Rabindranath Tagore – The First Asian Nobel Laureate.

Tagore With Mahatma Gandhi

His Early Life

Tagore was born the youngest of thirteen surviving children of parents Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in the Jorasanko mansion, Kolkata. His father was a religious reformer and scholar. His mother, Sarada Devi, passed away when Tagore was very young. Tagore's grandfather had created a giant financial empire for himself. He supported a number of public projects, such as Calcutta Medical College.


"Tagore In London"
Photo Credit: PhotobucketAt first Tagore acquired his basic education from tutors and then at various schools. One of them was Bengal Academy where he studied history and culture. He studied law at University College, London, but left after a year - he did not like the weather. In England Tagore commenced to compose the poem 'Broken Heart' (Bhagna Hridaj). Tagore started to compose poems at the age of eight. Tagore's first book, a collection of poems, published when he was 17.

Photo Credit: michael.berlin @ Flickr under creative commons license

Rabindranath Tagore's creative output explains you a lot about this great man. The range, excellence and magnitude are unbelievable. As a writer, Tagore mainly worked in Bengali, but after his achievement with Gitanjali, he converted many of his other works into English. He wrote more than one thousand poems and eight volumes of short stories; about two dozen plays and play-lets; eight novels; and numerous books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics. Apart from words and drama, music was his other great love. He composed nearly 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.

Tagore's handwriting (Bengali & English)

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Tahore with Einstein

For the period of 1878 and 1932, Tagore peregrinated thirty countries on five continents. His intention of visit was to make his literary works known to non Bengali speakers. He also unfolded his mental conceptions and ideas, including political thought.

♣ In the year 1912 he went to England. William Butler Yeats, Anglo-Irish poet indited the preface to English translation of his work, Song Offerings (Gitanjali). Tagore also met there Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and some other figures.

♣ During this period, from May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore presented many lectures in Japan. At the age of 63 Tagore visited Peru at the invitation of the Peruvian regime. He also visited Mexico. Both the Peruvian and Mexican regimes promised a donations of $100,000 to his school at Shantiniketan.

♣ In the year 1926, Tagore visited Naples, Italy and he met the dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome. On July 20 1926, Tagore condemned and spoke out against Mussolini.

♣ In July 1927, Tagore went on a four-month tour of Southeast Asia. He visited Bali, Java Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Siam, and Singapore. Later on, he wrote a book named "The Traveler.Jatri" (Jatri). In his book, he wrote about occurrences of his travels.

♣ In early 1930 he left India for a year long tour of Europe and the U.S. In Paris and London, he exhibits his paitings. In this period, he wrote his Hibbert Lectures for the University of Oxford. He also met Aga Khan III. He also visited Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany and then the Soviet Union.

♣ All these travels by Tagore gave him chance to discuss with many notable persons of his time. They were Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Chandra Bose and Romain Rolland.

♣ Tagore's last travels overseas were his visits to Iran and Iraq in the year 1932, and Ceylon in 1933. His travel to Iran was as a guest of Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikiquotes

Love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at the root of all creation.

~Rabindranath Tagore

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