Kuthibari, a double-storied residence of Rabindranath Tagore in Shilaidaha in Bangladesh’s Kushtia district, will soon be restored to its original off-white colour obtained by mixing shell-powder in the plaster material.
After intense efforts and a series of tests, the original colour of the historical protected monument of 1890s, where India’s first Nobel laureate lived a part of his life and penned some of his memorable poems, was arrived at by a team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) a few months ago.
The request to ascertain the original colour of the historical monument, which is a tourist’s hotspot now, had come from the Bangladesh Government.
A team of ASI-led by SK Mittra who recently retired as Director (Archaeology) embarked upon the mission in July to ascertain the original colour of the Kuthibari, which was constructed between 1890 to 1892.
It was one of the four places of the Guru Rabindranath Tagore’s family had in Bangladesh, said a senior official of the Union Culture Ministry.
The other members of the ASI team were Chinniah Rangappa, Ramji Nigam and Rajbir Singh. The team submitted a detailed report to the Ministry.
“During the discussions with the officials of the Bangladesh Government, the team found that Kuthibari’s external plaster was fully removed on two occasions between the years 1988 and 2000-01,” said the official.
“After intensive efforts and with the help of various magnifying lens, the experts could locate a patch on the Southern wall where the plaster was also missing resulting into exposition of inner core of the brick structure. Fortunately, some spots of orginal colours had survived the onslaught of destruction caused due to the removal of original plaster,” he added.
“Perhaps, for the fact that the removal of the plaster work was not carried out very fine which helped in the survival of the original colour in small quantity,” the official said.
He said that the report is being actively considered and another team will visit the site for further action in the matter.