Among the many guests and professors from the West who visited Rabindranath Tagore’s open-air university, Visva-Bharati, was the French intellectual and author Sylvain Lévi (1863-1935), who specialized in oriental studies.

Like many others, Lévi was drawn to the poet’s idea of ​​an institution in the lap of nature because it held the promise of broadening vision and the cross-pollination of cultures. He taught Sanskrit and Indian religion at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and is remembered for his dictionary of Buddhism. Another job that is of importance to the Indians is The Indian theaterhis dissertation of 1890.

After his appointment as professor at the Collège de France (1894-1935), considered the most prestigious research center in France, he toured India and Japan (1897 and 1898). As a result of his travels, he published The doctrine of sacrifice in the Brāhmanas in 1898, followed by Nepal: historical study of a Hindu kingdom (1905–08), and India and the world (1926), in which he analyzed India’s role among nations.

Rabindranath had invited Lévi and his wife, Désirée (1867-1943), to join Visva-Bharati when he visited Paris in 1920-21, and the invitation was immediately accepted. Sylvain Lévi and Désirée were present at the opening ceremony of Visva-Bharati in 1921.

Lévi was the university’s first visiting professor. During his stay in Santiniketan from November 1921 to August 1922, Lévi taught French, Chinese and Tibetan, while Désirée taught a French course.

Désirée’s book, originally titled In India: from Ceylon to Nepaland published in 1925, is a compilation of edited versions of her letters to various people written during her travels through Asia with her husband in 1921-22. Rob Aft’s is possibly the first English translation of his book.

An empathetic personal account

It is a personal account and presents an insightful and colorful portrait of those times written by someone who kept his eyes and ears open, although he preferred to remain in the background. It was his empathy with the people of the countries he visited that distinguished his account of the racism and condescension, often taken to cruel and absurd extremes, that were the order of the day.

Pratapaditya Pal’s afterword is packed with information about the genesis of this book and the environment in which Désirée wrote it.

Nandadulal De, who was a French teacher at Visva-Bharati, had published a Bengali translation of the book, although its title, Mrs. Levir’s diaryIt’s a misnomer. The book is more of a first-person epistolary travelogue. This valuable document is out of print. De had written that Indira Debi, Rabindranath’s learned niece, had earlier translated it into Bengali. Never saw the light of day

Désirée was overshadowed by her husband’s enormous erudition; she is not mentioned by name in Visva-Bharati’s online entry on Sylvain Lévi. However, as Pal points out, her “motherly behavior” was a decisive factor in Rabindranath extending his invitation to the Lévis to Santiniketan. His account was used “extensively to reconstruct the early days” of Rabindranath’s dream university.

Aft, who is well-traveled and lives in the United States, by his own admission, studied French literature and worked as a literary translator in Paris. He is also a tireless photographer and an expert in film and television financing and distribution. He has used some of his relevant photographs in this book. The clarity and vividness of Aft’s translation make the book eminently readable. Even more so when we can almost hear Désirée say what she thinks. More than the metropolises, Désirée was deeply impressed by the bounty of nature with which India was blessed.

The title of Aft’s book echoes in indiawhich is the title of William Marchant’s English translation of André Chevrillon’s travel diary published in 1896. Chevrillon (1864-1957) was a writer, critic, and member of the French Academy. Both books offer vivid glimpses of life in 19th-century India, although Chevrillon’s rabid racism contrasts Désirée’s open-mindedness. Chevrillon was amazed by the temples of Ellora Kailasa carved into a granite hill, but the dark-skinned races did not increase in his esteem.

Not that it matters, but the absurdity of this leaves one dumbfounded. Jyotirindranath Tagore, Rabindranath’s elder brother, had selectively translated the book into Bengali at large.

Both books have certain things in common. For example, both the Chevrillon before and the Lévis later initially followed the same maritime route, via Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and both visited the cities of Calcutta (Kolkata) and Bombay (Mumbai), the starting point being the Lévis stays in Santiniketan and Nepal.

Curiously, for both writers India seems to have been synonymous with Hindus. Islam and Muslims did not seem to exist for them.

As expected, Désirée was dazzled by the Taj Mahal. He wanted to meet the reigning queen of Bhopal, but Moharram stood in his way. And there ends a story. Chevrillon was obsessed with the milling and chattering Hindu masses, and shaming Brahmins may have been his favorite pastime, but he rarely mentioned Muslims. Both Frenchmen were very aware of the heat. Désirée felt warm when they arrived in Santiniketan in November!

Although she was gentle, she was a keen observer of the life around her, including the delivery of nocturnal excrement each morning and the cruelty of the exclusionary Hindu caste system. Both Désirée and Chevrillon were overwhelmed by the temples’ abundance of ornamentation, although Désirée explained: “…underneath all this chaos, you can see order, a balance…”

Like the mother-daughter duo of Hungarian artists, Elizabeth Sass Brunner and Elizabeth Brunner, who visited Santiniketan in 1930, Désirée was captivated by Rabindranath’s captivating image.

Désirée enjoyed the privilege of visiting the indian harems of its hosts and offers fascinating glimpses of opulent, claustrophobic interiors filled with bedridden women. They were very different from the women she met at Santiniketan and at Tagore’s headquarters in Jorasanko, who enjoyed freedom. Cool as he was, his sense of humor shines through when he contrasts the dhoti-clad “Dinabandhu” Andrews with his “gentle face” and the Bishop of Assam: “My lord is a terrible demon, dressed in black from head to toe…”. In the chapter on “The Jews of Calcutta,” he describes an Italian restaurant: “…music, women in low-cut dresses, very flirtatious, whiskey and soda;…”

Unlike many visitors from the West, Désirée showed considerable interest in prevailing nationalist movements that often turned violent. Her sympathy was entirely with the Indians, because the crushing poverty of the working masses moved her intensely. However brief, his reports of the turmoil are quite moving.

Désirée was keenly aware of the differences between Gandhi and Rabindranath in their attitude toward Western civilization, although she respected both personalities. “For Gandhi, India’s happiness depends on forgetting, rejecting all the lessons that the West has taught… For Tagore… it is his most ardent wish… that there be a direct collaboration between the two worlds…”

EO Hoppé’s photographs give readers an idea of ​​what Santiniketan was like when the Lévis were visiting. The photographer of the Lévis in Indian clothing is unknown. Désirée, in her typical modest way, described her story as “grandmother’s stories.” He did not realize its value as a first-hand account of Santiniketan in its early days. If only she could witness what her husband had described as an “abode of incomparable peace” it has become.

Soumitra Das is a freelance journalist based in Kolkata.

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