Renuka Debi (Rani) is married to Satyendranath Bhattacharya in August 1901, one and a half months after her elder sister Madhurilata got married.

At the time of her wedding, Renuka is only 10 years and 6 months old. Her father marries her to a man she has never met before. This is surprising, as Tagore also speaks out against child marriages as early as 1887. In a letter to his wife (20 July 1901), he argues that the Tagore family’s education, taste and language differ so much from other Bengali families that he deems it necessary for his daughters to be separated from the family when they are still quite young in order to learn to appreciate their husbands’ families’ ways.

There might have been a number of other reasons for this radical step. Financial worries might have meant that marrying while Rabindranath’s father was still alive, he would pay all wedding expenses and dowry. Dutta & Robinson further mention a strong dislike for the current family atmosphere at Jorosanko and further emphasize Tagore’s wish to completely focus on his new idea of his school at Shantiniketan that made it necessary for him to disencumber himself from family commitments.

Bizzarely, Tagore writes Nashtanirh (The Broken Nest) at the same time, when he was arranging his daughters’ marriages – a novella that describes the agony child marriages can cause to those involved. Dutta & Robinson ask: “Was he conscious of the grotesque contradiction – or did the two activities dwell in distinct mental compartments? There is no way of knowing. In later life, however, Rabindranath betrayed many guilty feelings about the marriages of his three daughters.”