For her, Tagore’s vision is timeless and reflects a way of learning that is holistic. “It is something modern institutions are only now beginning to rediscover,” she says in between guiding her students to strike the perfect posture.
The character arc
Narayan who is playing Kadambari, says that chronic depression, a sense of abandonment and emotional seclusion had gripped Kadambari. She was “not just a muse but an artist with an unfathomable void”. Married at a young age to Jyotirindranath Tagore, she was the sister-in-law of Rabindranath; the two became friends as they were close in age. After the death of Rabindranath’s mother, Kadambari had become a quiet source of care and support, a keen literary confidante, offering candid feedback on his early writings. The two even gave each other nicknames — he called her "Hecate", and he was her "Bhanu".
But in the wider household she was a marginalised figure. She was labelled "barren" for being unable to conceive and also blamed for the accidental death of her niece. The discovery of a love letter among her husband’s belongings, his frequent absences, and finally Rabindranath’s marriage pushed her to breaking point, eventually leading to her suicide. She was just 25. Incorporating all this into the character on stage took rigorous work, says Narayan.
According to Dhiraj Singh, who is playing Rabindranath, the play, “is more about his (Rabindranath’s) vulnerabilities, his awakening into the world of ideas and relationships, power dynamics and, of course, love, so in that sense it is going into areas not explored much, especially in classical dance that tends to be more traditional narratives”.
Singh said he had been “following Gurudev’s footsteps in my own small way ... .I write, act, paint, make films, and now work as an educator trying to explore new ways of looking at learning in the midst of the massive technological shifts of our time. Perhaps that is why Shovana ji felt I was right for the role.”
There was no formal audition or interview, he recalls—not even a costume trial. “She met me after a performance where I was in the audience and simply said, 'I have found my Rabi.'” As the rehearsals winded down and the group sat in a semicircle still singing the Tagore song merged with a tarana—a fragile space where art can breathe was taking shape. Narayan’s attempt to revisit a deeply human story that shaped one of India’s greatest literary minds was sharpening its form behind closed curtains through movement, music and memory.