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Rabindranath Tagore (IPA: [[:Image:IPA chart 2005.png|[rɔbin̪d̪rɔnat̪ʰ ʈʰakur]]]; Bangla: রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর^[α]; May 7, 1861 – August 7, 1941^[η]), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev^[ι], was a Bengali poet, Brahmo (reformed Vedanta Hindu) philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose avant-garde works reshaped Bengali literature and culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1913, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature.

A Calcuttan Pirali Brahmin by birth, Tagore began writing poems at the age of eight; he published his first substantial poetry — using the pseudonym "Bhānusiṃha" ("Sun Lion") — in 1877 and wrote his first short stories and dramas at age sixteen. His homeschooling, life in Shelidah, and extensive travels made Tagore an iconoclastic pragmatist; however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused the internationalist Tagore to back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the loss of virtually his entire family and his regrets regarding Bengal's decline, his life's work — Visva-Bharati University — endured.

Tagore's major works included Gitanjali (Song Offerings) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World), while his verse, short stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation — received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bangla art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his rabindrasangit canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.

Early life (1861–1901)

Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was born the youngest of fourteen children in the Jorasanko mansion of parents Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. After undergoing his upanayan (coming-of-age) rite at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta on February 14, 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father's Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. There, Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kālidāsa.^[1]^[2] In 1877, he arose to notability when he composed several works, including a long poem set in the Maithili style pioneered by Vidyapati. As a joke, he initially claimed that these were the lost works of (what he claimed was) a newly-discovered 17th century Vaiṣṇava poet called Bhānusiṃha.^[3] He later wrote "Bhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman", 1877 — the Bangla language's first short story)^[4]^[5] and Sandhya Sangit (1882) — including the famous poem "Nirjharer Swapnabhanga" ("The Cry of the Waterfall").

Tagore's signature.

In 1878, Tagore — seeking to become a barrister — enrolled at a public school in Brighton, England; later, he studied at University College London, but returned to Bengal in 1880 without a degree. On 9 December 1883, he married Mrinalini Devi; they had five children, four of whom later died before reaching full adulthood.^[6] Tagore — joined in 1898 by his wife and children — then began managing his family's estates in Shelidah, a region now in Bangladesh. Known as “Zamindar Babu”, Tagore traveled across the vast estate while living out of the Padma — the family's barge — to collect (mostly token) rents and bless villagers; in exchange, he had feasts held in his honour.^[7]^[8] During these years, Tagore's Sadhana period (1891–1895; named for one of Tagore’s magazines) was among his most fecund, with more than half the stories of the three-volume Galpaguchchha — a collection of eighty-four stories — written.^[4] With irony and emotional weight, they — including Sonar Tari (1894), Chitra (1896), and Katha O Kahini (1900) — depicted a wide range of Bengali lifestyles, especially village life.^[9]

Santiniketan (1901–1932)

In 1901, Tagore left Shelidah and moved to Santiniketan (now in West Bengal) to found an ashram, which would grow to include a marble-floored prayer hall ("The Mandir"), an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, and a library.^[10] There, Tagore's wife and two of his children died. His father also died on 19 January 1905, and he began receiving monthly payments as part of his inheritance; he also received income from the Maharaja of Tripura, sales of his family's jewellery, his seaside bungalow in Puri, and mediocre royalties (Rs. 2,000) from his works.^[11] These gained him a large following among Bengali and foreign readers alike, and he published such works as Naivedya (1901) and Kheya (1906) while translating his poems into free verse. Finally, on 14 November 1913, Tagore learned that he was the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. According to the Swedish Academy, it was given due to the idealistic and — for Western readers — accessible nature of a small body of his translated material, including the 1912 Gitanjali: Song Offerings.^[12]

Tagore (center, at right) visits with Chinese academics at Tsinghua University in 1924.

In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction (which Tagore later renamed Shriniketan — "Abode of Plenty") in Surul, a village near the ashram at Santiniketan. Through it, Tagore sought to provide an alternative to Gandhi's symbol- and protest-based Swaraj movement, which he denounced.^[13] He recruited scholars, donors, and officials from many countries to help the Institute use schooling to "free village[s] from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitaliz[ing] knowledge".^[14]^[15] In the early 1930s, he also grew more concerned about Untouchability, lecturing on its evils, writing poems and dramas with Untouchable protagonists, and appealing to temple authorities to admit Dalits.^[16]

Twilight years (1932–1941)

Tagore compiled fifteen volumes of writings, including the prose-poems works Punashcha (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and Patraput (1936). He also continued his experimentations by developing prose-songs and dance-dramas, including Chitrangada (1936), Shyama (1939), and Chandalika (1938). He also wrote the novels Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), and Char Adhyay (1934). Tagore also took an interest in science in his last years, writing Visva-Parichay (a collection of essays) in 1937. He subjects included biology, physics, and astronomy; meanwhile, his poetry — containing extensive naturalism — underscored his respect for scientific laws. He also wove the process of science (including narratives of scientists) into many stories contained in such volumes as Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa (1941).^[17]

Tagore's last four years (1937–1941) were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. These began when Tagore lost consciousness in late 1937; he remained comatose and near death for an extended period. This was followed three years later in late 1940 by a similar spell, from which he never recovered. The poetry Tagore wrote in these twilight years is distinctive for its preoccupation with death; these more profound and mystical experimentations allowed Tagore to be branded a "modern poet".^[18] After extended suffering,^[19] Tagore died on August 7, 1941 (22 Shravan 1348) in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised;^[20] this date is still mourned in public functions held across the Bangla-speaking world.

Travels

Owing to his notable wanderlust, between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited more than thirty countries on five continents;^[21] many of these trips were crucial in familiarising non-Bengali audiences to his works and spreading his political ideas. For example, in 1912, he took a sheaf of his translated works to England, where they impressed missionary and Gandhi protégé Charles F. Andrews, Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and others.^[22]^[23] Indeed, Yeats wrote the preface to the English translation of Gitanjali, while Andrews joined Tagore at Santiniketan. On 10 November 1912, Tagore toured the United States^[24] and the United Kingdom, staying in Butterton, Staffordshire with Andrews’ clergymen friends.^[25] From 3 May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore went on lecturing circuits in Japan and the United States,^[26] during which he denounced nationalism — particularly that of the Japanese and Americans. He also wrote the essay "Nationalism in India", attracting both derision and praise (the latter from pacifists, including Romain Rolland).^[27]

File:Tagore-einstein2.jpg

Tagore sits with Albert Einstein during their widely-publicized July 14, 1930 conversation.

Shortly after returning to India, the 63-year-old Tagore visited Peru at the invitation of the Peruvian government, and took the opportunity to also visit Mexico. Both governments pledged donations of $100,000 to the school at Shantiniketan (Visva-Bharati) in commemoration of his visits. ^[28] A week after their November 6, 1924 arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina,^[29] an ill Tagore moved into the Villa Miralrío at the behest of Victoria Ocampo. He left for Bengal in January 1925. On 30 May 1926, Tagore reached Naples, Italy; he met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome the next day.^[30] They maintained a warm rapport until Tagore spoke out against Mussolini on 20 July 1926.^[31]

On July 14, 1927, Tagore and two companions went on a four-month tour of Southeast Asia — visiting Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. The travelogues from this tour were collected into the work “Jatri”.^[32] . In early 1930 he left Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of Europe and the U.S. On his return to the U.K., while his paintings were being exhibited in Paris and London, he stayed at a Friends settlement in Birmingham. There, he wrote his Hibbert Lectures for the University of Oxford, which dealt with the "idea of the humanity of our God, or the divinity of Man the Eternal") and spoke at London's annual Quaker gathering.^[33] There (addressing relations between the British and Indians, a topic he would grapple with over the next two years), Tagore spoke of a "dark chasm of aloofness".^[34] He later visited Aga Khan III, stayed at Dartington Hall, then toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany from June to mid-September 1930, then the Soviet Union.^[35] Lastly, in April 1932, Tagore was invited as a personal guest of Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran.^[36] Such extensive travels allowed Tagore to interact with many notable contemporaries, including Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Subhas Bose and Romain Rolland.^[37]^[38] Tagore's last travels abroad, including visits to Persia and Iraq (in 1932) and Ceylon in 1933, only sharpened his opinions regarding human divisions and nationalism.^[39]

Works

Tagore's literary reputation is disproportionately influenced by regard for his poetry; however, he also wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs. Of Tagore's prose, his short stories are perhaps most highly regarded; indeed, he is credited with originating the Bangla-language version of the genre. His works are frequently noted for their rhythmic, optimistic, and lyrical nature. However, such stories mostly borrow from deceptively simple subject matter — the lives of ordinary people.

Novels and non-fiction

Tagore wrote eight novels and four novellas, including Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, , Char Odhay, and Noukadubi. Ghare Baire (The Home and the World) — through the lens of the idealistic zamindar protagonist Nikhil — excoriates rising Indian nationalism, terrorism, and religious zeal in the Swadeshi movement; a frank expression of Tagore's conflicted sentiments, it emerged out of a 1914 bout of depression. Indeed, the novel bleakly ends with Hindu-Muslim sectarian violence and Nikhil's being (probably mortally) wounded.^[40] In some sense, Gora shares the same theme, raising controversial questions regarding the Indian identity. As with Ghore Baire, matters of self-identity (jāti), personal freedom, and religion are developed in the context of a family story and love triangle.^[41] Another powerful story is Yogayog (Nexus), where the heroine Kumudini — bound by the ideals of Shiva-Sati, exemplified by Dākshāyani — is torn between her pity for the sinking fortunes of her progressive and compassionate elder brother and his foil: her exploitative, rakish, and patriarchical husband. In it, Tagore demonstrates his feminist leanings, using pathos to depict the plight and ultimate demise of Bengali women trapped by pregnancy, duty, and family honour; simultaneously, he treats the decline of Bengal's landed oligarchy.^[42]

Other novels were more uplifting: Shesher Kobita (translated twice — Last Poem and Farewell Song) is his most lyrical novel, with poems and rhythmic passages written by the main character (a poet). It also contains elements of satire and postmodernism, whereby stock characters gleefully attack the reputation of an old, outmoded, oppressively-renowned poet who, incidentally, goes by the name of Rabindranath Tagore. Though his novels remain among the least-appreciated of his works, they have been given renewed attention via film adaptations by such directors as Satyajit Ray; these include Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire; many have soundtracks featuring selections from Tagore's own rabindrasangit. Tagore also wrote many non-fiction books, writing on topics ranging from Indian history to linguistics. In addition to autobiographical works, his travelogues, essays, and lectures were compiled into several volumes, including Iurop Jatrir Patro (Letters from Europe) and Manusher Dhormo (The Religion of Man).

Music and artwork

Tagore was an accomplished musician and painter, writing around 2,230 songs. They comprise rabindrasangit (রবীন্দ্র সংগীত), which is now an integral part of Bengali culture. Tagore's music is inseparable from his literature, most of which — poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike — became lyrics for his songs. These ran the whole gamut of human emotion, and are still frequently used to give voice to a wide range of experiences. Such is true of two such works: Bangladesh's Aamaar Sonaar Baanglaa (আমার সোনার বাঙলা) and India's Jana Gana Mana (জন গণ মন); Tagore thus became the only person ever to have written the national anthems of two nations.

At age sixty, Tagore took up drawing and painting; successful exhibitions of his many works — which made a debut appearance in Paris upon encouragement by artists he met in the south of France^[43] — were held throughout Europe. Tagore — who likely exhibited protanopia ("color blindness"), or partial lack of (red-green, in Tagore's case) colour discernment — painted in a style characterised by peculiarities in aesthetic and colouring style. Nevertheless, Tagore took to emulating numerous styles, including that of craftwork by the Malanggan people of northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of North America, and woodcuts by Max Pechstein.^[44] Tagore also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting, embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs, and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs, including simple rhythmic designs.

Theatrical pieces

Tagore's experience in theatre began at age sixteen, when he played the lead role in his brother Jyotirindranath's adaptation of Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. At age twenty, he wrote his first drama-opera — Valmiki Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki) — which describes how the bandit Valmiki reforms his ethos, is blessed by Saraswati, and composes the Rāmāyana.^[45] Through it, Tagore vigourously explores a wide range of dramatic styles and emotions, including usage of revamped kirtans and adaptation of traditional English and Irish folk melodies as drinking songs.^[46] Another notable play, Dak Ghar (The Post Office), describes how a child — striving to escape his stuffy confines — ultimately "fall[s] asleep". A story with worldwide appeal, it dealt with death as, in Tagore's words, "spiritual freedom" from "the world of hoarded wealth and certified creeds".^[47]

His other works — emphasizing fusion of lyrical flow and emotional rhythm tightly focused on a core idea — were unlike previous Bengali dramas. His works sought to articulate, in Tagore's words, "the play of feeling and not of action". In 1890 he wrote Visarjan (Sacrifice), regarded as his finest drama.^[45] The Bangla-language originals included intricate subplots and extended monologues. Later, his dramas probed more philosophical and allegorical themes; for example, the 1912 Dakghar ("Post Office") received rave reviews in Europe.^[48] Another is Tagore's Chandalika (Untouchable Girl), which was modeled on an ancient Buddhist legend describing how Ananda — the Gautama Buddha's disciple — asks water of an Adivasi ("untouchable") girl.^[49] Lastly, among his most famous dramas is Raktakaravi (Red Oleanders), which tells of a kleptocratic king who enriches himself by forcing his subjects to mine. The heroine, Nandini, eventually rallies the common people to destroy these symbols of subjugation. Tagore's other plays include Chitrangada, Raja, and Mayar Khela.

Short stories

The four years from 1891 to 1895 are known as Tagore’s "Sadhana" period (named for one of Tagore’s magazines). This period was among Tagore 's most fecund, yielding more than half the stories contained in the three-volume Galpaguchchha, which itself is a collection of eighty-four stories.^[4] Such stories usually showcase Tagore’s reflections upon his surroundings, on modern and fashionable ideas, and on interesting mind puzzles (which Tagore was fond of testing his intellect with). Tagore typically associated his earliest stories (such as those of the "Sadhana" period) with an exuberance of vitality and spontaneity; these characteristics were intimately connected with Tagore’s life in the common villages of, among others, Patisar, Shajadpur, and Shilaida while managing the Tagore family’s vast landholdings.^[4] There, he beheld the lives of India’s poor and common people; Tagore thereby took to examining their lives with a penetrative depth and feeling that was singular in Indian literature up to that point.^[50] In particular, such stories as "Cabuliwallah" ("The Fruitseller from Kabul", published in 1892), "Kshudita Pashan" ("The Hungry Stones") (August 1895), and "Atithi" ("The Runaway", 1895) typified this analytic focus on the downtrodden.^[51] In "The Fruitseller from Kabul", Tagore speaks in first person as town-dweller and novelist who chances upon the Afghani seller. He attempts to distill the sense of longing felt by those long trapped in the mundane and hardscrabble confines of Indian urban life, giving play to dreams of a different existence in the distant and wild mountains: "There were autumn mornings, the time of year when kings of old went forth to conquest; and I, never stirring from my little corner in Calcutta, would let my mind wander over the whole world. At the very name of another country, my heart would go out to it ... I would fall to weaving a network of dreams: the mountains, the glens, the forest .... ".^[52] Many of the other "Galpaguchchha" stories were written in Tagore’s Sabuj Patra period (1914–1917, again, named after one of the magazines that Tagore edited and heavily contributed to).^[4]

Tagore's Golpoguchchho ("Bunch of Stories") remains among the most popular fictional works in Bangla literature, and has provided subject matter for many successful films and theatrical plays, including Satyajit Ray's film Charulata. Atithi is another poignantly lyrical Tagore story. Tarapada, a young Brahmin boy, catches a boat ride with a village zamindar. It turns out that he has run away from his home and has been wandering around ever since. The zamindar adopts him, and finally arranges a marriage to his own daughter. The night before the wedding Tarapada runs away again. Strir Patra (The letter from the wife) has to be one of the earliest depictions in Bangla literature of such bold emancipation of women. Mrinal is the wife of a typical Bengali middle class man. The letter, written while she is traveling (which constitutes the whole story), describes her petty life and struggles. She finally declares that she will not return to his patriarchical home, stating Amio bachbo. Ei bachlum ("And I shall live. Here, I live"). In Haimanti, Tagore takes on the institution of Hindu marriage. He describes, via Strir Patra, the dismal lifelessness of Bengali women after they are married off, hypocrisies plaguing the Indian middle class, and how Haimanti, a sensitive young woman, must — due to her sensitiveness and free spirit — sacrifice her life. In the last passage, Tagore directly attacks the Hindu custom of glorifying Sita's attempted self-immolation as a means of appeasing her husband Rama's doubts (as depicted in the epic Ramayana). Tagore also examines Hindu-Muslim tensions in Musalmani Didi, which in many ways embodies the essence of Tagore's humanism. On the other hand, Darpaharan exhibits Tagore's self-consciousness, describing a young man harboring literary ambitions. Though he loves his wife, he wishes to stifle her own literary career, deeming it unfeminine. Tagore himself, in his youth, seems to have harbored similar ideas about women. Darpaharan depicts the final humbling of the man via his acceptance of his wife's talents. As many other Tagore stories, Jibito o Mrito provides the Bengalis with one of their more widely used epigrams: Kadombini moriya proman korilo she more nai ("Kadombini died, thereby proved that she hadn't").

Poetry

Tagore's poetry — which varied in style from classical formalism to the comic, visionary, and ecstatic — proceeds out a lineage established by 15th- and 16th-century Vaiṣṇava poets. Tagore was also influenced by the mysticism of the rishi-authors who — including Vyasa — wrote the Upanishads, the Bhakta-Sufi mystic Kabir, and Ramprasad.^[53] Yet Tagore's poetry became most innovative and mature after his exposure to rural Bengal's folk music and Baul ballads.^[54] During his Shelidah years, his poems took on a lyrical quality, speaking via the maner manus (the Bauls' "man within the heart") or meditating upon the jivan devata (the "living God within"). This figure thus sought connection with divinity through appeal to nature and the emotional interplay of human drama. Tagore used such techniques in his Bhānusiṃha poems (which chronicle the romanticism between Radha and Krishna), which he repeatedly revised over the course of seventy years.^[55]^[56]

Later, Tagore responded to the crude emergence of modernism and realism in Bengali literature by writing experimental works in the 1930s.^[57] Examples works include Africa and Camalia, which are among the better known of his latter poems. He also occasionally wrote poems using Shadhu Bhasha (a Sanskritised dialect of Bangla); later, he began using Chalit (a more popular dialect). Other notable works include Manasi, Sonar Tori (Golden Boat), Balaka (Wild Geese — the title being a metaphor for migrating souls),^[58] and Purobi. Sonar Tori's most famous poem — dealing with the ephemeral nature of life and achievement — goes by the same name; it ends with the haunting phrase "শূন্য নদীর তীরে রহিনু পড়ি / যাহা ছিল লয়ে গেল সোনার তরী" ("shunya nadir tire rahinu pari / jaha chhilo loye gelo shonar tori" — "all I had achieved was carried off on the golden boat — only I was left behind."). However, internationally, Gitanjali (Bangla: গীতাঞ্জলি) is Tagore's best-known collection, winning him his Nobel Prize.^[59] Song VII (গীতাঞ্জলি 127) of Gitanjali:

আমার এ গান ছেড়েছে তার সকল অলংকার,
তোমার কাছে রাখে নি আর সাজের অহংকার।
অলংকার যে মাঝে পড়ে মিলনেতে আড়াল করে,
তোমার কথা ঢাকে যে তার মুখর ঝংকার।

তোমার কাছে খাটে না মোর কবির গর্ব করা,
মহাকবি তোমার পায়ে দিতে যে চাই ধরা।
জীবন লয়ে যতন করি যদি সরল বাঁশি গড়ি,
আপন সুরে দিবে ভরি সকল ছিদ্র তার।

AmAr e gAn chheRechhe tAr sakal alaMkAr
tomAr kAchhe rAkhe ni Ar sAjer ahaMkAr
alaMkAr Je mAjhe paRe milanete ARAl kare,
tomAr kathA DhAke Je tAr mukhara jhaMkAr.

tomAr kAchhe khATe nA mor kabir garba karA,
mahAkabi, tomAr pAye dite chAi Je dharA.
jIban laye Jatan kari Jadi saral bA.Mshi gaRi,
Apan sure dibe bhari sakal chhidra tAr.

Free-verse translation by Tagore (Gitanjali, verse VII):^[60]

"My song has put off her adornments. She has no pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would mar our union; they would come between thee and me; their jingling would drown thy whispers."

"My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy sight. O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with music."

Political views

Marked complexities characterise Tagore's political views. Though he criticised European imperialism^[61]^[62] and supported Indian nationalists,^[63] he also lampooned the Swadeshi movement, denouncing it in "The Cult of the Charka", an acrid 1925 essay.^[64] Instead, he emphasized self-help and intellectual uplift of the masses, stating that British imperialism was not as a primary evil, but instead a "political symptom of our social disease", urging Indians to accept that "there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education".^[65]^[66] Such views inevitably enraged many, placing his life in danger: during his stay in a San Francisco hotel in late 1916, Tagore narrowly escaped assassination by Indian expatriates — the plot failed only because the would-be assassins fell into argument.^[67] Yet Tagore wrote songs lionizing the Indian independence movement and renounced his knighthood in protest against the 1919 Amritsar massacre.^[68] Despite his tumultuous relations with Gandhi, Tagore was also key in resolving a Gandhi-B. R. Ambedkar dispute involving separate electorates for untouchables, ending a fast "unto death" by Gandhi.^[69]^[70]

Tagore also criticised orthodox (rote-oriented) education, lampooning it in the short story "The Parrot's Training", where a bird — which ultimately dies — is caged by tutors and force-fed pages torn from books.^[71]^[72] These views led Tagore — while visiting Santa Barbara, California on 11 October 1917 — to conceive of a new type of university, desiring to "make [his ashram at] Santiniketan the connecting thread between India and the world ... [and] a world center for the study of humanity ... somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography."^[67] The school — which he named Visva-Bharati^[θ] — had its foundation stone laid on 22 December 1918; it was later inaugurated on 22 December 1921.^[73] Here, Tagore implemented a brahmacharya pedagogical structure employing gurus to provide individualised guidance for pupils. Tagore worked hard to fundraise for and staff the school, even contributing all of his Nobel Prize monies.^[74] Tagore’s duties as steward and mentor at Santiniketan kept him busy; he taught classes in mornings and wrote the students' textbooks in afternoons and evenings.^[75] Tagore also fundraised extensively for the school in Europe and the U.S. between 1919 and 1921.^[76]

Impact and legacy

File:Asit Kumar Haldar 1913 The Beginning Tagore.jpg

A 1913 illustration by Asit Kumar Haldar accompanying "The Beginning", a prose-poem appearing in Tagore's The Crescent Moon.

Tagore's post-death impact can be felt through the many festivals held worldwide in his honour — examples include the annual Bengali festival/celebration of Kabipranam (Tagore's birthday anniversary), the annual Tagore Festival held in Urbana, Illinois, the Rabindra Path Parikrama walking pilgrimages leading from Calcutta to Shantiniketan, and ceremonial recitals of Tagore's poetry held on important anniversaries.^[77]^[78]^[24] This legacy is most palpable in Bengali culture, ranging from language and arts to history and politics; indeed, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen noted that even for modern Bengalis, Tagore was a "towering figure", being a "deeply relevant and many-sided contemporary thinker".^[78] Tagore's collected writings in Bangla — the Rabindra-racanavali — is also canonized as one of Bengal's greatest cultural treasures. He was also celebrated throughout much of Europe, North America, and East Asia was extensive. For example, Tagore was a key influence in the founding of Dartington Hall School, a progressive coeducational institution. In Japan, he influenced such figures as Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata.^[79] Tagore's works were widely translated into many European languages — a process that began with Czech Indologist Vincent Slesny^[80] and French Nobel Laureate André Gide — including Russian, English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and others. In the United States, Tagore's popular lecturing circuits (especially those between 1916–1917) were widely attended and acclaimed. Nevertheless, several controversies^[ζ] involving Tagore resulted in a decline in his popularity in Japan and North America after the late 1920s, contributing to his "near total eclipse" outside of Bengal.^[81]

Tagore, through Spanish translations of his works, also influenced leading figures of Spanish literature, including Argentine Zenobia Camprubí, Chileans Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, Mexican writer Octavio Paz, and Spaniards José Ortega y Gasset and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Between 1914 and 1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí spouses translated no less than twenty-two of Tagore's books from English into Spanish (with the idiosyncratic spelling of Jiménez). Jiménez, as part of this work, also extensively revised and adapted such works as Tagore's The Crescent Moon. Indeed, during this time, Jiménez developed the now-heralded innovation of poesia desnuda (Spanish language: "naked poetry").^[82] Meanwhile, Ortega y Gasset wrote that "Tagore's wide appeal [may stem from the fact that] he speaks of longings for perfection that we all have .... Tagore awakens a dormant sense of childish wonder, and he saturates the air with all kinds of enchanting promises for the reader, who ... pays little attention to the deeper import of Oriental mysticism". Indeed, Tagore's works were — alongside works by Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Plato, and Leo Tolstoy — published in free editions around 1920. Modern remnants of a once widespread Latin American reverence of Tagore were discovered, for example, by an astonished Salman Rushdie during a trip to Nicaragua.^[83] But over time, Tagore's talents came to be regarded by many as over-rated, leading Graham Greene to say in 1937 that "I cannot believe that anyone but Mr. Yeats can still take his poems very seriously."^[81]

Bibliography (partial)

Bangla-language originals

Poetry

* Manasi	1890	(The Ideal One)
* Sonar Tari	1894	(The Golden Boat)
* Gitanjali	1910	(Song Offerings)
* Gitimalya	1914	(Wreath of Songs)
* Balaka	1916	(The Flight of Cranes)

Plays

* Valmiki Pratibha	1881	(The Genius of Valmiki)
* Visarjan	1890	(The Sacrifice)
* Raja	1910	(The King of the Dark Chamber)
* Dakghar	1912	(The Post Office)
* Achalayatan	1912	(The Immovable)
* Muktadhara	1922	(The Waterfall)
* Raktakaravi	1926	(Red Oleanders)

Literary novels and short stories

* Gora	1910
* Ghare-Baire	1916	(The Home and the World)
* Yogayog	1929	(Crosscurrents)

Autobiographies

* Jivansmriti	1912	(My Reminiscences)
* Chhelebela	1940	(My Boyhood Days)

English-language translations

* The Gardener	(1913)
* Fruit-Gathering	(1916)
* The Fugitive	(1921)
* Gitanjali: Song Offerings	(1912)
* Creative Unity	(1922)
* Glimpses of Bengal	(1991)
* The Home and the World	(1985)
* I Won't Let you Go: Selected Poems	(1991)
* My Boyhood Days	(1943)
* My Reminiscences	(1991)
* Nationalism	(1991)
* The Post Office	(1996)
* Sadhana: The Realisation of Life	(1913)
* Selected Letters	(1997)
* Selected Poems	(1994)
* Selected Short Stories	(1991)

Notes

Template:IndicText

α. ^{^} Romanized transliteration from Tagore's name in Bangla script: Robindronath Ţhakur.

β. ^{^} Tagore was born at No. 6 Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Jorasanko — the address of the main mansion inhabited by the Jorasanko branch of the Tagore clan (which had earlier suffered an acrimonious split). Jorasanko was located in the Bengali section of Kolkata (Calcutta; Bangla: কলকাতা), near Chitpur Road.^[84]

ζ. ^{^} Tagore was mired in several notable controversies. These included his dealings with Indian nationalists Subhas Chandra Bose^[81] and Rash Behari Bose,^[85] his expressions of admiration for Soviet-style Communism,^[86]^[87] and papers confiscated from Indian nationalists in New York supposedly implicating Tagore in a plot to use German funds to overthrow the British Raj.^[88] The latter allegation caused Tagore's book sales and popularity among the U.S. public to plummet.^[85] Lastly, his relations with and ambivalent opinion of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini revolted many, causing Romain Rolland (a close friend of Tagore's) to state that "[h]e is abdicating his role as moral guide of the independent spirits of Europe and India".^[89]

η. ^{^} In the Bangla Calendar: 25 Baishakh, 1268 – 22 Srabon, 1348.

θ. ^{^} Etymology of "Visva-Bharati": from the Sanskrit term for "world" or "universe" and the name of a Rigveda goddess ("Bharati") associated with Saraswati, the Hindu patron goddess of learning.^[90] "Visva-Bharati" also translates as "India in the World".

ι. ^{^} "Gurudev" translates as "divine mentor".^[91]

Citations

Full citations of utilised sources are listed under "References".

^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 55–56).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 91).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 3).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e (Chakravarty 1961, p. 45).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 265).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 373).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 109–110).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 110–111).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 109).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 133).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 139–140).
^ (Hjärne 1913).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 239–240).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 242).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 308–309).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 309).
^ (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 2006).
^ (Indo-Asian News Service 2005).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 363).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 367).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 374–376).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 179).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 178).
^ ^a ^b (Tagore Festival Committee 2006).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 1–2).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 206).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 182).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 253).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 256).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 267).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 270–271).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 1).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 289–292).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 303–304).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 292–293).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 2).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 99).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 100–103).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 317).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 192–194).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 154–155).
^ (Mukherjee 2004).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 222).
^ (Dyson 2001).
^ ^a ^b (Chakravarty 1961, p. 123).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 79–80).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, pp. 21–23).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 123–124).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 124).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 45–46).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 46).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 48–49).
^ (Roy 1977, p. 201).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 94).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 95).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 7).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 281).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 192).
^ (Stewart & Twichell 2003, pp. 95–96).
^ (Tagore 1977, p. 5).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 127).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 210).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 304).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 261).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, pp. 239–240).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 181).
^ ^a ^b (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 204).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 215–216).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 306–307).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 339).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 267).
^ (Tagore & Pal 1918).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 220).
^ (Roy 1977, p. 175).
^ (Chakravarty 1961, p. 27).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 221).
^ (Chakrabarti 2001).
^ ^a ^b (Hatcher 2001).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 202).
^ (Cameron 2006).
^ ^a ^b ^c (Sen 1997).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 254–255).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 255).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 34).
^ ^a ^b (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 214).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 297).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 214–215).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 212).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 273).
^ (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 220).
^ (Sil 2005).

Timeline

Template:Rabindranath Tagore timeline

References

External links

Biographical

"Rabindranath Tagore: The Founder". Visva–Bharati (Shantiniketan). Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
"Rabindranath Tagore's Conversation with Albert Einstein". School of Wisdom. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
"Rabindranath Tagore: In Conversation with H. G. Wells". School of Wisdom. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
"Rabindranath Tagore". Calcutta Web. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Readings

"Martin Sheen Reads "My Country Awake" by Rabindranath Tagore". Wired for Books. Retrieved January 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Texts and analyses

Works by Rabindranath Tagore at Project Gutenberg
"রবীন্দ্রনাথের বিভিন্ন রচনা". বাংলা সাহিত্যের সংকলন (Ankur). Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
"The Works of Rabindranath Tagore". Internet Sacred Text Archive. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
"Rabindranath Tagore: Current Articles". Parabaas. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Music

"Rabindro-Sangeet". My Bangla Music. Retrieved January 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Preceded by Gerhart Hauptmann	Nobel Prize in Literature winner 1913	Succeeded by Romain Rolland

[Dutta_1995_55-56-1] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 55–56).

[Stewart_2003_91-2] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 91).

[Stewart_2003_3-3] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 3).

[Chakravarty_1961_45-4] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 45).

[Dutta_1997_265-5] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 265).

[Dutta_1995_373-6] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 373).

[Dutta_1995_109-110-7] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 109–110).

[Dutta_1995_110-111-8] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 110–111).

[Dutta_1995_109-9] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 109).

[Dutta_1995_133-10] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 133).

[Dutta_1995_139-140-11] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 139–140).

[Hjarne_1913-12] (Hjärne 1913).

[Dutta_1995_239-240-13] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 239–240).

[Dutta_1995_242-14] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 242).

[Dutta_1995_308-309-15] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 308–309).

[Dutta_1995_309-16] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 309).

[ASB_2006-17] (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 2006).

[IANS_2005-18] (Indo-Asian News Service 2005).

[Dutta_1995_363-19] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 363).

[Dutta_1995_367-20] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 367).

[Dutta_1995_374-376-21] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 374–376).

[Dutta_1995_179-22] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 179).

[Dutta_1995_178-23] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 178).

[TFC_2006-24] (Tagore Festival Committee 2006).

[Chakravarty_1961_1-2-25] (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 1–2).

[”Dutta_1995_206”-26] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 206).

[Chakravarty_1961_182-27] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 182).

[Dutta_1995_253-28] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 253).

[Dutta_1995_256-29] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 256).

[Dutta_1995_267-30] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 267).

[Dutta_1995_270-271-31] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 270–271).

[Chakravarty_1961_1-32] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 1).

[Dutta_1995_289-292-33] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 289–292).

[Dutta_1995_303-304-34] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 303–304).

[Dutta_1995_292-293-35] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 292–293).

[Chakravarty_1961_2-36] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 2).

[Chakravarty_1961_99-37] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 99).

[Chakravarty_1961_100-103-38] (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 100–103).

[Dutta_1995_317-39] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 317).

[Dutta_1995_192-194-40] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 192–194).

[Dutta_1995_154-155-41] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 154–155).

[Mukherjee_2004-42] (Mukherjee 2004).

[Dutta_1997_222-43] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 222).

[Dyson_2001-44] (Dyson 2001).

[Chakravarty_1961_123-45] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 123).

[Dutta_1995_79-80-46] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 79–80).

[Dutta_1997_21-23-47] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, pp. 21–23).

[Chakravarty_1961_123-124-48] (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 123–124).

[Chakravarty_1961_124-49] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 124).

[Chakravarty_1961_45-46-50] (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 45–46).

[Chakravarty_1961_46-51] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 46).

[Chakravarty_1961_48-49-52] (Chakravarty 1961, pp. 48–49).

[Roy_1977_201-53] (Roy 1977, p. 201).

[Stewart_2003_94-54] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 94).

[Stewart_2003_95-55] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 95).

[Stewart_2003_7-56] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, p. 7).

[Dutta_1995_281-57] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 281).

[Dutta_1995_192-58] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 192).

[Stewart_2003_95-96-59] (Stewart & Twichell 2003, pp. 95–96).

[Tagore_1977_5-60] (Tagore 1977, p. 5).

[Dutta_1997_127-61] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 127).

[Dutta_1997_210-62] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 210).

[Dutta_1995_304-63] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 304).

[Dutta_1995_261-64] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 261).

[Dutta_1997_239-240-65] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, pp. 239–240).

[Chakravarty_1961_181-66] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 181).

[”Dutta_1995_204”-67] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 204).

[Dutta_1995_215-216-68] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 215–216).

[Dutta_1995_306-307-69] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 306–307).

[Dutta_1995_339-70] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 339).

[Dutta_1997_267-71] (Dutta & Robinson 1997, p. 267).

[Tagore_1918-72] (Tagore & Pal 1918).

[”Dutta_1995_220”-73] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 220).

[Roy_1977_175-74] (Roy 1977, p. 175).

[Chakravarty_1961_27-75] (Chakravarty 1961, p. 27).

[”Dutta_1995_221”-76] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 221).

[Chakrabarti_2001-77] (Chakrabarti 2001).

[Hatcher_2001-78] (Hatcher 2001).

[Dutta_1995_202-79] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 202).

[Cameron_2006-80] (Cameron 2006).

[Sen_1997-81] (Sen 1997).

[Dutta_1995_254-255-82] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 254–255).

[Dutta_1995_255-83] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 255).

[Dutta_1995_34-84] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 34).

[Dutta_1995_214-85] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 214).

[Dutta_1995_297-86] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 297).

[Dutta_1995_214-215-87] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, pp. 214–215).

[Dutta_1995_212-88] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 212).

[Dutta_1995_273-89] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 273).

[Dutta_1995_220-90] (Dutta & Robinson 1995, p. 220).

[Sil_2005-91] (Sil 2005).

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