RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1861-1941)

Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta (India) into a wealthy Brahmin family. He was influenced by Indian Religious Epics and a fourteenth century poet Vidyapati.
He had gone to England in 1878 to study law, he returned to India and instead pursued a career as a writer, playwright, song writer poet philosopher and educator. In 1912 he returned to England with his son. He began translating his poems Gitanjali in to English. Almost all his work was in its native language Bengali….

Tagore’s one friend in England was an artist Rothenstein. He read the translated work of Gitanjali . The poems were incredible. He told to his friend W.B Yeats. Yeats was enthralled. Later Yeats wrote an introduction to Gitanjali when it was published in Sept. 1912. Thereafter, both the poetry and the poet were instant sensation first in London’s literary circle and soon thereafter in the entire world!

His spiritual look his angelic face his long hair and flowing beard was awesome. His words evoked great beauty. Nobody has ever read anything like it. He wrote over one thousand poems; eight volumes of short stories; almost two dozens of play and play-lets; eight novels and many books and essays on philosophy, religious 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.

A glimpse of mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian Culture were revealed to the West for the first time. Less than a year later, in 1913 Rabindranath received the Noble Prize for Literature. He was the first non westerner to be honored. In 1915 he received the Knighthood by the British King George V . In 1919 following the Amritsar massacre of 400 Indians by British troops Tagore renounced his Knighthood.

Tagore was a creative genius. He had a good grasp of modern post-Newtonian-Physics and was well able to hold debate with Einstein (1930) on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos.

He wrote National Anthem for India and Bangladesh.
His life and works go far beyond his country.