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Rabindranath Tagore

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

             Rabindranath Tagore
   Rabindranath Tagore in Kolkata, c. 1915
   Born 7 May 1861
        Kolkata, India
   Died 7 August 1941
        Kolkata, India

   Rabindranath Tagore ( [ɹobin̪d̪ɾonat̪ʰ ʈʰakuɹ] or [taˈgɔ(ɹ)] ; Bangla:
   রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the
   sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj ( syncretic Hindu
   monotheist) philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and
   novelist whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late
   19th and early 20th centuries. A cultural icon of Bengal, he became
   Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in
   Literature.

   A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta (Kolkata), India, Tagore first
   wrote poems at age eight. He published his first substantial poetry —
   under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") — in 1877 and wrote his
   first short stories and dramas at age sixteen. His home schooling, life
   in Shilaidaha, and travels made Tagore a nonconformist and pragmatist ;
   however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused Tagore to
   back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi.
   Despite losing virtually his entire family and his sorrow at witnessing
   Bengal's decline, his life's work — Visva-Bharati University — endured.

   Tagore's works included Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced),
   and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World), while his verse, short
   stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, colloquial
   language, 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 rabindrasangeet canon are
   now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar
   Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.

Early life (1861–1901)

   Tagore in 1879, when he was studying in England.
   Enlarge
   Tagore in 1879, when he was studying in England.

   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 (the sacred thread ceremony, a
   coming-of-age) rite at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta
   on 14 February 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. 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 maintained that these were the
   lost works of Bhānusiṃha, a newly discovered 17th-century Vaiṣṇava
   poet. He also wrote "Bhikharini" (1877; "The Beggar Woman" — the Bangla
   language's first short story) and Sandhya Sangit (1882) — including the
   famous poem "Nirjharer Swapnabhanga" ("The Rousing of the Waterfall").
   Tagore and his wife Mrinalini Devi in 1883.
   Enlarge
   Tagore and his wife Mrinalini Devi in 1883.

   Seeking to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in
   Brighton, England in 1878; 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. In 1890, Tagore (joined in
   1898 by his wife and children) began managing his family's estates in
   Shilaidaha,a region now in Bangladesh. Known as " Zamindar Babu",
   Tagore traveled across the vast estate while living out of the family's
   luxurious barge, the Padma, to collect (mostly token) rents and bless
   villagers; in exchange, he had feasts held in his honour. 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 and eighty-four-story Galpaguchchha written. With
   irony and emotional weight, they depicted a wide range of Bengali
   lifestyles, particularly village life.

Santiniketan (1901–1932)

   A photo of Tagore taken in either 1905 or 1906, by fellow Bengali poet
   Sukumar Ray.
   Enlarge
   A photo of Tagore taken in either 1905 or 1906, by fellow Bengali poet
   Sukumar Ray.

   In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to Santiniketan ( 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. 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. These works 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. On 14 November 1913, Tagore learned that he had won the 1913
   Nobel Prize in Literature. 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. In 1915, Tagore also accepted knighthood
   from the British Crown.
   Tagore, photographed in Hampstead, England in 1912 by John Rothenstein.
   Enlarge
   Tagore, photographed in Hampstead, England in 1912 by John Rothenstein.

   In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the
   Institute for Rural Reconstruction (which Tagore later renamed
   Shriniketan — "Abode of Peace") 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.
   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". In the
   early 1930s, he also grew more concerned about India's "abnormal caste
   consciousness" and Untouchability, lecturing on its evils, writing
   poems and dramas with Untouchable protagonists, and appealing to
   authorities at Kerala's Guruvayoor Temple to admit Dalits.

Twilight years (1932–1941)

   In his last decade, Tagore remained in the public limelight, publicly
   upbraiding Gandhi for stating that a massive 15 January 1934 earthquake
   in Bihar constituted divine retribution for the subjugation of Dalits.
   He also mourned the incipient socioeconomic decline of Bengal and the
   endemic poverty of Calcutta; he detailed the latter in an un rhymed
   hundred-line poem whose technique of searing double-vision would
   foreshadow Satyajit Ray's film Apur Sansar. Tagore also compiled
   fifteen volumes of writings, including the prose-poems works Punashcha
   (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and Patraput (1936). He continued his
   experimentations by developing prose-songs and dance-dramas, including
   Chitrangada (1914), Shyama (1939), and Chandalika (1938), and wrote the
   novels Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), and Char Adhyay (1934). Tagore
   took an interest in science in his last years, writing Visva-Parichay
   (a collection of essays) in 1937. He explored 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).
   Tagore (left) meets with Mahatma Gandhi at Santiniketan in 1940.
   Enlarge
   Tagore (left) meets with Mahatma Gandhi at Santiniketan in 1940.

   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
   years is among his finest, and is distinctive for its preoccupation
   with death; these more profound and mystical experimentations allowed
   Tagore to be branded a "modern poet". After extended suffering, Tagore
   died on 7 August 1941 (22 Shravan 1348) in an upstairs room of the
   Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised; his death anniversary is
   still mourned in public functions held across the Bangla-speaking
   world.

Travels

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

   Owing to his notable wanderlust, between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited
   more than thirty countries on five continents; 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. 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 and the United Kingdom,
   staying in Butterton, Staffordshire with Andrews’ clergymen friends.
   From 3 May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore went on lecturing circuits in
   Japan and the United States, 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). Shortly after
   returning to India, the 63-year-old Tagore visited Peru at the
   invitation of the Peruvian government, and took the opportunity to
   visit Mexico as well. Both governments pledged donations of $100,000 to
   the school at Shantiniketan (Visva-Bharati) in commemoration of his
   visits. A week after his November 6, 1924 arrival in Buenos Aires,
   Argentina, 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. Their initially warm rapport lasted until Tagore
   spoke out against Mussolini on 20 July 1926.
   Tagore (first row, third figure from right) meets members of the
   Iranian Majlis (Tehran, April-May 1932).
   Enlarge
   Tagore (first row, third figure from right) meets members of the
   Iranian Majlis (Tehran, April-May 1932).

   On 14 July 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”. In early 1930 he left Bengal for a nearly year-long
   tour of Europe and the U.S. On his return to the UK, 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. 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". 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. Lastly, in April 1932, Tagore — who was acquainted with
   the legends and works of the Persian mystic Hafez — was invited as a
   personal guest of Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran. Such extensive
   travels allowed Tagore to interact with many notable contemporaries,
   including Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Thomas Mann,
   George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Romain Rolland. 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.

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. 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. 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.
   Tagore's signature.
   Enlarge
   Tagore's signature.

   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

   "Dancing Girl", an undated ink-on-paper piece by Tagore.
   Enlarge
   "Dancing Girl", an undated ink-on-paper piece by Tagore.

   Tagore was an accomplished musician and painter, writing around 2,230
   songs. They compose rabindrasangit ( Bengali: রবীন্দ্র সংগীত — "Tagore
   Song"), 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.
   Primarily influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani classical music,
   they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early
   dirge-like Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions. They
   emulated the tonal colour of classical ragas to varying extents; while
   at times his songs mimiced a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully,
   he also blended elements of different ragas to create innovative works.
   For Bengalis, their appeal — stemming from the combination of emotive
   strength and beauty described as surpassing even Tagore's poetry — was
   such that the Modern Review observed that "[t]here is in Bengal no
   cultured home where Rabindranath's songs are not sung or at least
   attempted to be sung ... Even illiterate villagers sing his songs".
   Music critic Arther Strangeways of The Observer first introduced
   non-Bengalis to rabindrasangit with his book The Music of Hindostan,
   which described it as a "vehicle of a personality ... [that] go behind
   this or that system of music to that beauty of sound which all systems
   put out their hands to seize." Among them are two such works:
   Bangladesh's Amar Sonaar Baanglaa ( Bengali: আমার সোনার বাঙলা) and
   India's Jana Gana Mana ( Bengali: জন গণ মন); Tagore thus became the
   only person ever to have written the national anthems of two nations.
   In turn, rabindrasangit influenced the styles of such musicians as
   sitar maestro Vilayat Khan, the sarodiya Buddhadev Dasgupta, and
   composer Amjad Ali Khan.
   Much of Tagore's artwork dabbled in primitivism, including this
   pastel-coloured rendition of a Malanggan mask from northern New
   Ireland.
   Enlarge
   Much of Tagore's artwork dabbled in primitivism, including this
   pastel-coloured rendition of a Malanggan mask from northern New
   Ireland.

   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 — were held
   throughout Europe. Tagore — who likely exhibited protanopia ("colour
   blindness"), or partial lack of (red-green, in Tagore's case) colour
   discernment — painted in a style characterised by peculiarities in
   aesthetics and colouring schemes. Nevertheless, Tagore took to
   emulating numerous styles, including that of craftwork by the Malanggan
   people of northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the west coast of
   Canada (British Columbia), and woodcuts by Max Pechstein. 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. Through it, Tagore vigorously 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. Another notable play, Dak Ghar (The Post Office), describes how
   a child — striving to escape his stuffy confines — ultimately "fall[s]
   asleep" (which suggests his physical death). A story with worldwide
   appeal (it received rave reviews in Europe), Dak Ghar dealt with death
   as, in Tagore's words, "spiritual freedom" from "the world of hoarded
   wealth and certified creeds".

   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. The Bangla-language originals included
   intricate subplots and extended monologues. Later, his dramas probed
   more philosophical and allegorical themes; these included Dak Ghar.
   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. 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. Dance dramas based on Tagore's plays are
   commonly referred to as rabindra nritya natyas.

Short stories

   A drawing by Nandalall Bose illustrating Tagore's short story "The
   Hero", an English-language translation of which appeared in the 1913
   Macmillan publication of Tagore's The Crescent Moon.
   Enlarge
   A drawing by Nandalall Bose illustrating Tagore's short story "The
   Hero", an English-language translation of which appeared in the 1913
   Macmillan publication of Tagore's The Crescent Moon.

   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. 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. 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. In "The Fruitseller
   from Kabul", Tagore speaks in first person as town-dweller and novelist
   who chances upon the Afghani seller. He attempts to distil 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 .... ". Many of the other
   Galpaguchchha stories were written in Tagore’s Sabuj Patra period
   (1914–1917; also named for one of Tagore's magazines).
   A 1913 illustration by Asit Kumar Haldar accompanying "The Beginning",
   a prose-poem appearing in Tagore's The Crescent Moon.
   Enlarge
   A 1913 illustration by Asit Kumar Haldar accompanying "The Beginning",
   a prose-poem appearing in Tagore's The Crescent Moon.

   Tagore's Golpoguchchho (Bunch of Stories) remains among Bangla
   literature's most popular fictional works, providing subject matter for
   many successful films and theatrical plays. Satyajit Ray's film
   Charulata was based upon Tagore's controversial novella, Nastanirh (The
   Broken Nest). In Atithi (also made into a film), the young Brahmin boy
   Tarapada shares a boat ride with a village zamindar. The boy reveals
   that he has run away from home, only to wander around ever since.
   Taking pity, the zamindar adopts him and ultimately arranges his
   marriage to the zamindar's own daughter. However, the night before the
   wedding, Tarapada runs off — again. Strir Patra (The Letter from the
   Wife) is among Bangla literature's earliest depictions of the bold
   emancipation of women. The heroine Mrinal, the wife of a typical
   patriarchical Bengali middle class man, writes a letter while she is
   traveling (which constitutes the whole story). It details the pettiness
   of her life and struggles; she finally declares that she will not
   return to her husband's home with the statement Amio bachbo. Ei bachlum
   ("And I shall live. Here, I live"). In Haimanti, Tagore takes on the
   institution of Hindu marriage, describing the dismal lifelessness of
   married Bengali women, hypocrisies plaguing the Indian middle classes,
   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. 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

   Bāul folk singers in Santiniketan during the annual Holi festival.
   Enlarge
   Bāul folk singers in Santiniketan during the annual Holi festival.

   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. Yet Tagore's
   poetry became most innovative and mature after his exposure to rural
   Bengal's folk music, which included ballads sung by Bāul folk singers —
   especially the bard Lālan Śāh. These — which were rediscovered and
   popularised by Tagore — resemble 19th-century Kartābhajā hymns that
   emphasize inward divinity and rebellion against religious and social
   orthodoxy. During his Shilaidaha years, his poems took on a lyrical
   quality, speaking via the maner manus (the Bāuls' "man within the
   heart") or meditating upon the jivan devata ("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.

   Later, Tagore responded to the (mostly) crude emergence of modernism
   and realism in Bengali literature by writing experimental works in the
   1930s. 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 Cholti Bhasha (a more popular dialect). Other notable works
   include Manasi, Sonar Tori (Golden Boat), Balaka (Wild Geese — the
   title being a metaphor for migrating souls), 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" ("Shunno
   nodir tire rohinu poŗi / Jaha chhilo loe gêlo shonar tori" — "all I had
   achieved was carried off on the golden boat — only I was left
   behind."). However, internationally, Gitanjali ( Bengali: গীতাঞ্জলি) is
   Tagore's best-known collection, winning him his Nobel Prize. Song VII
   (গীতাঞ্জলি 127) of Gitanjali:
   Title page of the 1913 Macmillan edition of Tagore's Gitanjali.
   Enlarge
   Title page of the 1913 Macmillan edition of Tagore's 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 chheŗechhe tar shôkol ôlongkar
          Tomar kachhe rakhe ni ar shajer ôhongkar
          Ôlongkar je majhe pôŗe milônete aŗal kôre,
          Tomar kôtha đhake je tar mukhôro jhôngkar.

          Tomar kachhe khaţe na mor kobir gôrbo kôra,
          Môhakobi, tomar paee dite chai je dhôra.
          Jibon loe jôton kori jodi shôrol bãshi goŗi,
          Apon shure dibe bhori sôkol chhidro tar.

   Free-verse translation by Tagore (Gitanjali, verse VII):

          "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."

   Tagore's poetry has been set to music by various composers, among them
   classical composer Arthur Shepherd's triptych for soprano and string
   quartet.

Political views

   Tagore (at right, on the dais) hosts Mahatma Gandhi and wife Kasturba
   at Santiniketan in 1940.
   Enlarge
   Tagore (at right, on the dais) hosts Mahatma Gandhi and wife Kasturba
   at Santiniketan in 1940.

   Marked complexities characterise Tagore's political views. Though he
   criticised European imperialism and supported Indian nationalists, he
   also lampooned the Swadeshi movement, denouncing it in "The Cult of the
   Charka", an acrid 1925 essay. Instead, he emphasized self-help and
   intellectual uplift of the masses, stating that British imperialism was
   not 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". 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. Yet Tagore wrote songs lionizing
   the Indian independence movement and renounced his knighthood in
   protest against the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Two of Tagore's
   more politically charged compositions, " Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo"
   ("Where the Mind is Without Fear") and " Ekla Chalo Re" ("If They
   Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone"), gained mass appeal, with the
   latter favoured by Gandhi. Despite his tumultuous relations with
   Gandhi, Tagore was also key in resolving a Gandhi- Ambedkar dispute
   involving separate electorates for untouchables, ending a fast "unto
   death" by Gandhi.

   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. 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 centre
   for the study of humanity ... somewhere beyond the limits of nation and
   geography." The school — which he named Visva-Bharati — had its
   foundation stone laid on 22 December 1918; it was later inaugurated on
   22 December 1921. 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. 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. Tagore
   also fundraised extensively for the school in Europe and the U.S.
   between 1919 and 1921.

Impact and legacy

   A bust of Tagore in the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial's
   Tagore Memorial Room (Ahmedabad, India).
   Enlarge
   A bust of Tagore in the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial's
   Tagore Memorial Room ( Ahmedabad, India).

   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 in the United States,
   the Rabindra Path Parikrama walking pilgrimages leading from Calcutta
   to Shantiniketan, and ceremonial recitals of Tagore's poetry held on
   important anniversaries. 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". Tagore's collected Bangla-language writings —
   the 1939 Rabīndra Racanāvalī — is also canonized as one of Bengal's
   greatest cultural treasures, while Tagore himself has been proclaimed
   "the greatest poet India has produced". He was also famed throughout
   much of Europe, North America, and East Asia. He was key in founding
   Dartington Hall School, a progressive coeducational institution; in
   Japan, he influenced such figures as Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata.
   Tagore's works were widely translated into many European languages — a
   process that began with Czech indologist Vincent Slesny 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 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.

   Tagore, through Spanish translations of his works, also influenced
   leading figures of Spanish literature, including Chileans Pablo Neruda
   and Gabriela Mistral, Mexican writer Octavio Paz, and Spaniards José
   Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Camprubí, 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. 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 "naked poetry" (Spanish: «poesia
   desnuda»). 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. 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."
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