Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (Bangla: ??????????? ?????, Robindronath ?hakur) (May 7, 1861 – August 7, 1941) (in the Bangla Calendar, 25 Baishakh, 1268 – 22 Srabon, 1348), also called Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo philosopher and nationalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, becoming the first Asian to

Life

Tagore was born in Jorasanko, Kolkata (Bangla: ??????), the son of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada devi. Debendranath Tagore adopted the Brahmo faith propagated by his friend, the reformer Raja Rammohun Roy. Debendranath became the central figure in Brahmo society after Ray's death. He continued to lead the Adi Brahmo Shomaj until he died.

Related Topics:
Kolkata - Bangla - Debendranath Tagore - Brahmo - Rammohun Roy

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Rabindranath, as the youngest of fourteen children, grew up in a vibrant artistic atmosphere, where literary magazines were published and music performance and theaters were presented within the cultural group nucleated by the Jorasanko Tagores.

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Rabindranath's oldest brother Dwijendranath Tagore was a philosopher and a poet. Another brother, Satyendranath Tagore, was the first Indian member of the Indian Civil Service. Yet another brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore, was a talented musician-composer and playwright. Among his sisters, Swarna Kumari Devi earned fame as a novelist in her own right. Jyotirindranath's wife, Kadambari, about the same age as Rabindranath, was a dear friend and a powerful influence on the budding poet.

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Her suicide in 1884 left him distraught for years, and left a profound mark on Tagore's literary life.

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In 1878 Rabindranath went to England where he studied in a public school in Brighton, and then at the University College, London. He did not complete his degree, however, and left England after just over a year. His exposure to the English culture however would later filter into the Bengali musical tradition to create new forms of music.

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On 9 December 1883, Rabindranath married Mrinalini Devi, and the couple had two sons and three daughters, several of whom died at young ages.

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By this time he had already come into the literary limelight with several works, including a long poem set in the Maithili style pioneered by Vidyapati, which he initially claimed was that of a lost poet called Bhanu Simha. His reputation was further consolidated by works such as Sandhya Sangit (1882) which includes the famous poem Nirjharer Svapnabhanga — "The cry of the waterfall".

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In 1890, Tagore went to manage the family estates at at Shelaidaha, an estuarine region in today's Bangladesh, where he lived on a houseboat on the tributary system of the river Padma. Works from this period such as Sonar Tari (1894), Chitra (1896), and Katha O Kahini (1900), further

Related Topics:
Bangladesh - Padma

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established him as a poet. In addition, he was also establishing

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a reputation as an essayist, playwright, and his short stories,

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reflecting the village life that he saw around him, earned him

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considerable praise.

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In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to Santiniketan, where

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he set up an experimental school. He continued writing,

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with works such as Naivedya (1901) and kheyA (1906) being published

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in this period. Unfortunately his wife died in this period,

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and also a favourite daughter and also a son, leaving him distraught.

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By now, he had a large following among Bengali readers. Some translations

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were also being produced, but were often of mediocre quality. In response

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to English admirers such as the painter William Rothenstein, Tagore started translating some of his poems in free verse.

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In 1912, he went to England, carrying a sheaf of his translations.

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At readings there, these translations moved a number of Englishmen, notably the Anglo-Irish poet WB Yeats and the Englishman CF Andrews.

Related Topics:
WB Yeats - CF Andrews

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Yeats would later write the preface to the English Gitanjali, and Andrews joined him for a long period in India.

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The English Gitanjali was later published by the India Society along with a glowing preface by Yeats.

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In November of that same year he was surprised to find that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, based on such a slender corpus of translated work.

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All along, Rabindranath had an artist's eye to his own handwriting, and he embellished the cross-outs and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs. At the age of sixty, he started to paint, and successful art exhibitions were held in much of Europe.

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Tagore's family lineage continues and among the famous is his great-granddaughter,

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Sharmila Tagore (wife of Nawab of Pataudi) who acted in numerous Hindi and Bengali movies.

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He died in the Jorasanko house on 7 August 1941 (22 Shravan 1348), a day that is still mourned in public functions across the Bangla-speaking world.

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