Rabindranath Tagore’s letters to Suniti Kumar Chatterji up for auction, valued at Rs 35-60 lakh

Kolkata: Rabindranath Tagore's four letters to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, who revolutionised the study of Indian languages, will go under the hammer next week.

The four letters, written between 1928 and 1940, offer an intimate account of the polymath's life lived in full public view. They document the pressures, relationships and material realities he navigated throughout his life.

Tagore's letters remain a subject of deep interest among readers, historians and literary critics worldwide. His vast correspondence offers a close look into his philosophy and emotional world.


The present lot, marked as a national art treasure and therefore ineligible for export, is sourced from a Kolkata-based collection, art auction house AstaGuru said in the catalogue.

The letters were earlier featured in a special issue of Desh magazine in 1990 commemorating Chatterji's birth centenary. They were originally part of Chatterji's collection.

The online auction house will hold the sale on September 29-30, with the letters estimated to fetch ₹35-60 lakh. Last year, the same auction house sold a set of 35 letters written by Tagore, along with 14 envelopes, for a record ₹5.9 crore, underscoring the Nobel laureate's enduring appeal.

More Works of Art

At next week's auction, a sketchbook of 22 drawings, a jotting and a terracotta sculpture of a dog by Ramkinkar Baij will also go on sale, with an opening bid of ₹1 crore.

Baij, one of the pioneering figures in modern Indian art, enrolled at Santiniketan's Kala Bhavana in 1925, where he came under the guidance of Tagore and Nandalal Bose.

The sculpture was originally from the collection of Prabhas Sen, a sculptor and close associate of Baij. The auction, titled Manifest, spans generations, bringing together celebrated modernists such as Tagore, Sailoz Mookherjea, SH Raza, Nandalal Bose and MF Husain alongside contemporary artists including Anju Dodiya, K Apukuttan Achary and Jagannath Mohapatra.

Nandalal Bose's untitled work on Puri and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, created in 1959 and considered another national treasure, will feature in the auction with an opening bid of ₹15 lakh. Bose joined Kala Bhavana under Visva-Bharati in 1919 at Tagore's invitation and eventually became its principal.