Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of
Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new
religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a
revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in
the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at
seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not
finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his
many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a
project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and
increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an
experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic
ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian
nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and
visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was
his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British
Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as
a protest against British policies in India.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his
translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the
West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across
continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world
he became the voice of India's spiritual heritage; and for India,
especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was
first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi
(1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali
(1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs],
and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English
renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering
(1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond
to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its
title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed
of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake.
Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark
Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan
(1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall],
and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the
author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels,
among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The
Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents].
Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all
types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle
years and the other shortly before his death in 1941. Tagore also
left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote
the music himself.
From Nobel
Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier
Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
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