A 42 member delegation from Santiniketan led by Mr. Sushantha Dattagupta Vice-Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and comprising of faculty members and students visited Sri Lanka at the invitation of Hillwood College, Kandy from 28 September to 5 October 2012. This was a reciprocal visit as a team of 27 students from Hillwood College, had visited Santiniketan in August 2011 and had participated in 'Barsha Mangal', a festival to welcome the monsoon along with students from many other parts of the world reflective of Rabindranath Tagore‘s concept of bringing the whole world into one nest.

The students and teachers of Santinilketan, Visva-Bharati enthralled the students and other distinguished audience from Kandy at the Hillwood College with their performances of dance-dramas based on Tagore‘s stories “Shap Mochan” on 29 September and “Chandalika” on 1 October in Kandy.

The delegation was warmly received on 3 October at the Sri Palee College, an institute whose foundation was laid down by Gurudev Tagore himself during his visit to Sri Lanka in 1934 at the invitation of Wilmut Perera and which is modeled on the lines of Santiniketan. A delegation of the Sri Palee Past Pupil Association had visited Santiniketan in July 2012 and facilitated the visit and performances of the Santiniketan delegation at Sri Palee. The visit further renewed the linkages between Santiniketan and Sri Palee and strengthened the bonds of friendship between youths of India and Sri Lanka.

On 3 October 2012, faculty members and students from Santniketan presented “Shaap Mochan”, a dance-drama at John De Silva Theatre, Colombo. “Shaap Mochan”, a love story of Saurasen and his beloved Madhusree, their banishment from Heaven and the suffering of Sourosen as the disfigured King Aruneshwar was beautifully presented with dramatic expression and lights.

On 4 October 2012, the troupe performed dance-drama “Chandalika” at the Ramakrishna Mission Hall. Chandalika,based on a popular Buddhist legend, is story of a girl, condemned by her birth, to a caste that is looked down upon and subjected to discrimination suddenly awakened to a consciousness of her full rights as a woman by the humanity of a follower of the Buddha, who accepts water from her hand and teaches her to judge herself not by the artificial values that society attaches to the accidents of birth but by her capacity for love and service. The performance was graced by H.E. Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner of India. The Colombo leg of the visit was organized by the Global Organisation of the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), Sri Lanka.

During the visit, Vice-Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan had fruitful discussions with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo and extended her an invitation to visit Santiniketan. The delegation also met “Friends of Santiniketan”, an association which brings alumni of Santiniketan in Sri Lanka together on one platform. “Friends of Santiniketan” are also organizing “Char Adhyay” a cultural festival from 15-17 October in Colombo as a tribute to Gurudev Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore has a genuine groundswell of support in Sri Lanka and his five visits to Sri Lanka had made a deep impact on the cultural resurgence of Sri Lanka by inspiring artistes, dancers, and singers to visit Santiniketan and who later on developed their genres to classical forms. The visit of a delegation from an institute founded by Gurudev Tagore, Santiniketan, to Sri Lanka further cemeneted the multi-faceted partnership between India and Sri Lanka, a partnership which is based on a strong bedrock of shared cultural and civilizational heritage and extensive people to people contacts.