RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S BIOGRAPHY
Rabindranath
Tagore (1861-1941) 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. 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], andBalaka (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], andRaktakaravi (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.
Prof.
John Kurakar
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