Lovingly called Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore was, and is, India's most notable literary figure. He is remembered not only as a Nobel Laureate and writer, but also as a social reformer and educationalist. His writings got him noticed globally, his fame comparable to that of Gandhi. Tagore began writing poetry at the young age of eight and was published by the time he was sixteen. He was a strong proponent of Indian independence and his teachings are still the core of institution he founded in Santiniketan – the Visva Bharati University.
Rabindranath Tagore – A Biography
Born on the 7th of May 1861, Rabindranath Tagore was the fourteenth son of a wealthy landowner and social reformer. The Tagore family was progressive for the times and were surrounded by prominent figures involved with the arts and culture, exposing the children to literature at early ages. Most of Rabindranath Tagore's siblings went on to become literary figures or civil servants. Tagore was mostly raised by servants, his mother having passed away at an early age and his father travelled a lot.
Tagore was a failure at school, the conventional system unable to hold his attention. He travelled with his father throughout the country, reading as much as he could and was finally home tutored in many subjects, including languages, the Upanishads and romantic and classical poetry. He later enrolled in public school in Brighton, East Sussex and studied law at the University College London. He dropped out to pursue studies in literature.
Returning to India without a degree, he was married to Mrinalini Devi in 1883 and fathered five children, two of whom died young. In 1901, Tagore moved to Santiniketan and founded an ashram which became one of the best universities in India. The publication of Gitanjali or Song Offerings in 1912 brought India global recognition by the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature being awarded to Tagore for his works. He was knighted by the British Crown in 1915, which he returned after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore travelled to more than thirty countries, befriending eminent literary figures like Yeats, Ezra Pound, Thomas Moore, and Ernest Rhys. He met with Albert Einstein and Mussolini. These travels allowed the western world to understand Indian culture better and allowed his works to spread.
The Works of Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore wrote eight novels and four novellas, notable among them are Shesher Kobita (1929) and Chaturanga (published by the Sahitya Academy in 1993). The former has been translated twice, once as the Last Poem and then as Farewell Song. Ghare Baire (The Home and the World), published in 1915 and Chokher Bali (Sand in the Eye), published in 1903, were made into features films by Satyajit Ray, one of India's foremost film directors and story tellers. Many of Tagore's writings have a message of nationalism or social structure in them. His travelogues, essays and lectures have been compiled into various volumes, including Europe Jatrir Patro (Letters from Europe) and Manusher Dhormo (The Religion of Man).
Tagore was an accomplished musician and composed more than 2000 songs, compiled into the quintessential Bengali's identity - Rabindrasangeet. Many of these songs are parts of his novels and stories, and have been used in Bengali movies as well. Tagore was also a prolific painter, something he took to at the age of sixty and had several exhibitions around the world. Tagore was said to suffer from color blindness, painted with certain peculiarities in color schemes and aesthetics.
Theatre was not to be left behind. He was the lead in his brother's adaptation of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. He wrote his first drama-opera at the age of twenty. He went on to write many dramas, the most famous of which is perhaps Raktakaravi (Red Oleanders), a tale of a kleptocratic king.
Tagore's most famous work, the Gitanjali, is only a fraction of his accomplishments. He has written numerous stories, and his his many poems took on various forms as the times changed for the maestro. He wrote in classical formalism and in comical styles. His poems have been set to music by many composers, including Barry Schyman and Richard Hageman.
Tagore was considered "over-rated" by many westerners, but he has and perhaps always will be India's most famous poet, writer and songster.
Rabindranath Tagore's creative output tells you a lot about this renaissance man. The variety, quality and quantity are unbelievable. As a writer, Tagore primarily worked in Bengali, but after his success with Gitanjali, he translated many of his other works into English. He wrote over one thousand poems; eight volumes of short stories; almost two dozen plays and play-lets; eight novels; and many books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics. Aside from words and drama, his other great love was music, Bengali style. He composed more than two thousand songs, both the music and lyrics. Two of them became the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. In 1929 he even began painting. Many of his paintings can be found in museums today, especially in India, where he is considered the greatest literary figure of India of all times.
Tagore was not only a creative genius, he was a great man and friend to many. For instance, he was also a good friend from childhood to the great Indian Physicist, Bose. He was educated and quite knowledgeable of Western culture, especially Western poetry and Science. This made him a remarkable person, one of the first of our planet to combine East and West, and ancient and modern knowledge. Tagore had a good grasp of modern - post-Newtonian - physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos. His meetings and tape recorded conversations with his contemporaries such Albert Einstein and H.G. Wells, stand as cultural landmarks, and show the brilliance of this great man. Although Tagore is a superb representative of his country - India - the man who wrote its national anthem - his life and works go far beyond his country. He is truly a man of the whole Earth, a product of the best of both traditional Indian, and modern Western cultures. The School of Wisdom is proud to have him as part of its heritage. He exemplifies the ideals important to us of Goodness, Meaningful Work, and World Culture.
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