Rabindranath Tagore.

ABOUT THE LEGEND

Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With

his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in

the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him

across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the

world he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for

India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.

Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was

first of all a poet.

Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi(1890), Sonar Tari (1894), Gitanjali (1910), Gitimalya(1914) and Balaka (1916). He is the author of severalvolumes of short stories and a number of novels, amongthem Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916), and Yogayog(1929). Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dancedramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and twoautobiographies, one in his middle years and the othershortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also leftnumerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which hewrote the music himself. Rabindranath Tagore died onAugust 7, 1941.

EARLY YEARSRabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861

in a wealthy Brahmin family in Calcutta. He

was the ninth son of Debendranath and Sarada

Devi.

Rabindra Nath Tagore had his initial education

in Oriental Seminary School. But he did not like

the conventional education and started studying

at home under several teachers.

After undergoing his upanayan (coming-of-age)

rite at the age of eleven, Tagore and his father

left Calcutta in 1873 to tour India for several

months. During this period, Tagore read

biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern

science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kalidasa.

Sarada Devi

Debendranath Tagore

INFLUENCE ON EUROPEAN CULTUREOverview

Europe was going through a period of great tension at thetime of World War I. Starved of spirituality, Tagore’snaturalistic verses soothed the aching souls of the Europeanartistic elite. It was not long before he was being hailed as themost profound poet ever to have lived – a wise man from theEast, in the truest sense.Events moved at a break-neck pace and, within a year, he hadwon the Nobel Prize, to his own amazement. The nominationprocess was a secret one, in which certain academicinstitutions and cultural delegates were empowered tonominate. The faculty at nominating institutions familiar withTagore’s works in Europe were all British – and the British takeon Tagore was ambivalent.

CASE STUDY #1 Germany

In 1921, Rabindranath Tagore visited Germany for thefirst time. The German people had just suffered ahumiliating defeat in the First World War. Before enteringGermany, Tagore expressed that he empathized with theGerman people in their hour of crisis and that he hadcome to strengthen her. So there was a clear symbioticrelationship even before Tagore began his month-long tripfrom city to city. Tagore mesmerized and fascinated hisGerman audiences. Wherever he spoke, the halls werepacked. Indeed, the newspapers reported scuffles andregular fights by people who were refused entry. TheGerman press rose to the occasion by reporting Tagore’severy movement.

Tagore’s poetry had a direct appeal to Germans of that generationbecause his poetry (or whatever he chose to give to the West) wasexotic, had a romantic flair, was imbued with spiritual idealism -and yet in all its strangeness it was still easily accessible. Hispoetry embodied a religious imagery, essentially Vaishnava incharacter, which was innovative for Western ears. To them, thisculture of emotions was unfamiliar in its directness, andinvolvement with nature and the cosmos - and yet, the poetry wastotally comprehensible. Tagore himself, attired in his flowing,dark gown and with his white beard and serene face, radiated acertain intriguing energy.

With his publisher Kurt Wolff With German Intellectuals

CASE STUDY #2France

The relationship between Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore

and France is of particular importance. It started with his

grandfather Dwarkanath Tagore's visit to France and continued

with his brother’s, particularly Jyotirindranath.

Before his fame spread all over the world in 1913, the talent of

Tagore had already attracted the attention of personalities such as

the famous traveller Alexandra David Neel and the poet Saint

John Terse, French ambassador to London.

His association with Romain Rolland paved the way for a

historic, first-ever coordinated awakening and mobilisation of

world intellectuals.

Tagore became a regular visitor ofLa Maison Autour Monde, thehouse of famous businessman andpatron of the arts Albert Kahn. Inthis house are kept invaluablearchives of the poet and his family.

The first visiting professor invitedto Visva Bharati was Frenchscholar Sylvain Levi, in 1921,whose collaboration boostedTagore's initiative of setting up auniversity. His relationship withFrance also played a pivotal role inthe incarnation of the poet as apainter with his first everexhibition held in Galerie Pigallein 1939.

Tagore with Romain Rolland

Tagore’s work

INFLUENCE IN BAGLADESH

Rabindranath Tagore is not only a poet of West Bengal.He is equally honoured and equally respected inBangladesh. You cannot confine a language with borders.So he will be read and respected wherever there is Bengalispeaking people are staying. Many of his literature werewritten in Bangladesh territory,inShilaidaha and Sajadpur.

Most important, one of his songs ‘Amar Sonar Bangla,Ami Tomai Bhalobashi……’ is the national anthem ofBangladesh.

Rabindranath became a part of the culture and part of theidentity of Bangladesh; religion didn’t cause anyhindrance in this assimilation.

INFLUENCE IN INDIATagore is unquestionably the mosttowering figure of modern Indianand Bangla literature, where hiscontribution included novels,plays, poems, short stories, essaysas well as educational books andarticles. His world-class literarycontribution was recognized beforethe world through the Nobel Prizefor Literature in 1913.

In the field of music, Tagore’sbackground was classical Indian.However, rebelling against theclassical orthodoxy, as a composerhe introduced a rich variety ofform and content, enriched byBangla folk-music, such as theBaul and Bhatiyali type.

Tagore with Mahatma Gandhi

Tagore with Jawaharlal Nehru

Rabindranath was not a stranger to the political arena

either. He actively supported Mahatma Gandhi, and his

agenda of social reforms through civil disobedience.

Among his other notable contributions was a school he

founded in 1901 near Calcutta. It was known as

Shantiniketon. Later it evolved into an international

university in 1921, which was to be known as

Viswabharati.

The British royalty honored him as a knight in 1915.

However, quite conscientiously he relinquished his

knighthood in 1919 as a protest against the massacre of

Amritsar, where 400 Indians demonstrating against

colonial laws were slaughtered by the English soldiers.

SHANTINIKETAN

Shantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum Districtof West Bengal, about 212 kms north of Kolkata. It is famous dueto Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision becamewhat is now a University town - Visva-Bharati University. Theplace now attracts thousands of visitors each year.

Shantiniketan was earlier called Bhubandanga (named afterBhuban Dakat, a local Dacoit), and was owned by the Tagorefamily. In 1862, Maharishi Devendranath Tagore, the poet’sfather, while on a boat journey to Raipur, came across alandscape with red soil and lush green paddy fields. He decidedto plant more saplings and built a small house. He called hishome Shantiniketan. He founded an ashram here in 1863 andbecame the initiator of the Bramho Samaj.

In 1901, Rabindranath started a school at Shantiniketannamed Bramhachari Ashram that was modeled on thelines of the ancient Gurukul system that later came to beknown as the Patha Bhavan, the school of his ideals, withcentral premise that learning in a natural environmentwould be more enjoyable and fruitful. With the financialbacking of the Maharajah of Tripura, the Visva-BharatiSociety was established in 1921. Tagore envisioned acenter of learning which would have the best of both theeast and the west. The school was expanded into aUniversity. It was named Visva-Bharati, which wasdefined by Tagore as

“Where the world makes a home in a nest.”

Pictures of Shantiniketan

DEATH

Tagore was eighty years old when he died in august7, 1941. He had endured the deaths of wife,children, and his only grandson. Still restless, hebuilt new dwellings for himself at Santiniketan,though his travels now were limited to a fewhundred yards. He died in the midst of a world warwhich seemed the negation of all he had loved (heappealed to President Roosevelt to intervene whenthe Germans marched into Paris, to avert itsdestruction).

TAGORE TODAYOne hundred and one years ago, in1913, the Nobel Prize for Literaturewas awarded to a Bengali poet,Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).This was an important event for theprize itself, considering that Tagorewas the first non-European recipientof the prize. Recognised as the iconof Bengali sensibility, Tagore wasendowed with a creative genius thatappeared to be inexhaustible. Hisoeuvre includes more than 1,000poems, nearly two dozen plays andplaylets, eight novels, eight or morevolumes of short stories, more than2,200 songs, of which he wrote boththe lyrics and the music, and a massof prose on literary, social, religious,political and other topics.

On top of these, there are his English translations, his paintings, his travelsand lecture tours in Asia, America and Europe – and his activities aseducationist, social reformer and innovator. He is credited with shapingmodern Bengali language and the aesthetics and intellect of the Bengalis.In the universal ethos that he espoused and his capacity to celebrate thehuman prospect, Tagore has also left an enduring legacy for the world. Atthe height of the First World War, he had declared, “There is only onehistory – the history of man. All national histories are merely chapters inthe larger one.”

Notwithstanding the towering presence of Rabindranath Tagore inBangladesh and in India, in the rest of the world, especially in Europe andAmerica, the excitement that his writings created in the early years of the20th century has largely diminished. According to Amartya Sen, thecontrast between Tagore’s commanding presence in Bengali literature andculture, and his near-total eclipse in the rest of the world, is perhaps lessinteresting than the distinction between the view of Tagore as a deeplyrelevant and many-sided contemporary thinker in Bangladesh and India,and his image in the West as a repetitive and remote spiritualist.

Thank You