Sadhana

Sadhana journal, first appeared in the month of Agrahayana, 1298 BS (December 1891) and continued for four years. Though the name of Sudhindranath (1869-1929), the third son of dwijendranath tagore, appeared as the editor for the first three years, in reality rabindranath tagore (1861-1941) was the main force behind it. In the fourth year, Rabindranath became editor. After a year, the journal ceased publication (Kartik, 1302 BS).

Rabindranath was associated with the editing of Bharati prior to Sadhana. But he strongly felt the need for an organ of his own. Sadhana was his journal. From the very first issue, he meticulously planned every detail. He was the main contributor and many of his important articles were written for Sadhana (some of these were collected in his Adhunik Sahitya). He had started publishing short stories in the journal Hitabadi. In Sadhana, he continued to do so at full steam. Besides, he also published poems, regularly wrote reviews, and translated a few pieces. He edited other articles, even prepared press-copies and corrected the proofs. He regularly kept in touch with other contributors and encouraged them to write in Sadhana. Contributors to Sadhana were mostly drawn from the Tagore family itself and included Balendranath, Sudhindranath and Ritendranath. abanindranath tagore illustrated some of the poems of Rabindranath in Sadhana.

Sadhana was a well-produced journal, printed on antique paper. Each issue had a print run of one thousand copies, and advertisements were few in number. Rabindranath and gaganendranath tagore helped the journal financially. But Rabindranath could not confine himself long within a single journal. Besides financial constraints, he felt tired in the fourth year of its publication, and finally decided to close it down. Notwithstanding its short span, Sadhana was a landmark in the history of Bangla journals. [Indrajit Chaudhuri]