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Basu Bati
BASU BATI, BAGBAZAR, KOLKATA
The house at 65 Bagbazar Street belongs to NandalalBasu who hailed from Gaya. They were three brothers, Mahendranath, Nandalal and Pashupatinath. Nandalal commissioned NilmaniMitra, an engineer, to build this house on a 22-bigha plot.
The south-facing house has a column beam structure. Sixteen Doric columns accentuate the front. Iron beams support the roof. The crown of the columns resembles lotus petals. Below the petals, heads of lions can be found. Beyond the large entrance door, lies the thakurdalan. This thakurdalan was very famous for its wall paintings, and relief works in plaster. This is perhaps one of the few examples where some reflections of Bengali motif and art are evident. The walls of the house were ornamented and the roofs were painted golden. The nautchghar and balconies for women were on the first floor.
The structure is more than 100 years old and had several trysts with history – S. N. Banerjee addressed an assembly of activists against the partition of Bengal. Rabindranath Tagore and Surendranth Banerjee visited the house often to hold meetings in the central courtyard.
A disciple of Thakur Ramakrishna, Nandalal Bose, was a great lover of art. In his palatial house he collected hundreds of paintings and other artistic objects. What is most poignant in BasuBati is the collection of paintings on ground glass used as panes of several hundreds of windows of the building from ground to top floor. The paintings were unmistakably, done by the chitrakars of Kalighat. It is mentioned in the ‘Ramakrishna Kathamrita’ that Thakur Ramakrishna on seeing the paintings observed that Nandalal Bose was a great Hindu. Jamini Roy when he was searching for his national form used to visit BasuBati frequently to get inspiration from the painted panes.
Other than the glass panes, there are about a hundred oil paintings by Bamapada Banerjee, a famous name in the late nineteenth century among artists and art – lovers of Bengal.
His subjects being on mythical stories of Raja Dasarath, Raja Harishachandra, Nal – Damayanti, birth of Krishna etc. A good collection of Tanjore paintings, more, correctly, – collages in which real gold foils were used for ornamentation purposes decorated the walls of the rooms of the ground floor.
In the history of Swadeshi Movement, BasuBati fills up a significant part. The formation of the Swarajya Party took place here under the leadership of DeshbandhuChittaranjan Das. The first SwadeshiMela inaugurated by Kasturba Gandhi was held in this building. The famous students’ conference in which Anti – Imperialistic slogans were raised aloud was held in the adjoining ground of the BasuBati in 1931. The Boses gave shelter to the revolutionaries and arms and ammunition which were later confiscated by British Police. Earlier the first meeting on ‘BangaBhanga’ was held here under president ship of Surendranath Banerjee.
The witness of so many events, BasuBati with its tall columns overlooks the Baghbazar Street. That it still houses an art treasure only a few know.
Source: ashisacharjee.com/2011/06/basu-bati-bagbazar-kolkata-2/
Basu Bati
BASU BATI, BAGBAZAR, KOLKATA
The house at 65 Bagbazar Street belongs to NandalalBasu who hailed from Gaya. They were three brothers, Mahendranath, Nandalal and Pashupatinath. Nandalal commissioned NilmaniMitra, an engineer, to build this house on a 22-bigha plot.
The south-facing house has a column beam structure. Sixteen Doric columns accentuate the front. Iron beams support the roof. The crown of the columns resembles lotus petals. Below the petals, heads of lions can be found. Beyond the large entrance door, lies the thakurdalan. This thakurdalan was very famous for its wall paintings, and relief works in plaster. This is perhaps one of the few examples where some reflections of Bengali motif and art are evident. The walls of the house were ornamented and the roofs were painted golden. The nautchghar and balconies for women were on the first floor.
The structure is more than 100 years old and had several trysts with history – S. N. Banerjee addressed an assembly of activists against the partition of Bengal. Rabindranath Tagore and Surendranth Banerjee visited the house often to hold meetings in the central courtyard.
A disciple of Thakur Ramakrishna, Nandalal Bose, was a great lover of art. In his palatial house he collected hundreds of paintings and other artistic objects. What is most poignant in BasuBati is the collection of paintings on ground glass used as panes of several hundreds of windows of the building from ground to top floor. The paintings were unmistakably, done by the chitrakars of Kalighat. It is mentioned in the ‘Ramakrishna Kathamrita’ that Thakur Ramakrishna on seeing the paintings observed that Nandalal Bose was a great Hindu. Jamini Roy when he was searching for his national form used to visit BasuBati frequently to get inspiration from the painted panes.
Other than the glass panes, there are about a hundred oil paintings by Bamapada Banerjee, a famous name in the late nineteenth century among artists and art – lovers of Bengal.
His subjects being on mythical stories of Raja Dasarath, Raja Harishachandra, Nal – Damayanti, birth of Krishna etc. A good collection of Tanjore paintings, more, correctly, – collages in which real gold foils were used for ornamentation purposes decorated the walls of the rooms of the ground floor.
In the history of Swadeshi Movement, BasuBati fills up a significant part. The formation of the Swarajya Party took place here under the leadership of DeshbandhuChittaranjan Das. The first SwadeshiMela inaugurated by Kasturba Gandhi was held in this building. The famous students’ conference in which Anti – Imperialistic slogans were raised aloud was held in the adjoining ground of the BasuBati in 1931. The Boses gave shelter to the revolutionaries and arms and ammunition which were later confiscated by British Police. Earlier the first meeting on ‘BangaBhanga’ was held here under president ship of Surendranath Banerjee.
The witness of so many events, BasuBati with its tall columns overlooks the Baghbazar Street. That it still houses an art treasure only a few know.
Source: ashisacharjee.com/2011/06/basu-bati-bagbazar-kolkata-2/