Class 8

History
Lesson 18

Chapter 1a: Major Cultural

influences
Page 7-11
Fact Sheet
• Date of Birth: May 7, 1861
• Place of Birth: Jorasanko Thakur Bari; Calcutta, British India
• Date of Death: August 7, 1941
• Place of Death: Jorasanko Thakur Bari; Calcutta, British India
• Profession: Writer, song composer, playwright, essayist,
painter
• Spouse: Mrinalini Devi
• Children: 2 Sons & 3 Daughters
Renuka Tagore, Shamindranath Tagore, Meera Tagore,
Rathindranath Tagore and Madhurilata Tagore
• Father: Debendranath Tagore
• Mother: Sarada Devi
• Award: Nobel Prize in Literature (1913)
 Who was he?
• Rabindranath Tagore was a multitalented
personality in every sense. He was a Bengali
poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist,
playwright, novelist, painter and a composer.
Though he was a polymath, his literary works
alone are enough to place him in the elite list
of all-time greats.
• He was also a cultural reformer who modified
Bengali art by rebuffing the strictures that
confined it within the sphere of classical
Indian forms.
• Even today, Rabindranath Tagore is often
remembered for his poetic songs, which are
both spiritual and mercurial.
• He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial
language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models
based on classical Sanskrit.
• Tagore was keen in spreading his ideologies to the rest of the world and
hence embarked on a world tour, lecturing in countries like Japan and the
United States. Soon, his works were admired by people of various countries
and he eventually became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize.
• Apart from Jana Gana Mana (the National Anthem of India), his
composition ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ was adopted as the National Anthem of
Bangladesh and the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was inspired by one of
his works.
 Childhood and Early Life
• Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861
to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in the
Jorasanko mansion (the ancestral home of the
Tagore family) in Calcutta. He was the youngest
son among thirteen children.
• At a very young age, Rabindranath Tagore was
part of the Bengal renaissance, which his family
took active participation in.
• He was also a child prodigy as he started penning
down poems at the age of 8. He also started
composing art works at a tender age and by the
age of sixteen he had started publishing poems
under the pseudonym Bhanusimha. He also wrote
the short story, ‘Bhikharini’ in 1877 and the poem
collection, ‘Sandhya Sangit’ in 1882.
• Some of his other influences and inspirations
came from his brothers and sisters. While
Dwijendranath, his elder brother, was a poet and
philosopher, Satyendranath, another brother of
his, was in a highly respectable position. His sister
Swarnakumari was a well-known novelist.
• Tagore was largely home-schooled and was
trained by his siblings in the field of gymnastics,
martial arts, art, anatomy, literature, history and
mathematics among various other subjects.
• In 1873, he accompanied his father and toured
the country for many months. During this journey,
he accumulated knowledge on several subjects.
His stay at Amritsar paved the way for him to
learn about Sikhism, an experience which he
would later use to pen down as many as six
poems and many articles on the religion.
 Education:

• Rabindranath Tagore’s traditional education began in Brighton,

East Sussex, England, at a public school.
• He was sent to England in the year 1878 as his father wanted
him to become a barrister.
• Rabindranath had always despised formal education and thus
showed no interest in learning from his school.
• He was later enrolled at the University College in London,
where he was asked to learn law. But he once again dropped
out and learned several works of Shakespeare on his own.
• After learning the essence of English, Irish and Scottish
literature and music, he returned to India and started
incorporating the western style into his writings.
 Visiting East Bengal:
• In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in
Bangladesh) to manage his family’s estates at
Shilaidah and Shazadpur for 10 years.
• There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma
River (the main channel of the Ganges River), in
close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for
them became the keynote of much of his later
writing.
• Most of his finest short stories, which examine
“humble lives and their small miseries,” date from
the 1890s and have a poignancy, laced with gentle
irony, that is unique to him (though admirably
captured by the director Satyajit Ray in later film
adaptations).
• Tagore came to love the Bengali countryside, most of all the Padma River, an often-repeated image in
his verse.
• During these years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894; The Golden Boat),
and plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra). Tagore’s poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his
more than 2,000 songs, which achieved considerable popularity among all classes of Bengali society.
 Establishment of
Santiniketan
• Rabindranath’s father had bought a huge stretch of land in
Santiniketan. With an idea of establishing an experimental
school in his father’s property, he shifted base to
Santiniketan in 1901 and founded an ashram there.
• It had a prayer hall with marble flooring and was named ‘The
Mandir.’
• The classes there were held under trees and followed the
traditional Guru-Shishya method of teaching.
• Rabindranath Tagore hoped that the revival of this ancient
method of teaching would prove beneficial when compared
to the modernized method.
• He settled permanently at the school, which became Visva-
Bharati University in 1921.
 Winning the Nobel Prize:

Years of sadness arising from the deaths of his

wife and two children between 1902 and 1907
were reflected in his later poetry, which was
introduced to the West in Gitanjali (Song
Offerings) (1912). This book, containing Tagore’s
English prose translations of religious poems
from several of his Bengali verse collections,
including Gitanjali (1910), was hailed by W.B.
Yeats and André Gide and won him the Nobel
Prize in 1913.
World Tours
• Since Rabindranath Tagore believed in the concept of one world, he
set out on a world tour, to spread his ideologies.
• He also took along with him, his translated works, which caught the
attention of many legendary poets. He also lectured in countries like
the United States and Japan.
• Soon after, Tagore found himself visiting places like Mexico,
Singapore and Rome, where he met national leaders and important
personalities including the likes of Einstein and Mussolini.
• In 1927, he embarked on a Southeast Asian tour and inspired many
with his wisdom and literary works.
• Tagore also used this opportunity to discuss with many world
leaders, the issues between Indians and the English.
• Though his initial aim was to put an end to nationalism,
Rabindranath over a period realized that nationalism was mightier
than his ideology, and hence developed further hatred towards it.
• By the end of it all, he had visited as many as thirty countries spread
over five continents.
Answers:
Part A:
(i) Abhilash
(ii) The works of Rabindranath Tagore consist of poems, novels, short stories, dramas,
paintings, drawings, and music that Bengali poet and Brahmo philosopher
Rabindranath Tagore created over his lifetime. Tagore's literary reputation is
disproportionately influenced very much 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 Bengali-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 and children.
(iii) Debendranath Tagore
(iv)1919
(v)Mrinalini Devi
Plenary:
Thank You!!