Dhatridebata Museum (Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay's Birthplace)

Dhatridebata Museum (Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay's Birthplace)
Hours: Open most days; check local timing (approx. 10 AM – 5 PM)
Entry: free/nominal entry
A short distance from the Fullara complex lies what any serious admirer of Bengali literature should consider unmissable: the ancestral home of Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, now known as Dhatridebata after his 1939 autobiographical novel. The 250-year-old property was donated by his descendants to the Labhpur Panchayat Samiti and converted into a museum.
The House & Museum
The building, originally constructed of mud (a typical Birbhum vernacular), has been carefully restored in concrete while preserving the original architectural form. The museum archives personal artefacts, manuscripts, photographs and memorabilia from Bandyopadhyay's life, from his student years at Labhpur Jadablal H.E. School to his years in Calcutta as a novelist, parliamentarian (he served in both the West Bengal Vidhan Parishad and the Rajya Sabha) and public intellectual.
Among the exhibits, look for materials relating to his early involvement in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920 and his subsequent arrest in 1930 for participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement, his portraits and correspondence with Rabindranath Tagore and the Jnanpith Award citation of 1966. The Atur-ghar, the room in which he was born on 23 July 1898, is specifically marked.
Novels to Read Before You Visit
Even a passing familiarity with Tarasankar's work transforms this museum visit from interesting to electrifying. The most accessible entry points are Ganadevata (The People's God, 1942), which won him the Jnanpith Award; Hansuli Banker Upakatha (The Tale of Hansuli Turn, 1947), set in the Kopai river bend; and Kabi (The Poet, 1944), his lyrical novel about a wandering singer.