Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - Indian writer, poet, composer, artist, philosopher and public figure. First non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913).
His poetry was viewed as spiritual literature and, together with his charisma, created the image of Tagore the prophet in the West. Today his poems are the hymns of India ("Soul of the people") and Bangladesh ("My golden Bengal").
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Rabindranath Tagore, which we will talk about in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Tagore.
Biography of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861 in Calcutta (British India). He grew up and was raised in a wealthy family of landowners, enjoying great publicity. The poet was the youngest of the children of Debendranath Tagore and his wife Sarada Devi.
Childhood and youth
When Rabindranath was 5 years old, his parents sent him to the Eastern Seminary, and later transferred to the so-called Normal School, which was distinguished by a low level of education.
Tagore's interest in poetry was awakened in childhood. At the age of 8, he was already composing poetry, and also studying the work of various writers. It is worth noting that his brothers were also gifted people.
His older brother was a mathematician, poet and musician, and his middle brothers became famous thinkers and writers. By the way, Rabindranath Tagore's nephew, Obonindranath, was one of the founders of the school of modern Bengali painting.
In addition to his hobby for poetry, the future Nobel laureate studied history, anatomy, geography, painting, as well as Sanskrit and English. In his youth, he traveled for several months with his father. During his travels, he continued to educate himself.
Tagore Sr. professed Brahmanism, often visiting various holy places in India. When Rabindranath was 14 years old, his mother passed away.
Poems and prose
Returning home from travels, Rabindranath became seriously interested in writing. At the age of 16, he wrote several short stories and dramas, publishing his first poetry under the pseudonym Bhanu simha.
The head of the family insisted that his son become a lawyer, as a result of which in 1878 Rabindranath Tagore entered the University College London, where he studied law. He soon began to dislike traditional education.
This led to the fact that the guy left the right, preferring him to read literary classics. In Britain, he read the works of William Shakespeare, and also showed an interest in the folk art of the British.
In 1880 Tagore returned to Bengal, where he began to actively publish his works. From under his pen came out not only poems, but also stories, stories, plays and novels. In his writings, the influence of the "European spirit" was traced, which was a completely new phenomenon in Brahmin literature.
During this period of his biography, Rabindranath Tagore became the author of 2 collections - "Evening songs" and "Morning songs", as well as the book "Chabi-O-Gan". Every year more and more of his works were published, as a result of which a 3-volume work "Galpaguccha" was published, which contained 84 works.
In his works, the writer often touched upon the theme of poverty, which he deeply illuminated in the miniatures "Hungry Stones" and "The Runaway", published in 1895.
By that time, Rabindranath had already published his famous collection of poems, The Image of the Beloved. Over time, poetry and song collections will be published - "The Golden Boat" and "Moment". From 1908 he worked on the creation of "Gitanjali" ("Sacrificial Chants").
This work contained more than 150 verses on the relationship between man and the Creator. Due to the fact that the poems were written in an understandable and simple language, many of the lines from them were disassembled into quotations.
An interesting fact is that "Gitanjali" gained such popularity that they began to be translated and published in Europe and America. At that time, biographies Rabindranath Tagore visited a number of European countries, as well as the United States, Russia, China and Japan. In 1913 he was informed that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Thus, Rabindranath was the first Asian to receive this award. At the same time, the laureate donated his fee to his school in Santiniketan, which would later become the first university with free tuition.
In 1915 Tagore received the title of a knight, but after 4 years he gave it up - after the execution of civilians in Amritsar. In the years that followed, he did his best to educate his poor compatriots.
In the 30s, Rabindranath showed himself in various literary genres. Over the years of his creative biography, he became the author of hundreds of poems, dozens of stories and 8 novels. In his works, he often touched upon the problems of poverty, rural life, social inequality, religion, etc.
A special place in Tagore's work was occupied by the work "The Last Poem". At the end of his life, he became seriously interested in science. As a result, the Nobel laureate has published several papers in biology, astronomy and physics.
An interesting fact is that Rabindranath did not correspond for long with Einstein, with whom he discussed various scientific issues.
Music and pictures
The Hindu was not only a talented writer. Over the years, he composed approximately 2,230 songs, including religious hymns. Some of Rabindranath's texts were set to music after the writer's death.
For example, in 1950 the Indian national anthem was put on Tagore's poem, and 20 years later the lines of Amar Shonar Bangla became the official music of the country of Bangladesh.
In addition, Rabindranath was an artist who wrote about 2500 canvases. His works have been exhibited many times both in India and other countries. It is worth noting that he resorted to a variety of artistic styles, including realism and impressionist.
His paintings are distinguished by unconventional colors. Tagore's biographers associate this with color blindness. Usually he depicted silhouettes on canvas with correct geometric proportions, which was a consequence of his passion for the exact sciences.
Social activity
At the beginning of the new century, Rabindranath Tagore lived on a family estate near Calcutta, where he was engaged in writing, political and social activities. He opened an asylum for wise men, which included a school, library and prayer house.
Tagore supported the ideas of the revolutionary Tilak and formed the Swadeshi movement, which opposed the partition of Bengal. It is worth noting that he did not strive to achieve this goal through war, but achieved this through the enlightenment of the people.
Rabindranath raised funds for educational institutions where the poor could receive free education. In the last years of his life, he raised the issue of the division into castes, which divided the population by social status.
A year before his death, Tagore met with Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, whose methods he did not approve of. During that period of his biography, he actively lectured in various states, including the United States, in which he criticized nationalism.
Rabindranath reacted extremely negatively to Hitler's attack on the USSR. He argued that in due time the German dictator would receive retribution for all the evil he had done.
Personal life
When the poet was about 22 years old, he married a 10-year-old girl named Mrinalini Devi, who also came from the Pirali brahmana family. In this union, the couple had 5 children, two of whom died in childhood.
Later Tagore began to manage large family estates in the Shelaidakhi region, where he moved his wife and children a few years later. He often traveled around his property on a private barge, collecting fees and communicating with the villagers who organized holidays in his honor.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a series of tragedies occurred in the biography of Rabindranath. In 1902 his wife died, and the next year his daughter and father were gone. Five years later, he lost another child who died of cholera.
Death
4 years before his death, Tagore began to suffer from chronic pain that developed into a serious illness. In 1937 he fell into a coma, but the doctors managed to save his life. In 1940, he again fell into a coma, from which he was no longer destined to get out.
Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941 at the age of 80. His death was a real tragedy for the entire Bengali-speaking people, who mourned him for a long time.
Photo by Rabindranath Tagore
