Rabindranath Tagore

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf." ~ Rabindranath
Tagore
2 Agenda
 Introduction
 Early Life and Family
 Different Phases of Life and Career
 Travels
 Works
 Involvement in Politics
 Nobel Prize
 Bishwa Bharati University
 Impact and Legacy
 Museums

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 3 Introduction
 Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), was a Bengali polymath from the Indian
subcontinent, a poet, musician and artist. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as
Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 “Gitanjali” written by Rabindranath is well known for "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful
verse“. For this book, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
 Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and
magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the
Bard of Bengal".
 As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent nationalist, he denounced the British
Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he
advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and
some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati
University.
Rabindranath Tagore
(7 May 1861 - 7 August 1941)

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 4 Early Life and Family
 The youngest of thirteen surviving children, Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was born on 7 May
1861 in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta to Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Sarada
Devi (1830–1875).
 The Tagore family was at the forefront of the Bengal renaissance. They hosted the publication
of literary magazines; theatre and recitals of Bengali and Western classical music featured
there regularly. Tagore's father invited several professional Dhrupad musicians to stay in the
house and teach Indian classical music to the children.
 Tagore's eldest brother Dwijendranath was a philosopher and a poet. Another brother,
Satyendranath, was the first Indian ICS. Another brother, Jyotirindranath, was a musician,
Tagore and his wife Mrinalini
Devi, 1883 composer, and playwright. His sister Swarnakumari became a novelist.
 Tagore largely avoided classroom schooling and preferred to roam the manor or nearby
Bolpur and Panihati, which the family visited. His brother Hemendranath tutored and
physically conditioned him - by having him swim the Ganges or trek through hills, by
gymnastics and by practicing judo and wrestling.

Young Rabindranath Tagore

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
 5 Early Life (contd.)
 Tagore wrote his first poem when he was only eight years old. In 1877, when he was
16, Tagore published his first large poetry collection. Also when he was 16, he wrote
his first short story and dramas.
 In February 1873, at age 11, Tagore went with his father on a tour of India. The tour
lasted several months. They visited many places in India, including Amritsar in
Punjab, and Dalhousie in the Himalayas. Tagore also visited his father’s estate at
Young Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan. There he read biographies, and studied history, astronomy, modern
England, 1879
science, and Sanskrit. He also read works by Kali Das.
 During this time, Tagore also composed many literary works. One of them was a long
poem in Maithili (the language spoken by the people of Mithila, India). Tagore wrote
this poem in the style of Vidyapati, a famous poet who wrote in Maithili.

Young Rabindranath Tagore in

England, 1879
Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
 6 Early Years of His Career
 Because Debendranath wanted his son to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public
school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1878. He stayed for several months at a house
that the Tagore family owned near Brighton and Hove, in Medina Villas.
 He briefly read law at University College London, but again left school, opting instead for
independent study of Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra and the
Religio Medici of Thomas Browne. Lively English, Irish, and Scottish folk tunes impressed
Tagore, whose own tradition of Nidhubabu-authored kirtans and tappas and Brahmo hymnody
Tagore performing the title role in was subdued.
Valmiki Pratibha (1881)
 In 1880 he returned to Bengal degree-less, resolving to reconcile European novelty with
Brahmo traditions, taking the best from each. After returning to Bengal, Tagore regularly
published poems, stories, and novels. These had a profound impact within Bengal itself but
received little national attention. In 1883 he married 10-year-old Mrinalini Devi, born
Bhabatarini, 1873–1902 (this was a common practice at the time). They had five children, two
of whom died in childhood.

Rabindranath welcome at Jorasanko,

Calcutta
Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
 7 At Shelaidaha: 1878 - 1901
 In 1890 Tagore began managing his vast
ancestral estates in Shelaidaha (today a
region of Bangladesh); he was joined there
by his wife and children in 1898. Tagore
released his Manasi poems (1890), among Room of Tagore in Shilaidaha Kuthibari
his best-known work.

 As Zamindar Babu, Tagore crisscrossed the Padma River in command of the Padma,
Shilaidaha Kuthibari, the famous residence of the luxurious family barge (also known as "budgerow"). He collected mostly token
Tagore in Kushtia rents and blessed villagers who in turn honoured him with banquets.
 He met Gagan Harkara, through whom he became familiar with Baul Lalon Shah,
whose folk songs greatly influenced Tagore. Tagore worked to popularise Lalon's
songs.
 The period 1891–1895, Tagore's Sadhana period, named after one of his magazines,
was his most productive; in these years he wrote more than half the stories of the
three-volume, 84-story Galpaguchchha. Its ironic and grave tales examined the
Tagore family boat (budgerow) in "Padma"
voluptuous poverty of an idealised rural Bengal.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 8 Santiniketan: 1901-1932
 In 1901 Tagore moved to Santiniketan to found an ashram with a prayer hall - The Mandir -
an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, a library. He received monthly payments
as part of his inheritance and income from the Maharaja of Tripura, sales of his family's
jewellery and the book royalties. He had gained Bengali and foreign readers alike; he
published Naivedya (1901) and Kheya (1906) and translated poems into free verse.
 In November 1913, Tagore learned he had won that year's Nobel Prize in Literature. He was
awarded a knighthood by King George V in the 1915 Birthday Honours, but Tagore
renounced it after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Tagore at an open-air class room at
 In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the "Institute for Rural
Shantiniketan Reconstruction", later renamed Shriniketan in Surul, a village near the ashram. With it,
Tagore sought to moderate Gandhi's Swaraj protests. He sought aid from donors, officials,
and scholars worldwide to "free villages from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance"
by "vitalising knowledge".
 In the early 1930s he targeted ambient "abnormal caste consciousness" and untouchability.
He lectured against these, he penned Dalit heroes for his poems and his dramas, and he
campaigned - successfully - to open Guruvayoor Temple to Dalits.

Tagore in his Study at Shantiniketan

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
 9 Twilight Years: 1932 – 1941
 Even during the last decade of his life, Tagore continued his activism. He criticized
Mohandas Gandhi, the Indian leader, for Gandhi’s comments about an earthquake on 15
January 1934 in Bihar. Gandhi had said the earthquake had happened because God wanted
to punish people for practicing casteism.
 Tagore also wrote a hundred-line poem about the poverty in Kolkata. Later on, Satyajit
Ray based one of his movies on this poem.
Tagore with Lady Ranu Mookerjee
 During this period, Tagore wrote fifteen volumes of prose-poems. They covered many
parts of human life. In his last years, Tagore took an interest in science, and wrote a
collection of essays. These essays explored biology, physics, and astronomy.
 Tagore spent the last four years of his life in sickness and pain. In late 1937, he lost
consciousness. He was in a coma for a long time. Eventually he woke up, but three years
later, he went back into a coma. During these years, whenever he was conscious and felt
well enough, he wrote poems. These poems talk about how he came close to death. After a
long period of suffering, Tagore died on 7 August 1941, at the age of 80, in his childhood
Last Picture of Rabindranath Tagore home in Kolkata.
“Clouds come floating into my life, no
longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to
add color to my sunset sky.”
- Verse 292, Stray Birds
- Rabindranath Tagore Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
 10 His Travels
 During 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited thirty countries on five continents. His goal was to
make his literary works known to people who did not speak Bengali. He also spread his
thoughts and ideas, including his political ideas.
 In 1912, Tagore went to England. Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote the preface
to the English translation of Tagore's famous book Gitanjali (Song Offerings). Tagore also
met Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and many others.
 From May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore gave many lectures in Japan. Shortly after
returning to India, the 63-year-old Tagore visited Peru at the invitation of the
Peruvian government. At the same time, he also visited Mexico. Both governments
Germany, 1931 pledged donations of $100,000 to Tagore's school at Shantiniketan.
 On 30 May 1926, Tagore reached Naples, Italy. The next day, he met fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini in Rome. On 20 July 1926, Tagore criticized and spoke out against Mussolini.
 In July 1927, Tagore and two friends went on a four-month tour of Southeast Asia. They
visited Bali, Java (island), Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. Later
on, Tagore wrote a book named “Jatri” (The Traveler) about his experiences during these
trips.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

Rabindranath with Einstein in 1930
11 His Travels (contd.)
 In early 1930, Tagore left Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of Europe and
the United States. In Paris and London, there were displays of his paintings.
During this period, Tagore wrote his Hibbert Lectures for the University of
Oxford. He also met Aga Khan III.
 From June to mid-September 1930, Tagore toured Denmark, Switzerland,
and Germany. Next, he toured the Soviet Union.
 Tagore's travels gave him opportunity to talk with many notable persons of
his time. They included Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost,
Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells,
Tagore in London, 1920
Subhas Bose, and Romain Rolland.
 Tagore's last trips abroad were his visits to Iran and Iraq in 1932, and to
Ceylon in 1933. He visited Iran as a personal guest of Shah Reza Shah
Pahlavi.
 Tagore was a man ahead of his time. He heralded the cultural
rapprochement between communities, societies and nations much before it
became the liberal norm of conduct.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

Tagore in Sweden, 1913
 12 His Works – Music and Artwork
 People know Tagore mainly as a poet. But his literary works include novels, essays, short stories, travelogues,
dramas, and thousands of songs. He was also an expert painter.
 Tagore also wrote many non-fiction books. These covered many subjects, including the history of India, linguistics,
essays and lectures, details of his travels, and other autobiographical things.
 Tagore was also an excellent musician and painter. He wrote around 2,230 songs. People call these songs "Rabindra
Sangeet (which means "Tagore Song" in English). These songs are now a part of modern Bengali culture. Tagore's
many poems and songs are parts of his novels and stories. Many movies also have soundtracks featuring selections
from Tagore's songs.
 His songs and music cover many aspects of human emotion, from devotional hymns to songs of love.
 At age 60, Tagore took an interest in drawing and painting. He used many styles from different parts of the world.
His styles included craftwork by the Malanggan people of northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the Pacific
Northwest region of North America, and woodcuts by Max Pechstein. Sometimes, Tagore used his handwriting in
artistic styles on his manuscripts. His drawings and paintings were successfully displayed in France and London.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 13 His Works – Theatrical Pieces
 When he was only a boy of 16 years, he had performed in a drama organized by his
brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore. When Tagore was 20 years old, he wrote a drama
named Valmiki Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki). This described the life of Valmiki,
his change from a robber to a learned person, his blessing by goddess Saraswati, and
his writing of the Ramayana.
 Another notable play by him is Dak Ghar (The Post Office), describes how a child
tries to escape from his confinement, and falls asleep. This sleeping is suggestive of
death. This play received reviews in many parts of Europe.
 In 1890 he wrote Visarjan (Sacrifice). Many scholars believe this to be his finest
drama. The Bengali language originals included intricate subplots and extended
Rabindranath at an early age monologues. He wrote many other dramas on a variety of themes. In Tagore's own
words, he wrote them as "the play of feeling and not of action".
 Rabindra Nritya Natya means dance dramas based on Tagore’s plays.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

14 His Works – Short stories
 Tagore wrote many stories during the period from 1891 to 1895. Galpaguchchha (Bunch of Stories) is a three
volume collection of eighty-four of his stories. Tagore wrote about half of these stories during the period 1891
to 1895. This collection continues to be very popular work of Bangla literature. These stories have been used
for many movies and theatrical plays.
 Tagore drew inspiration and ideas for writing his stories from his surroundings, from the village life of India.
He saw the poor people very closely during travels to manage his family’s large landholdings.
 Sometimes he used different themes to test the depth of his intellect.

Works of
Rabindranath Tagore

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 15 His Works – Poetry
 Tagore's poetry is very varied, and covers many styles. He drew inspiration from 15th - and
16th century poets, as also from ancient writers like Vyasa. Bengal’s Baul folk singers also
influenced his style of poetry. He wrote many poems when he was at Shelidah managing his
family’s estates. Many of his poems have a lyrical quality. These poems tell about the "man
within the heart" and the "living God within". Over the next 70 years, he repeatedly revised his
style of writing poetry. In 1930s, he wrote many experimental works of poetry, and also used
modernism and realism in his works.
 One of his poems has words like: "all I had achieved was carried off on the golden boat; only I
was left behind.". Tagore is known around the world for his ‘‘Gitanjali’’ (Song Offerings), his
best-known collection, winning him his Nobel Prize. A free-verse translation by Tagore of a
verse of Gitanjali reads as follows:
 "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 the
feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with
music."
Part of a poem written by Tagore in
1926 in Hungary.
Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities
16 His Works – Anthems
 Tagore is the only person to have written anthems for
three countries:
 Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem of India, was
one of the works of Tagore.
 Amar Shonar Bangla, the national anthem of
Bangladesh, was written by Tagore.
 Sri Lanka Matha, the national anthem of Sri Lanka,
the Bengali version of which was written by
Rabindranath Tagore, and was later translated into
Sinhala by Ananda Samarakoon, his student.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 17 Tagore’s Involvement in Politics
 Tagore’s political views were complex. He criticized European colonialism, and supported Indian
nationalists. But, he also criticized the Swadeshi movement of many nationalist leaders of India.
 Instead, he emphasized self-help and intellectual uplift of the masses. He requested Indians to accept that
"there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education". Many people did
not like his thinking.
 In late 1916, some Indians wanted to kill him when he was staying in a hotel in San Francisco, USA.
They did not kill him as they started arguing with Tagore, and then dropped the idea to kill him.
Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath
 Tagore also wrote many songs praising the Indian independence movement. He also returned the British
Tagore
honor of Knighthood as a protest against the 1919 Jalianwala Bag massacre. In Jalianwala Bag, Amritsar
troops of the British Raj had opened fire on unarmed civilians killing many persons.
 Despite his not very cordial relations with Gandhi, Tagore played a key role in resolving a Gandhi-B. R.
Ambedkar dispute involving separate electorates for untouchables. Untouchables were people considered
lowest in the social order. He had tremendously contributed for freedom of India as well as freedom of all
people throughout the world, and also he identified first time the theme of "Globalization".

Tagore (at right, on the dais) hosts

Mahatma Gandhi and wife
Kasturba at Santiniketan in 1940

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 18 Nobel Prize
 Internationally, Gitanjali (Bengali: গীতাঞ্জলি) is Tagore's best-known collection of poetry, for
which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913. Tagore was the second non-European after
Theodore Roosevelt to receive a Nobel Prize. William Yeats wrote the preface of the English
translation of Gitanjali.
 Tagore was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature "because of his profoundly sensitive,
fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought,
expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."
 The Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic, and for Westerners, accessible nature of a
small body of his translated material focused on the 1912 Gitanjali: Song Offerings.
 In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in
1919 following the Jalianwala Bbag massacre or nearly 400 Indian demonstrators.
Title page of the 1913
Macmillan edition of  Besides Gitanjali, other notable works include Manasi, Sonar Tori ("Golden Boat"), Balaka
Tagore's Gitanjali
("Wild Geese" — the title being a metaphor for migrating souls)

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

19 Bishwa Bharati University
 Tagore despised routine classroom schooling. In his narration of "The Parrot's Training", a bird is
caged and force-fed textbook pages - to death.
 While visiting Santa Barbara in 1917, Tagore conceived a new type of university: he sought to
Motto "make 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.
Where the world
makes a home in a  The school, which he named Visva-Bharati, had its foundation stone laid on 24 December 1918 and
single nest was inaugurated precisely three years later. Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the
world with India.
 Tagore employed a brahmacharya system: gurus gave pupils personal guidance -emotional,
intellectual and spiritual. Teaching was often done under trees.
 He staffed the school, he contributed his Nobel Prize monies, and his duties as steward-mentor at
Santiniketan kept him busy: mornings he taught in the classes; afternoons and evenings he wrote
the students' text books. He fundraised widely for the school in Europe and the United States
between 1919 and 1921.
 The English daily, The Nation, notes, "Using the money he received with his Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1913, the school was expanded and renamed Visva-Bharati University. It grew to
become one of India's most renowned places of higher learning, with a list of alumni that includes
Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen, globally renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray and the
country's leading art historian R. Siva Kumar, to name just a few.”
Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

20 Impact and Legacy
 Even after many decades of his death, Tagore’s legacy continues in many
ways. People hold many festivals in his honor in many parts of the world.
Examples include:
 The annual Rabindra Jayanti - Tagore's birthday anniversary.
 The Rabindra Path Parikrama walking pilgrimages leading from Calcutta
to Shantiniketan, and ceremonial recitals of Tagore's poetry held on
important anniversaries.
 Nobel laureate Prof. Amartya Sen, who is also a Bengali, once noted that
even for modern Bengalis, Tagore was a "towering figure", being a "deeply
relevant and many-sided contemporary thinker".
Jorasanko Thakur Bari  Tagore's collected 1939 Bangla-language writings (Rabīndra Rachanābalī)
are one of Bengal's greatest cultural treasures, while Tagore himself has been
proclaimed "the greatest poet India has produced".

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

21 Impact and Legacy (contd.)
 He was also famed throughout much of Europe, North America, and East Asia.
Translations of his works are available in many languages of the world, including Russian,
English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and many others. In the United States, Tagore gave
many lectures during 1916 and 1917. Many people attended those lectures.
 Between 1914 and 1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí spouses translated at least twenty-two of
Tagore's books from English into Spanish. These Spanish translations influenced many
leading figures of Spanish literature. Some of them are Chile Pablo Neruda and Gabriela
Mistral of Chile; Mexico Octavio Paz of Mexico; and José Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia
Camprubí, and Juan Ramón Jiménez of Spain
 Various composers, including classical composer Arthur Shepherd’s, have set Tagore’s
poetry to music.

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

 22 Museums
 There are eight Tagore museums. Three in India and five in Bangladesh:

 Rabindra Bharati Museum, at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata, India

Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata;
the room in which Tagore died in
1941
 Tagore Memorial Museum, at Shilaidaha Kuthibadi, Shilaidaha, Bangladesh
 Rabindra Memorial Museum at Shahzadpur Kachharibari, Shahzadpur, Bangladesh
 Rabindra Bhavan Museum, in Santiniketan, India
 Rabindra Museum, in Mungpoo, near Kalimpong, India
 Patisar Rabindra Kacharibari, Patisar, Atrai, Naogaon, Bangladesh
 Pithavoge Rabindra Memorial Complex, Pithavoge, Rupsha, Khulna, Bangladesh

Rabindra Complex, Dakkhindihi village, Phultala Upazila, Khulna, Bangladesh
 Rabindra Complex, Dakkhindihi, Phultala, Khulna, Bangladesh
 Jorasanko Thakur Bari (Bengali: House of the Thakurs (anglicised to Tagore) in Jorasanko, north of Kolkata, is the
ancestral home of the Tagore family. It is currently located on the Rabindra Bharati University campus at 6/4
Dwarakanath Tagore Lane[178] Jorasanko, Kolkata 700007.[179] It is the house in which Tagore was born. It is
also the place where he spent most of his childhood and where he died on 7 August 1941.

Shahjadpur Kachharibari Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities

23

 Prepared by: Tirna Kundu

 Class XI
 Stream – Humanities
 Subject - History

Tirna Kundu, Class XI, Stream - Humanities