By IANS
Agartala : National broadcaster Doordarshan Friday organised a special programme in Tripura to commemorate the 146th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Two events were held at the historic Kunjaban Palace and Ujjayanta Palace and was telecast live nationwide by the Doordarshan.
Noted singers and artistes like Balamurali Krishna, Kavita Krishnamurti, L. Subramaniam, and Sriradha Bandopadhyaya were among those who performed at the functions.
"Tripura's culture, literature and dance occupy a special place in Rabindranath's literary repertoire and his many visits to Tripura resulted in blending the cultures of Tripura and West Bengal to flourish in the famous poet's literary creations," said Tapan Kumar Das, deputy director general of Doordarshan.
Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahaya inaugurated the Kunjaban Palace (now the Raj Bhavan) programme, while Chief Minister Manik Sarkar inaugurated the Ujjayanta Palace (now the state assembly house) function.
"Rabindranath visited the erstwhile princely state as many as seven times since 1899 and last visited in March 1926," renowned writer and researcher Bikach Chowdhury told IANS.
Tripura had a special place in manuy of Tagore's songs and wrote a number of novels with the then princely state's history as the theme. Some of these novels are "Bisharjan", "Mukut" and "Rajarshi".
"Tripura's the then king Birchandra Kishore Manikya Bahadur first felicitated Tagore in 1882 at the poet's ancestral home at central Kolkata's Jorashanko in West Bengal," Chowdhury said.