Through architecture and principles of conservation, Santiniketan exemplifies the benefits of living in harmony with nature
The Santiniketan Griha. Photo: Rabindra Bhavan Archives / UNESCO_ “It is said that human life is in the epilogue of the various chapters of the history of the different species that reside on this planet.” Thus begins Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Bolai about the bond between his nephew, the eponymous protagonist, and a tree.
When Tagore wrote the story in 1928, he had already set up a residential school (Brahmacharyashram) and university at Santiniketan based on the very principles that led Bolai to mourn the felling of his beloved tree: Embracing and protecting the surrounding flora and fauna.
Nature was intimately intertwined with the foundational architecture of Santiniketan, which was recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on September 17, 2023. Located in Bolpur, Birbhum district, West Bengal, classes at the residential school built in 1901 were held outdoors — not within the confines of the four walls — under trees, with the teacher usually at the centre and students seated in front of her in concentric half-circles.
This is because Tagore, who founded the co-educational institute in the gurukul format, believed not just in the benefits of learning amid nature but also from nature. His work is replete with the lessons derived from the life cycle of trees he has grown up around, resilience and beauty of wildflowers and the forest’s interaction with rain. His writings epitomise the idea that by observing nature, we can learn some of the most crucial philosophies of life.
An outdoor class site. Photo: Abha Narain Lambah Associates / UNESCO
As is evident from his vast body of work, the poet also believed that there is great knowledge preserved within the communities that have lived among the forests and protected them all their lives — the local tribal people. Living with them and like them, embracing and promoting their culture was also an essential part of daily life at the ashram.
This is visible in the student and faculty dwellings on the campus. “Usually made of mud with a thatched roof, typical of the homes of villagers, these surviving structures are testimony to the largely rural nature of the Shantiniketan ashram in its early days,” Swati Ganguly wrote in Tagore's University: A history of Visva-Bharati, 1921-1961. Ganguly is a professor at the university.
A comparison with the hutments in the Santhal villages in Bolpur shows how these structures influenced the houses within the Santiniketan ashram.
Huts in a Santhal village in Bolpur. Photo: Gaurav Ganguly
From within, all the houses had the same layout: Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and two washrooms spread over nearly 102 square metres each.
What the planners set out to do in terms of embracing the local culture, also proved to be environmentally conscious and “sustainable” architecture, as we understand it today, experts pointed out.
“The open classroom is enclosed by tall trees that prove to be a physical and optical buffer from natural phenomena such as light rain, solar heating and fast moving winds,” said Gaurav Ganguly, an independent architect and building conservationist, who has worked on the design of Santiniketan ashram.
The region is marked by prolonged hot and dry summers with temperatures soaring to 50 degrees Celsius, followed by heavy monsoon showers and cool winters with chilly nights. The mud structures of the ashram provided a natural barrier against harsh conditions outside.
“The roofing of the mud houses is done with 4-5 layers of straw or hay to keep rain water from damaging the walls. It also stops the heat of the sun from entering,” Ganguly observed.
In one case, he wrote in a paper on the subject, one can also see a mud house built with the support of a tall palm tree where the tree provided a strong central column for the hut to stand.
Taladhwaj, a residential structure within the campus of Santiniketan ashram. Photo: Gaurav Ganguly
The nomination dossier for Santiniketan submitted to UNESCO calls it “a rare surviving example of an architectural ensemble and a man-made landscape”.
This is because in the art, architecture, practices and pedagogy of the place, European, American, Japanese and local tribal forms lived in harmony.
The most striking and refreshing (for its time) was its influence of Far East Asian styles. “Santiniketan’s built and landscape environment demonstrates an outstanding instance of an encounter with an aesthetic Pan-Asianism,” the architects who prepared the dossier wrote.
They highlighted some of the structures on the premises that have carried with them these influences for over a century:
“Udayana exhibits a strong Far East Asian influence on the articulation of the interior spaces, furniture and furnishings with Japanese tatami matt panelling, Buddha niche, lacquered wooden railing and screens, low seating and design of furniture… Borrowing from Chinese architecture, the circular window became a recurring motif in Santiniketan, evoking the Oriental moon gate symbolism,” the document stated.
Two Japanese craftsmen, Kono and Kasahara were involved with the exquisite woodwork, according to the authors of the dossier.
In the second year of its inception, Santiniketan had its first foreign student in Hori San from Japan, they added.
Birbhum had an extensive forest cover in the pre-colonial era, a blog by the Visva Bharati University on Santiniketan noted, citing data from the district gazetteer. “Progressive denundation of forests played havoc with the porous laterite soil. During the hot months, fierce dust storms scattered the loose soil far and wide. During the rains, heavy erosion took place as after every downpour water rushed through undulating land creating gullies and gorges in its relentless march,” it noted.
After deciding to settle down in the region, Devendranath Tagore began afforestation exercises in the area, the blog added. “The top-layer of gritty dry soil was removed and filled with rich soil brought from outside. Trees were planted for fruit and shade.”
An enchanting and peaceful sal forest lies to the south of the ashram, as also described by Rabindranath Tagore in his memoir, where he also gave an account of tree varieties around the campus:
To the east was an orchard of mango trees. Towards the west were a few palmyra palm, jamun, casuarina and, here and there, some coconut palms. Standing on the north-western outskirt of the old asrama were the two ancient Chhatim trees.
The Bolpur sub-division is home to some 41 sacred groves, which have been historically preserved by the locals for religious reasons. In doing so, many centuries-old trees around sacred ponds and places of worship of both Hindu and Muslim communities have been preserved.
Rare trees, which are vulnerable to exploitation, have been protected by generations in this manner, according to a 2011 report published in the Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management. These include “wild belly and sugar tree (local name) in Dhallayh village of Illambazar, Vitis quadrangularis (scientific name of harjora ephiphyte) in Kankalitala, Bolpur & Hatichakhkhu (local name) in Illambazar”, it added.
There is also a tropical dry deciduous forest on the Santiniketan-Sriniketan lateritic patch, with 14 tree species and 295 individuals, according to a 2020 study published in the Indian Journal of Ecology. Almost 60 per cent of these were found to be ‘exotic species’ and some of them had just one individual remaining in the area, the authors of the report added, calling for urgent conservation measures.
The dossier accepted by UNESCO also highlighted development pressures that threaten these practices of conservation and universality that Santiniketan embodies. The recognition as a World Heritage Site will help preserve the buffer zone that includes the entire university area, the authors of the nomination proposal noted.
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