Santiniketan, Nov. 3: The Rabindra Bhavan museum in Santiniketan has added to its items for public display a wooden chair and a sofa used by Rabindranath Tagore.
The chair is fitted with wooden handles and was used to carry Tagore from room to room in his various houses on the Visva-Bharati campus during his illness. University officials said Tagore sat on the sofa for the last time on his birthday in 1941.
The Rabindra Bhavana authorities have labelled the chair and the sofa with their short history for the benefit of tourists. The two pieces of furniture were put on display before the Pujas.
Before being put on display, the chair and the sofa were kept in Tagore's house - Udayan - and were not accessible to visitors.
"The chair and the sofa were kept in Udayan. We decided to display them for public viewing. They have been kept in the exhibition hall of Rabindra Bhavana. We have noticed that tourists see these two pieces of furniture with interest. The chair with the handles is known as 'palki chair'," said Tapati Mukhopadhyay, the director of Rabindra Bhavana.
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A university official said the chair and the sofa were added to the display to make the Tagore museum more attractive to tourists.
"We are trying to add some more personal items of Tagore to the Rabindra Bhavana museum," a senior official of Visva-Bharati said.
Officials said that in late 1940, Tagore became so ill that he could not walk from one room to another.
A varsity official said: "The chair with handles was designed by the poet's son, Rathindranath Tagore. It has handles that jut out so that it could be carried."
Visva-Bharati officials could not immediately recall who had designed the sofa, which was made in the late 1930s.
Tagore researcher Amitrasudan Bhattacharya said: "Rabindranath mostly sat on wooden chairs for writing. Occasionally, he used easy chairs and sofas."
Tanusree Chakraborty, a resident of Cooch Behar, said: "I visit Santiniketan almost every year. Now that I know about the chair and the sofa used by Tagore, I am looking forward to see them."
