“I wouldn’t want a wife who is illiterate”, said Satyendranath.
Seven year old Genu fiercely argued, “I am not illiterate. I know the alphabets, I can count upto hundred, I can do sums, I can recite poems…”
Nevertheless, that evening, while he was teaching the boys of the household, a surprised Hemendranath saw a tiny sari clad figure with a ‘ghomta’ covering her face, enter with a slate in her hand. Then Hemendra noticed his brother Satyendra standing anxiously at the doorway. He understood that she was the new child bride of the house, who had been made to appear in his class. In time, her tale would go on to be that of an emerging chrysalis. From a very humble beginning, she went on to become the brightest and the most influential woman of the late nineteenth century. From the little ‘Genu’, she became ‘Jnanadanandini’, a revered figure not only in the Tagore family but also among the contemporary elites of the Calcutta society. She emerged as one of the earliest pioneers of women empowerment in Bengal. She was also the beloved ‘Mejo Bouthan’ of Rabindranath and contrary to popular belief, she had been the mentor and mother-figure to an infant Tagore, much before the arrival of Kadambari into the family fold.

Jnanadanandini was born to Abhay Charan Mukhopadhyay and Nistarini Devi of Narendrapur village of Dakshindihi in Jessore, on 26 July, 1850. According to contemporary customs, she was chosen as a bride for Satyendranath, the second son of Debendranath Tagore, by a maid specially deputed by Sarada Sundari to scout a bride for her son. When the skinny, brown complexioned bride encountered her mother-in-law at Jorasanko, after her marriage in 1857, it became quite evident that she wasn’t pleased at all and the maid Peyari was severely reprimanded for her choice.

Satyendranath had a deep dislike for the ‘abarodh’ (the purdah system) and he set about to mould Jnanada according to his ideals. When he went to England to study for his I.C.S., Satyendra had asked for his wife to be sent to him, a request which was naturally denied by his father. When he took up his posting as the first native I.C.S Officer in Ahmedabad, in 1864, he made sure that Jnanada went with him. Clothes worn in the andar-mahal being deemed unsuitable to be worn outside, a peculiar Indo-Western dress was made for Jnanada by a French tailor in Calcutta. While in Bombay, she had to attend parties with her husband and therefore adopted a modified Parsi style of wearing saris with the anchal and brooch on the left shoulder and with blouses, petticoats, socks and shoes. Later on in Calcutta, inspired by her husband, she advertised in the Bamabodhini Patrika offering free coaching classes for wearing sarees in this novel manner. She received satisfactory response from the elite families of Calcutta and often the main entrance at Jorasanko was crowded with palanquins and phaetons in the afternoons. This way of wearing saris became known as the Brahmika Style. She thus offered the Bengali woman a decent and fashionable dress. No doubt though, when she had arrived back in Calcutta in 1866 and had descended from the phaeton at the entrance and had walked all the way to the andar-mahal in a Parsi-styled sari, jacket and shoes, everyone was scandalized. A resolute change had silently taken place and nobody had quite the guts to publicly decry Mrs. Jnanadanandini Tagore, the wife of an Assistant Collector and a woman of great personality herself. She even had the boldness to travel alone to England in 1877, with her infant children. After returning to Calcutta, she set aside every opposition of her father-in-law and set up a separate household with her husband and children in Lower Circular Road, Calcutta. Irrespective of gender, she took care to impart higher education to both her children Surendranath and Indira (Bibi, favourite niece of Tagore). But she never severed ties with Jorasanko. She shared a special bond with Tagore and often took active part in staging his early plays and dance-dramas-Valmiki Pratibha, Kal Mrigaya, Raja o Rani, Mayar Khela, Bisorjon etc. She had a great penchant for literature. In 1885, Jnanadanandini published the first ever children’s magazine Balak, in which Rabindranath also contributed. She even wrote two plays-Tak Duma Dum and Sat Bhai Champa. Her memoir, written much later in life is titled ‘Smriti Kotha o Puratoni’. Sarala Devi Chaudhurani writes in her memoir Jiboner Jhorapata that her aunt Jnadanandini invented the previously unheard tradition of celebrating birthdays. She humorously remarks that after returning from Surendranath’s birthday party, every child of the Jorasanko Tagore family pestered their parents to celebrate their birthdays. Gradually this practice spread to the Brahmo Samaj and then to the whole of Bengal.

The Viceroy Lord Lawrence had invited Mr. Satyendranath Tagore and his wife to the Christmas party of 1887. As luck would have it, he fell ill and insisted that Jnanada must attend alone. A very nervous Jnanada took the help of her sister-in-law Soudamini and dressed in a Parsi-styled black sari, golden jacket, a stylish Ajanta hairdo, a Japanese hand-fan, a lace handkerchief, French perfume and the most expensive piece of diamond jewellery from the collection of Prince Dwarkanath. As soon as she was ushered in front of Lord and Lady Lawrence and introduced as ‘Mrs. Satyendranath Tagore’, to her horror she found herself curtsying with the wrong knee bent forward.
Lord Lawrence smiled at her and genially asked, “Your husband hasn’t been able to accompany you, I see”.
Jnanada had made up her mind. She had made a faux pas and wasn’t going to make any more. With a measured tone and a pleasant demeanour she uttered in perfect English what she had practised for the whole day before, “Your Excellency, he is indisposed. He sends you his regrets”.