Rabindranath Tagore's Letters Were Auctioned For Rs 6 Crore. Who Were They Written To?

Last Updated:June 30, 2025, 17:59 IST

The auction featured 35 handwritten letters and 14 envelopes, many published earlier, fetching Rs 5.9 crore—making it the second most expensive letter auction in India

The correspondence offers insight into Tagore’s philosophical musings, artistic discussions, and deep personal feelings. (News18 Hindi)

Letters written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore were recently auctioned for nearly Rs 6 crore during Astaguru’s ‘Collectors Choice’ event held on June 26 and 27. A small statue sculpted by Tagore also fetched over Rs 1 crore at the same auction, drawing significant attention from collectors and art enthusiasts.

According to Business Standard, the auction featured letters Tagore wrote to his close associate Dhurjati Prasad Mukherjee, a sociologist, musicologist, and confidant, between 1927 and 1936.

Twelve of these letters originated from significant locations like Visva-Bharati, his residence in Uttarayan, Glen Eden in Darjeeling, and his houseboat Padma. Manuscripts were also included in the auction.

Why This Auction Of Tagore’s Works Was So Special

Manoj Mansukhani, Chief Marketing Officer of Astaguru, remarked that the collection is not merely literary but a self-portrait of the Nobel Prize winner conveyed through his own words. The correspondence offers insight into Tagore’s philosophical musings, artistic discussions, and deep personal feelings. Mansukhani noted that such comprehensive and intellectually rich collections of Tagore’s letters are exceedingly rare and mostly preserved in institutional archives, making this public offering exceptional.

The letters in this collection have been published previously in notable magazines and books. The auction presented 35 handwritten letters and 14 envelopes, fetching about Rs 5.9 crore, marking the second most expensive auction for letters.

Additionally, the auction included ‘The Heart’, the only known sculpture made by Tagore, believed to be dedicated to Kadambari Devi, the wife of Tagore’s brother Jyotirindranath. Crafted from quartzite in 1883 during his stay in Karwar, Karnataka, it sold for around Rs 1.04 crore. Tagore was only 22 years old at the time.

Overall, these items were part of a larger collection of 77 pieces. Tagore’s letters garnered the highest bids, followed by a painting from MF Hussain’s Mother Teresa series, which sold for approximately Rs 3.80 crore.

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