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Rabindranath Tagore’s 1900 poem Deeno Daan, translated into English by Arunava Sinha as “Destitute Donation,” sets a king’s lavish temple against the suffering of people left homeless by fires. When a hermit tells the king, “There is no god in that temple,” he is condemning the ruler’s devotion to grandeur while his subjects need help.
What happens in “Deeno Daan”
The king builds a gold temple while fires leave his subjects without homes. In Arunava Sinha’s translation, the king spends twenty lakh gold coins on the structure, while twenty thousand people are rendered homeless. These figures belong to the poem’s narrative; they are not verified historical statistics.
A hermit confronts the king about the contrast between the glittering place of worship and the people’s unmet needs. He says the temple is empty of God because it holds the king’s pride. God, the hermit argues, has gone to the poor rather than stay in the gilded building.
What the hermit means by “There is no god in that temple”
The line is the hermit’s accusation within the poem, not a stand-alone declaration by Tagore about religion. The hermit measures the king’s devotion by how he responds to people in need: a grand religious building cannot demonstrate compassion if the ruler neglects those made homeless.
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The poem associates divine presence with truth, peace, compassion, love, and solidarity with the poor. Its challenge is therefore directed at the gap between public religious display and ethical action. The hermit’s rebuke makes care for vulnerable people the test of the king’s claims to devotion.
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Deeno Daan is Tagore’s Bengali poem. Scroll published Sinha’s English translation under the title “Destitute Donation” on 6 August 2020 and dates the poem to 1900. The available sources do not establish a more precise composition date or original publication venue.
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The familiar line “There is no god in that temple” comes from Sinha’s version. English renderings differ: a version quoted in a Rajya Sabha transcript uses different wording and changes some narrative details. A quotation should therefore be attributed to its translator or version rather than treated as the sole canonical English text.
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