Rabindranath Tagore Biography

Rabindranath Tagore Biography

Poet

Painter

Novelist

Theorist

Music Composer

For detailed information about his life lets move to the main article.

 

Childhood and Family

Rabindranath Tagore was a famous Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music. Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7 May 1861 in the city of Calcutta. His father was Debendranath Tagore and mother was Sarada Devi.

The Tagores had an impressive lineage. It dated back to the first group of learned Brahmins that came from Kannauj and settled in Bengal. He was the youngest of his parent's 14 children. He was a Bengali brahmin by birth and his nickname was "Rabi". When Rabindranath was 8 years old, he wrote his first poem. At the age of 16, he published his first large poetry in 1877.

Went to London for studies

In 1878, Tagore went to London. He as a child, joined a public school in Brighton, England. He wanted to become a Barrister. Later, he studied at University College, London. But he had came back in 1880 to India because he didn't did well in school.

Rabi returned without completing his course of studies at London University. While in England Rabindranath had become acquainted with Western Music.

Some of the tunes he had learned found their way into his enchanting play "Balmiki Pratibha" There were other tunes however which came from classical Indian ragas used for the first time in an operatic context Balmiki Pratibha.

Visited Punjab in childhood

When Rabi was 12, Debendranath went on a trip to North India and took the boy with him. The last stop on a long tour was the rest house on Bakrutha (The highest hill and the hill station of Dalhousie) in Punjab. Rabi was told by his father to roam about on his own. He was also taught to rise before the sun And to handle money and keep accounts. The days often ended with the boy singing devotional songs to his father.

Rabi was 13 when his first book of verse "Kobi-kahini" came out. Bijendranath brought him a magazine called "Bharati" when he was 16.  The essays included pieces on the European poets Iike Dante and Petrarch whose acquaintance Rabi has made in Ahmadabad in the library.

Marriage

Rabindranath married to Mrinalini Devi. He got married on 9 December 1883 at the age of 22. He had five children Renuka Tagore, Shamindranath Tagore, Meera Tagore, RathindranathTagore, and Madhurilata Tagore. 

Managed Family Business of Estates

Two months before the wedding Rabindranath has received a letter from his father in which he was asked to prepare himself to look after the familial estates. In 1890 Tagore began managing his family's estates in Shalida now in Bangladesh. His wife and children joined him there in 1898.

Promoted Hindu and Muslims Unity

Rabindranath participated in one of the greatest political upheavals in the history of India.

In December 1903 was published the decision of India's Governor-General Lord Curzon to split up Bengal into two provinces. The idea was to create a separate province with a Muslim majority which would induce a rift between the two main religious groups and avert the possible growth of a united front against the Govt. But in proposing the partition Curzon merely fanned the flame of patriotism that had been smoldering in the minds of certain visionaries all through the period of the renaissance in Bengal. These men now came to the fore and led the millions to rise in protest. 

Tagore led a protest in which Hindu and Muslims were told to tie Rakhi on the wrists of each other. The series of steering patriotic songs that Rabindranath composed to the occasion were sung into session in the streets of Calcutta. With the poet himself in the lead on October 16, 1905, the partition became an accomplished fact.

Started School for children

Rabindranath had been worrying about the education of his children and he decided to start an experimental educational institution in Shanti Niketan. It was to be a school but not like the school that had been the nightmare of his own childhood. It was to be like the forest hermitages of classical India But to bring it into being was not an easy task, For one thing, it costs money.

Rabindranath was obliged to sell amongst other things like the copyrights of his books, his wife added her bit by selling her wedding ornaments.

Pursuing the noble idea of international cooperation  Rabindranath gave the school at Shanti Niketan a new status. "Where the world becomes a single nest" was the motto of the "Vishwa Bharati".

Beginning of personal tragedies

Two months after the school was opened his wife was taken ill. Three months later at the age of 29, she died. For Rabindranath, it was the beginning of a series of personal tragedies. 9 months after his wife died, his second daughter Renuka passed away. The hardest blow of all came 4 years later youngest son Samindro took after his father in many ways. He was only 13 when he fell victim to cholera.

Written National Anthems for three Nations

He was also an accomplished author of novels, short stories, plays and articles. He took an active interest in a wider range of social-cultural and artistic endeavors he has been described as one of the first 20th century's global man.

Everyone knows that Indian national anthem is written by him but Tagore also wrote the national anthem of Bangladesh. Sri Lanka's national anthem is based on a Bengali song which was originally written by Tagore. In 1938, poet, writer and humanitarian Rabindranath Tagore were the first Indian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and he played a key role in the Renaissance of modern India.

Gained Popularity at the global level

The fact that his own countrymen now regarded him as their leading man of letters was proved by his 50th birthday celebrations in Calcutta Sponsored by the Bengal Academy of Letters and attended by thousands it was a unique occasion and the first time that such an ovation had been given a literary man in India.

But to the outside world, Rabindranath was still an unknown name. The objective of Rabindranath's visit to England in 1912 was to study the educational methods of the West and also to acquaint the West with his own work at Shanti Niketan.

He happened to carry with him on this occasion a notebook containing his own English translations of some of his songs Mainly from Gitanjali. He showed these translations to the English painter William Rothenstein who had met him on an earlier visit to India. Rothenstein was so impressed that he sent a copy of the translation to the well know Irish poet named Yeats. In introducing the poems to a gathering of English writers and Intellectuals Yeats said, "I know of no man in my time who has done anything in the English language to equal these lyrics. Even as I read them in this literal prose translations    they are exquisite in style and thought." Gitanjali was published in England in the same year There has rarely been another instance of a poet gaining world fame in like manner.

Death and Personal Life

He died on August 7th, 1941 in Kolkata India at the age of 80. Tagore traveled across the vast estate. He was a poet, novelist, theorist, painter, music composer and a true Indian. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1930 Tagore wrote around 2230 songs, 2,500 paintings and drawings. He felt that world peace could only be achieved through intellectual cooperation between nations.

Here are some unknown facts about his life

• Rabindranath Tagore had a great talent in painting and played a vital role in modernizing the Bengali art 
• Greatly moved by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and to express his deep respect from the freedom he gave up his Knighthood conferred by the British .
• He was the first non-European to get this most coveted honor in choosing him for this honor the Nobel Committee stated because of his performance-sensitive, fresh and beautiful words. 
• Tagore stated humanity must be studied somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography the poet wrote national anthem for other countries also apart from India the world famed national anthem of India namely Jana Gana imposed by Rabindranath Tagore in addition to that he has composed national anthems of other countries as well the Bangladesh national anthem voted as amar Shona Bangla was composed by take hold also the lyrics of Sri Lanka's national anthem were given by him Tagore's relationship with Gandhi and Einstein
• Tagore and Gandhi had a great love and reverence for each other in fact it was taken or who conferred the title Mahatma on the father of nation however in several issues, Tagore greatly deferred from Gandhi.
• Tagore and Einstein met four times between 1930 and 1931 they respected each other. Moved by their mutual curiosity to grasp other's contributions their search for truth and love for music more about Einstein in describing Einstein Tagore wrote  , "there was nothing stiff about him there was no intellectual aloofness he seemed to me a man who valued human relationship and he showed toward me a real interest and understanding."

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