SCIENCE IN THE POET'S CHILDHOOD

In 1925, Rabindranāth Tagore wrote to Praphullachandra Rāy, the distinguished chemist: ‘I was sitting reading Scientific American when I noticed an envelope from the University College of Science [where Praphullachandra taught].’ How many poets read Scientific American as a pastime, one wonders. But for Rabindranath, it followed naturally from his childhood training and bent.

In the introductory epistle to his only book on science, Bishwaparichay (1937), Rabindranath describes how science had fascinated him since childhood. His science tutor would thrill him with simple demonstrations like making the convection currents in a heated glass of water visible by using fine sawdust. The differences thereby made visible between the layers of an apparently undifferentiated mass of water filled him with a sense of wonder. This was when he first realized that things we take as evident are, in fact, often not so. The discovery set him wondering forever.

The next wonder came when at the age of twelve he stayed with his father, Debendranāth, at Dalhousie in the Himalayas. At night, Debendranath would point out to him the constellations and the planets, telling him about their distances from the sun, their periods of revolution, and other such things. The fascinated boy began writing down what he learnt. He is thought to have penned his first long essay, on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, at the age of twelve and a half. It started to be published in serial form in Tattwabodhini patrikā, a journal established by Debendranath, but did not progress beyond the first instalment.

As he grew older, the young Rabindranath started reading every book on astronomy that he could lay his hands on, his favourite being Sir Robert Ball's work. He persisted even when the mathematics proved difficult. Then he discovered Thomas Huxley's essays on biology. Astronomy and biology became, and remained, the scientific subjects that fascinated him and found reflection in his mature writings, especially his poetry. These studies did not afford a rigorous grounding in science, but they helped him acquire a scientific mindset that served him well through his life without impairing his poetic genius. It led him to develop a distinctively new philosophy in which the tenets of modern science were seamlessly integrated with the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads.