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Ravindra Nath Tagore
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Rabindranath Tagore was the youngest son
of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a
new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of
the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads.
He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for
formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in
addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a
project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased
his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at
Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to
time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own
non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern
India, was his devoted friend. In 1913 He became the first Asian to
receive Nobel Prize for literature. Tagore was knighted by the ruling
British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as
a protest against British policies in India.
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) [The
Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910)
[Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka
(1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his poetry, which
include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The
Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the
original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings
(1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its
namesake. Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark
Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan
(1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and
Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the author of several
volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910),
Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World], and Yogayog
(1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas,
essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle
years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also left numerous
drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.
Rabindranath Tagore died in 1941.
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Biography Posted By Swapnil Sinha - Data Posted By Mrityunjay
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