Kolkata: Visva-Bharati (V-B) has reopened Santiniketan Griha – the oldest house on the campus – for tourists after over six years. Visitors at the end of the guided heritage walks will now be able to visit it. The university also plans to open the five houses of Rabindranath Tagore – Udayan, Shyamali, Punascha, Konark and Udichi – in the Uttarayan complex after the puja holidays.V-B PRO Atig Ghosh said, “The heritage Santiniketan Griha has been opened to tourists. It is located in the ashram area. Santiniketan Griha was established before the Upasana Griha. Tourists can only access the ground floor at present. They can take rest here at the end of the heritage walk and will not need a separate ticket.”He added that the five houses will be opened after the puja holidays and there will be a separate ticketing system to visit these five houses. “Since Shyamali is a mud house, entry inside may be restricted, but visitors will be allowed to enter the four houses,” Ghosh shared.Santiniketan was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in Sept 2023. Santiniketan Griha along with the five heritage houses is a pivotal part of the heritage site.Santiniketan Griha, adjacent to Upasana Griha (the prayer hall), is the first brick house in Santiniketan. It was bought by Maharshi Debendranath Tagore in 1862 from a local zamindar. It served as the meeting place for members of the Tagore family and prominent figures of Brahmo Samaj, where prayers and various ceremonies were held. The site later formed the emotional and physical nucleus around which Rabindranath founded his experimental school – Brahmacharyaashram – in 1901.The Uttarayan complex encompasses these five houses, which are architectural marvels and reflect Tagore’s love for nature and seclusion. “All the five houses are of different types. Konark was the first house followed by Shyamali, Punascha, Udichi and Udayan. Shyamali is a mud house. After building Shyamali, Tagore thought he wouldn’t build any more houses. But then he built again, which is why the name is Punascha. He was facing difficulty in painting at the single-storey Punascha; hence built Udichi, which is two-storied. The last house built was Udayan, where Tagore spent his last years. It is the largest among the five,” shared Ghosh.V-B conducts guided heritage walks on Monday, Tuesday, Wed, Friday, Sat & Sunday.
