The hill region of Uttarakhand has a relationship with literature which is perhaps as old as literature itself. This strong bond between writers /poets and Uttarakhand exists till today as there have been and are many writers who belong to this place or have made it their home.
The creator of our great epic The Mahabharata, Rishi Ved Vyasa, achieved this creation at Mana village near Badrinath. Veda Vyas Guha, where Veda Vyasa resided and composed the Mahabharata and Ganesha Guha, where lord Ganesh wrote the Mahabharata as dictated by Ved Vyasa, can be seen by visitors to the area. Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet, has described the seasons of Garhwal and Kumaon hills in his famous works like Meghdootam and Abhigyan Shakuntalam. Some scholars have said that Kalidasa was a resident of this region while others believe that he was a visitor and was inspired greatly by the natural splendour of the place.
And in this glorious tradition followed Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore whose intense attachment to the hills of Kumaon is legendary. His love affair with the hills of Kumaon is well-known. He came back to these hills again and again. It is a matter of great pride that Tagore wrote some verses of Gitanjali, which brought him the Nobel prize, while he was in Kumaon in 1914. And it was here that the idea of Visva Bharati first came to his mind. It is believed that he had even thought of setting up an ashram in the Himalayas. His last holiday in Kumaon was in Almora, four years before his death in 1941
In the summer of 1937, Tagore spent a very creative summer at Almora where he stayed at a bungalow which is now known as 'Tagore House' or Tagore Bhavan, located in the cantonment area of Almora. It now houses the cantonment board office.In May and June 1937, Tagore stayed here and wrote his poems Sejuti, Akaash Pradeep and Nobojaatok besides his book on science Bishwa Porichoy. A bronze inscription which has the face of the great poet and philosopher can be seen at Tagore House.
However, this was not Gurudev's first visit to Kumaon. The summer of the year 1903 saw him as a grief-stricken father, with two of his children, trying to find solace in the serene Kumaon. His wife Mrinalini had passed away in 1902 and whose twelve-year daughter Renuka had contracted tuberculosis. In early May in 1903, he had left for the Kumoan hills with Renuka and his younger son, Samindranath. He stayed in Ramgarh near Naini Tal till August and took the two children back to Calcutta. In mid-September 1903, Renuka died. later, even Sami died (1907).
Gurudev came to the hills of Kumaon again in early May in the year 1914 and remained there till June. He was at Ramgarh, in a cottage amid apple orchards and pines from where one gets a breathtaking panoramic view of the Himalayas from Chaukhamba to the Nepal Himalayan ranges. The place left him spellbound and became a great favourite with him. The house where Gurudev lived at Ramgarh was on a high ridge and is now known as 'Tagore Top'. It is situated at a height of 8,500 feet above sea level. Gurudev wrote some verses of Gitanjali here.
The influence of Tagore on the culture and literature of Kumaon can also be seen as a result of his several visits to the hill region and also due to the fact that some of the writers of those days visited or studied at Shantiniketan. The great writer from Kumaon, Gaura Pant Shivani, alongwith her older siblings, was sent to Shantiniketan and studied there for almost a decade until she graduated in 1943. She was strongly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and the Bengali culture and this is evident in her works like Krishnakali. When Tagore came to Almora, he would always visit Shivani's family.
Many of the Kumaoni stories and also the works of Mrinal Pandey and Ira Pandey, daughters of Shivani, have a flavour which is reminiscent of Bengali culture and literature. The simplicity of lifestyle and the highly idealistic thinking, alongwith the love for traveling can be seen in Bengali and Kumaoni cultures and works of writing. Shivani's women characters remind one of those in Tagore's and Sarat Chandra's novels. More than 70 years have gone by. But the memories of Tagore's last stay in Almora, in May and June, remain etched clearly on the hills of Kumaon.