Rabindranath Tagore

The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore was the scion of a prominent family from West Bengal. He was born in 1861 in Calcutta and received his primary education at home, in the Bengali language, with English lessons in the afternoons. From an early age, he became acquainted with the works of Indian poets who wrote in the same language and, at the age of eight, composed his first poems. Later, his father – the Hindu reformer Maharshi Debendranath Tagore – sent him to England to study law, where he attended, among other things, the liberal lectures of John Bright and W.E. Gladstone. In 1879 he enrolled at University College, London, but the following year he was forced to abandon his studies and return to India at his father’s request. In 1883, he married the ten-year-old Bhabatarini, whom his family had chosen for him, and with whom he would have four children – the first when she was 13 years old. From 1890, he devoted himself to managing the family estate.

At the same time, his first collections of poetry were published (‘Manasi’, 1890, ‘Chitra’, 1895, and ‘Sonar Tari’, 1895), written in simple Bengali rather than the ornate language of literary works. In 1901, he founded the renowned Shantiniketan school, near Calcutta, with a group of Hindu and Christian teachers, with the aim of “teaching the simplicity of life and cultivating beauty”. In 1912, his own English translation of his work "Gitanjali" was published in England under the title "Song Offerings", edited by G. B. Yeats. He travelled to Great Britain and the USA for a series of lectures. The following year, in 1913, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize money was used to improve conditions at the Shantiniketan school. In addition to literature, Rabindranath Tagore was involved in painting and music and exhibited his works in the West. Among his students was the renowned Indian film director Satyajit Ray, who was deeply influenced by his teaching. He did not become involved in active politics, but rather, through his life and work, sought to bridge the gap between East and West. He died in 1941 in Calcutta, following a brief illness, in the very house where he was born.