Rabindra Jayanti live programme telecast from Tripura palaces

Agartala, May 12 (UNI) As part of the celebrations of 146th anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, a live programme was telecast yesterday from the two royal citadels of Tripura - Ujjayanta palace and Puspabanta palace.

A galaxy of singers, including Kavita Krishnamurthy, Dr Balamurali Krishnan, Manoj Nair, Manisha Murli Nair and Haimanti Shukla, performed in the cultural function.

''Star-studded cultural programmes on Rabindra Jayanti may be common in Calcutta, but it was certainly a novelty for Tripura,'' Deputy Director General of Doordarshan Kendra, Kolkata, Dr Tapan Kumar Das said.

Dr Das informed that Tagore had visited Tripura seven times and shared a deep spiritual bond with the state. King Bir Chandra Manikya was deeply impressed by the poet's 'Bhanga Hriday' (Broken Heart).

Subsequently, the poet had close ties with Tripura's three other kings and received liberal financial assistance from the royalty for his dream project, Visva Bharati, and also when his friend Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose went to London for higher studies.

UNI