Khulna
The village home of Mrinalini Devi, Rabindranath Tagore’s wife, preserved as a small museum north of Khulna.
The Tagores of Jorasanko had deep roots in this part of Bengal: the family’s origins are traced to Pithabhog in Rupsha upazila, and they kept marriage ties with families of the Jashore–Khulna region. In 1883 Rabindranath married Bhabatarini, the daughter of Beni Madhab Roy Chowdhury of Dakshindihi; after the wedding she took the name Mrinalini Devi.
The family’s old two-storey house in Dakshindihi has been restored and turned into a museum, known as the Rabindra Complex. It holds photographs, letters and objects connected with the poet and his wife, and busts of the two stand in the grounds.
It is a quiet, rural place rather than a grand monument — a short trip for anyone who loves Tagore’s songs and poems, and a glimpse of the village Bengal he wrote about.
Take a Jashore-bound bus from Khulna in the morning and get off at Phultala.
Take an easy-bike to Dakshindihi and spend an hour in the house and its grounds.
Walk around the village ponds and fields before heading back.
Return to the city for a lunch of fish, prawns or chui jhal.
October to March; around Tagore’s birth and death anniversaries there are often cultural programmes
About 20 km north of Khulna city in Phultala upazila, off the Jashore road. Take a Jashore-bound bus to Phultala (about 45 minutes), then an easy-bike or van to Dakshindihi.
