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Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর, rabIndranAth thhAkur) (May 7, 1861 – August 7, 1941) (in the Bangla Calendar, 25 Baishakh, 1268 – 22 Srabon, 1348), also called Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo philosopher and nationalist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, becoming the first Asian to be awarded a Nobel Prize. ===Life=== Tagore was born in Jorasanko, Kolkata ((Bengali language:কলকাতা), the son of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada devi. His grandfather Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, was a leading businessman and a man of letters who adopted the Brahmo faith propagated by his friend, the reformer Raja Rammohun Roy. The family was well-off and followed normal Bengali traditions but was educated (some of the women were pioneers in this direction) in both English and Indian traditions. Rabindranath, as the youngest of fourteen culturally sensitive children, grew up in a vibrant artistic atmosphere, where literary magazines were published and music performance and theaters were presented within the cultural group nucleated by the Jorasanko Tagores. Rabindranath's oldest brother Dwijendranath Tagore was a philosopher and a poet. Another brother, Satyendranath Tagore, was the first Indian member of Indian Civil Service. Yet another brother, Jyotirindranath Tagore, was a talented musician-composer and playwright. Among his sisters, Swarna Kumari Devi earned fame as a novelist in her own right. Jyotirindranath's wife, Kadambari, about the same age as Rabindranath, was a dear friend and a powerful influence on the budding poet. Her suicide in 1884 left him distraught for years, and left a profound mark on Tagore's literary life. In 1878 Rabindranath went to England where he studied in a public school in Brighton, and then at the University College, London. He did not complete his degree, however, and left England after just over a year. His exposure to the English culture however, he was to later infuse into the Bengali musical tradition to create new forms of music. On 9 December 1883, Rabindranath married Mrinalini Devi, and the couple had two sons and three daughters, several of whom died at young ages. By this time he had already come into the literary limelight with several works, including a long poem set in the Maithili style pooneered by Vidyapati, which he initially claimed was that of a lost poet called ''Bhanu Simha''. His reputation was further consolidated by works such as Sandhya Sangit (1882) which includes the famous poem ''Nirjharer Svapnabhanga'' - "The cry of the waterfall". In 1890, Tagore went to manage the family estates at at Shelaidaha, an estuarine region in today's Bangladesh, where he lived on a houseboat on the tributary system of the river Padma. Works from this period such as Sonar Tari (1894), Chitra (1896), and Katha O Kahini (1900), further established him as a poet. In addition, he was also establishing a reputation as an essayist, playwright, and his short stories, reflecting the village life that he saw around him, earned him considerable praise. In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to Santiniketan, where he set up an experimental school. He continued writing, with works such as Naivedya (1901) and kheyA (1906) being published in this period. Unfortunately his wife died in this period, and also a favourite daughter and also a son, leaving him distraught. By now, he had a large following among Bengali readers. Some translations were also being produced, but were often of mediocre quality. In response to English admirers such as the painter William Rothenstein, Tagore started translating some of his poems in free verse. In 1912, he went to England, carrying a sheaf of his translations. At readings there, these translations moved a number of Englishmen, notably the Anglo-Irish poet WB Yeats and the Englishman CF Andrews. Yeats would later write the preface to the English Gitanjali, and Andrews joined him for a long periods in India. The English Gitanjali was later published by the India Society along with a glowing preface by Yeats. In November of that same year he was surprised to find that he had awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, based on such a slender corpus of translated work. All along, Rabindranath had an artist's eye to his own handwriting, and he embellished the cross-out's and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs. At the age of sixty, he started to paint, and successful art exhibitions were held in much of Europe. He died in the Jorasanko house on 7 August 1941 (22 Shravan 1348), a day that is still mourned in public functions across the Bangla-speaking world. ===Literature=== Although poetry dominates his literary reputation, he also wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, and drama. He was also an accomplished musician, and his most enduring legacy to Bangla may be his 2,000 songs, now known as Rabindra Sangeet which are part of the Bengali cultural heritage in both West Bengal, India, and in Bangladesh. Tagore's prose deals with social, political, educational issues and his vision of the universal brotherhood of man. His poetry and songs, apart from their deep spirituality and devotion, often express a celebration of nature and life. For him, life's multifarious variety is ever a source of pleasure without outward reason. The subject of love is a recurring motif throughout his literature, and he often wrote about patriotism. His songs have been chosen as national anthems of two nations: "jana gana mana" (জন গণ মন) in India and aamaar sonaar baanglaa (আমার সোনার বাঙলা) in Bangladesh. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first Asian to receive this honor, for his English language translation of his work ''Gitanjali'' (গীতাঞ্জলি, "An offering of song"). Here is song seven from the text, Original text in Bangla and Roman scripts(গীতাঞ্জলি 127): Free-verse translation by Tagore (English Gitanjali 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.===Public Life=== Tagore wrote a number of songs in support of the Indian independence movement. He renounced the knighthood conferred by the British Crown in 1915 in protest against the 1919 Jaliyaanwala Bagh Massacre (Amritsar), where, without warning, British soldiers opened fire upon an unarmed gathering of civilians, killing over 500 innocent men, women and children. He felt strongly that the nation could be uplifted only through widespread education. Writing of the rote-oriented education system introduced in India under the British Raj, he once said: We pass examinations, and shrivel up into clerks, lawyers and police inspectors, and we die young ... Once upon a time we were in possession of such a thing as our mind in India. It was living. It thought, it felt, it expressed itself. But it has been thrust aside, and we are made to tread the mill of passing examinations, not for learning anything, but for notifying that we are qualified for employment under organisations conducted in English. Our educated community is not a cultured community, but a community of qualified candidates.These views crystallized in the experimental school at Santiniketan, (শান্তিনিকেতন, "abode of peace") in West Bengal in 1901, where his father had left a landed estate in his possession. This school, established in the traditional ''Brahmacharya'' structure of the student living together with his Guru in a self-sustaining community, became a magnet for a talented International group of scholars, artists, linguists, and musicians. Tagore spent prodigious amounts of energy obtaining funds for this school (contributing all his Nobel monies). Today this institution is called Vishwa-Bharati (বিশ্বভারতী, 'India in the World"), a Central University under the Government of India. ===Nationalism=== Tagore's richest legacy for today's polarized world is perhaps his eloquent denunciation of Nationalism, which he perceived, in the shadows of our last great war, as one of the largest threats to humanity. "A nation," he wrote, ". . . is that aspect which a whole population assumes when organized for a mechanical purpose", a purpose often associated with a "selfishness" that "can be a grandly magnified form" o personal selfishness. His international travels sharpened his understanding of the shallowness of human divisions. Once when visting a Bedouin camp in today's battleground of Iraq, the chief told him, "Our prophet has said that a true Muslim is he by whose words and deeds not the least of his brother-men may ever come to any harm..." Tagore noted in his diary: 'I was startled into recognizing in his words the voice of essential humanity.' (Dutta/Robinson p.317). During his intensive travels in Europe, America and the Far East, he gradually formed a vision of the unity of East and West. Subsequently, he was profoundly shocked by the intense nationalism he found breeding in Germany and other nations before the Second World War. In a series of lectures on Nationalism that were enthusiastically received in much of Europe, but not so much in the United States, he said The moment is arising when you also must find a basis of unity which is not political. ... There is only one history - the history of man. All national histories are chapters in the larger one.This internationalism and sensitivity to the fundamental unity of man is perhaps Tagore's lasting legacy to the world. However, among the Bangla-speaking people of West Bengal and Bangladesh, his literary legacy continues to inform an unusually vivid artistic and cultural life. ==External links== *[http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath Rabindranath Section in Parabaas] *Project Gutenberg [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/author?name=Tagore%2c%20Rabindranath e-texts of some of Rabindranath Tagore's works] *[http://www.visva-bharati.ac.in Visva-Bharati] *[http://www.calcuttaweb.com/tagore/tagore.htm contains some of Tagore's English works] *[http://www.nobel.se/literature/articles/sen/index.html "''Tagore and His India''"] - Amartya Sen - article on Tagore by Amartya Sen featured on Nobel Foundation website *[http://mukerjee.50megs.com/] Tagore Love Songs *[http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1913/tagore-bio.html Biography of Tagore on the official website of the Nobel Foundation] *[http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1913/press.html Nobel Prize in Literature Presentation Speech from the official website of Nobel Foundation] *[http://www.calcuttaweb.com/tagore/ Section about Tagore on Calcuttaweb.com] is in Bengali but has some nice photographs. An English language version of the page is also available [http://www.calcuttaweb.com/tagore/tagore.htm here.] *[http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/T_0020.HTM Banglapedia entry on Rabindranath Tagore] 1861 births 1941 deaths 20th Century philosophers Indian freedom fighters Indian songwriters Indian philosophers Indian poets Nobel Prize in Literature winners Indian writers Bengali writers Bangladeshi people Hindu religious figures Hindu poets bn:রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর hi:रविन्द्रनाथ टगोर ks:रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर mr:रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर minnan:Rabíndranáth Thákur zh-min-nan:Rabíndranáth Thákur ne:रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर vi:Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath TagoreThe Tagore article was (and remains) so sparse!! His literary canon is hardly discussed, except some banal remarks on his excellence. Much more solid work is needed in this article... and we cannot do it based on internet sources alone. We need volunteers to elaborate on: - his extensive travels, from 1912 onwards - he went to the middle-East, Argentina (his relationship with Ocampo), Europe (esp. Germany, where they still have a Tagore center in Berlin), etc. - his short stories, which I wanted to say something about but fell short in the edits I have put in today... - his novels - esp gorA, sheSher kabitA, nashTanIr (basis for movie, chArulatA) - and also reflecting on his relationship with Kadambari - the people he interacted with - his work at shantiniketan - who visited him - JC Bose, Mahalanabis, Chinese scholars etc. Should we set up a team? Let me know if you would like to take up one of these topics (or any other). As for the dates, 22 Shravana fell on 6 August some years like 2004. But the year he died, 1941, it was on 7 August, I believe. Let's not bicker about dates. Also Balatonfured is such a marginal episode... let's get on with the basics! And as for Bangladesh - of course Tagore was a Bangladeshi. He never knew there would be two different nations where he stood... I think there is enough Tagore for the whole world, and let us not fight over his legacy in these two puny insignificant populations... BTW - does anyone know why bn.wikipedia is in such a sad state? --User:Mukerjee 18:16, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC) --- Did he die on August 6 or August 7? See [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_931829,00050002.htm], [http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/08/06/d40806011717.htm] --User:Hemanshu 18:16, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC) He had also visited Hungary and stayed in Balatonfüred for health reasons. He was received with adoration and respect, and he became known and very popular with the Hungarians. His bust is found in a promenade named after him on the shore of Lake Balaton where contemporary Indians would pay a visit while in Hungary to boost his memory. == picture of Tagore promenade == Could upload picture of Tagore promenade in Balatonfüred, if requested :Good idea, but put it in the article on Balatonfüred, where it would be more relevant, then it can be mentioned in this article and a link to the town will allow people to see it. User:Trilobite User_talk:Trilobite 01:57, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC) == Not pioneering East-West analysis == Tagore couldn't have pioneered it if his ideas helped refute Kipling's, which were already around. –User:JerryFriedman 21:22, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Categorization controversy == Ok, recently, User:Himanshu raised the point on how Rabindranath is categorized as a Bangladeshi poet. Well, he IS the author of the national anthem, and his early days were passed on Shilaidoho kuthi bari in Kushtia. Rabindranath's family had their Jamindari there and Tagore spent quite some time there. So definitely he can be categorized as Bangladeshi poet. I would also like to point out that if Rabindranath cannot be categorized as such, categorizing him as a Hindu poet is equally wrong. (He was a follower of Brhammo religion, which was monotheistic, and had marked differences with traditional hinduism). --User:Ragib 20:27, 8 May 2005 (UTC) :Instead of reverting the changes, why not discuss it here? Rabindranath Tagore died before the greater British India was partitioned into 2 and later 3 states: Current India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. So I do not see categorizing Rabindranath as Bangladeshi people any different from categorizing him as Indian poet etc. Even wrong is to categorize him as a Hindu poet or Hindu religious figure. So, I would reiterate my call for discussion of the fact here rather than total revert. Please come forward and discuss. It can't hurt the progress of wikipedia. --User:Ragib 05:46, 9 May 2005 (UTC) :*Hmmm, I don't understand why its so difficult to discuss and reason here rather than just deleting my edits (by anon thi time). --User:Ragib 14:25, 9 May 2005 (UTC) :*Hi ,could you please tell me why you are repeatedly editing out the category Bangladeshi people from Rabindranath Tagore? I tried to discuss this in the talk page, but you didn't reply. Let us have a discussion there please. As for why Rabindranath can be categorized in Bangladeshi people, I would suggest you take a look at some references I am providing here.... Rabindranath's ancestors came from East Bengal or were associated with it in different ways. And Rabindranath himself spent considerable time in what is now Bangladesh. The Kuthibari at Shilaidoho is preserved as a museum. Rabindranath used to sail through the Padma river in his houseboat. In fact, much of his time pre-nobel prize was spent in what is now Bangladesh. So, don't just delete references abruptly without checking out the references. Also, my point is, if you don't want Rabindranath Tagore categorized as a Bangladeshi people, you cannot categorize him as 1. Indian poet 2. Hindu poet, using the same logic. So let us have a discussion on this. Thanks. --User:Ragib 18:26, 9 May 2005 (UTC) :*Reference, here is [http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/T_0020.HTM Banglapedia article on Rabindranath] and [http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/T_0014.htm Banglapedia article on Prince Dwarkanath Tagore], Rabindranath's Grandfather. Also (Blair B Kling, Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India, Calcutta, 1981). --User:Ragib 18:26, 9 May 2005 (UTC) :*More reference:[http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/578_90.html Encyclopedia Britannica article]. I am quoting from it: ''" In 1891 Tagore went to East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to manage his family's estates at Shilaidah and Shazadpur for 10 years. There he often stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (i.e., the Ganges River), in close contact with village folk, and his sympathy for their poverty and backwardness became the keynote of much of his later writing. Most of his finest short stories, which examine "humble lives and their small miseries," date from the 1890s and have a poignancy, laced with gentle irony, that is unique to him, though admirably captured by the director Satyajit Ray in later film adaptations. Tagore came to love the Bengali countryside, most of all the Padma River, an often-repeated image in his verse. During these years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894; The Golden Boat), and plays, notably Chitrangada (1892; Chitra). Tagore's poems are virtually untranslatable, as are his more than 2,000 songs, which remain extremely popular among all classes of Bengali society."''. Bengal was united at that time, and later was parititioned into West and East Bengal, later Bangladesh. Tagore's ancestors came from Eastern parts (see references above) and he spent his early years in East Bengal, now Bangladesh. Then why is it so difficult to accept Tagore as parts of Bangladeshi heritage? Please remember that out of 200 million Bengali people, Bangladeshi's constitute 150 million or 75%. Tagore's song Amar Shonar Bangla is our national anthem, and Tagore's work is considered an integral part of Bangladeshi heritage. Therefore please consider these facts and stop the one-sided edits on the category. --User:Ragib 18:52, 9 May 2005 (UTC) :*PS: I asked for discussing it here 4 times, each time someone reverted my edits to the category without bothering to talk about it. Isn't it contrary to wikipedia's norms? --User:Ragib 18:52, 9 May 2005 (UTC) See other meanings of words starting from letter: RRA | RB | RC | RD | RE | RF | RG | RH | RI | RJ | RK | RL | RM | RN | RO | RP | RS | RT | RU | RW | RX | RY | RZ |Words begining with Rabindranath_Tagore: Rabindranath_Tagore Rabindranath_Tagore |
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