The year was 1795. 27 November, at 25 Doomtullah Street, Calcutta, history was made. For the first time in the history of Bengal, a theatrical performance in European style with a proscenium theatre was staged. Two European plays, Moliere's Love is the Best Doctor and Jodrell's The Disguise, were translated into Bangla and staged primarily for a Bengali, albeit elitist, audience.
It was the first of its kind in Bengali. And, in another first, three women were part of a 13-person cast. This was a time when most women in Bengal, with a few exceptions, observed purdah.
What, however, was truly astonishing, was that the moving force behind this in Calcutta - a British city - was not a Brit, or a French or a Dane or any of those Europeans who had set up different outposts in the region. Nor was it any Europeanised Bengali. It was a Russian.
Gerasim Lebedev is considered the father of modern Bengali theatre. He translated the two dramas into Bengali and organised their performances. This 18th-century Russian musician adventurer, traveller and linguist is also considered to have laid the foundation for Russian Indology.
In commemoration of this historical event in the cultural life of Bengal, a floral tribute was paid to Lebedev on 27 November by the Russian Consul General in Kolkata Maxim Kozlov, Vice Consul Ekaterina Tyurina, representative of the Russian House in Kolkata Gautam Ghosh, and numerous theatre and drama groups, collectives, and individuals of Kolkata at the venue where the first Bengali theatre was performed.
The original venue no longer exists. And Doomtullah Street is today Ezra Street. However, in 2009, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Cultural Department of the Russian Federation Consulate in Kolkata erected a plaque on Ezra Street to commemorate the site of the pioneering theatre Lebedev had opened in 1795. It is at this site that tributes are paid each year.
Yet this extraordinary man, whose legacy lives on centuries later, remains relatively unknown, not just here but even in his native country. And some must be remembered again and again.
Lebedev was born in 1749 in the Russian city of Yaroslavl on the banks of the Volga. It was also a major trading centre in Russia, and archival documents list the presence of Indian merchants here in 1650. His father was a church choirmaster and later moved to St Petersburg. Lebedev was a singer in the court choir and also played the violin.
In St Petersburg, he met Fyodor Volkov, the founder of the first permanent Russian theatre, where he soon began participating in the performances. This ignited his love and subsequent preoccupation with theatre.
In 1792, Lebedev accompanied the new Russian Ambassador to Vienna Andreas Razumovsky as part of a musical group. However, with his "burning desire" to see the world he left the entourage and travelled across Europe, earning his livelihood as a violinist. There he joined an English military band headed for India, and in 1785, landed up in the Madras (Chennai).
In Madras, he was felicitated by the Mayor of Madras, Captain William Sydenham, and soon earned his patronage. He began making a living by conducting musical programmes. Soon bored, he left Madras a few years later, in 1787, for Bengal.
Bengal became his home for the next ten years. What distinguished Lebedev was that he settled down amongst Indians and not the British. He began learning Bengali, Hindi, and Sanskrit from Goloknath Das, a teacher. In exchange, Lebedev taught him the violin. At the same time, Lebedev made a living by playing his violin, helped by another Russian, a doctor who had made Calcutta his home too.
His interest in local culture and traditions made him the first to perform Indian music on Western instruments. He studied Bengali language, literature, and traditions. His interest in India's culture and customs did not stem from any colonial imperative but from a genuine desire to know and learn and, as we shall see later, to try and initiate a cultural dialogue between India and Russia.
His love for theatre, however, could not be dimmed, and he soon found a new initiative to birth in Kolkata. Till then, Bengal had known jatra, i.e., wandering groups of performers of street plays, all male, and mostly enacting scenes from folklore and religious narratives.
He translated Love is the Best Doctor and The Disguise, trained a group entirely comprising Indians and finally, on 27 November 1795, initiated the first theatrical performance in Bengali. Indeed, this is considered to be the first modern Indian theatre performance.
The tickets priced at Rs 12 were rather expensive, but it played to a full house, and its popularity soon demanded an encore a few days later. Lebedev himself composed the music and the lyrics were written by Bengali poet Bharatchandra Ray. Compliments came even from Governor-General Sir John Shore.
The resounding success must have bred much jealousy amongst the existing theatre fraternity. Soon, Lebedev's theatre was burnt down. With the Great Game on between the British and the Russians for Central and South Asia, rumours swirled in Kolkata about Lebedev being a spy, though no connection was ever established. He was let down by those with whom he had entered into a contract, fell into penury, and was finally asked to leave by the British authorities. He left India in 1797, to sadly, never return.
But Lebedev was no ordinary person. Away from India, he gave form to the knowledge he had acquired in Bengal. In 1801, he published A Grammar of the Pure and Mixed East Indian Dialects in London. Shortly afterwards, he returned to St Petersburg, where he worked for the Foreign Ministry.
He went on to establish a printing house equipped with Devanāgarī and Bengali scripts, said to be the first of its kind in Europe. He published a second book titled Unbiased Contemplation of Eastern India, its Holy Rites and Folk Customs based on his observations and learnings in Bengal. It is considered the first comprehensive eye-witness account in India by a Russian. He was apparently working on two more books, but his life was cut short in 1817.
Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev left behind a rich legacy. With intermittent hitches, theatre continues to flourish in both Bengal and India. Yet this extraordinary and brilliant man is little known beyond the theatre circles. A main road in Kolkata on which stands the Academy of Fine Arts has been renamed after him.
Establishing the modern theatre here, however, is not his only contribution to India-Russia ties. The printing press in St Petersburg and his books have been other landmark contributions, paving the way for future Indologists in Russia.
According to Vladimir Izvekov, director of the Yaroslavl History Museum, "Lebedev could have made a fine professional singer, cello player or virtuoso violinist. While abroad, he set up a legendary quartet that impressed sophisticated West European music lovers, and don't forget his fluency in dozens of European languages."
Yet, even there he is known to only a few. He deserves more.
In 1999 at a conference in Yaroslavl, Gautam Ghosh had put forth a proposal to twin the cities of Yaroslavl and Kolkata. This can still be achieved. The coming year will mark the 230th anniversary of the day Lebedev organised the first modern Bengali theatre. The year can well be celebrated as the Year of Lebedev.
(Aditi Bhaduri is a journalist and political analyst. She tweets @aditijan. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)