Rabindranath Tagore

Prime Minister recently paid tributes to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary.

About Rabindranath Tagore

• He was a world-renowned poet, litterateur, philosopher and Asia’s first Nobel laureate.
• He was born in Kolkata on May 7^th, 1861 and was also referred to as ‘Kabiguru’, and ‘Biswakabi’.
• He was popularly known as Bard of Bengal, and people used to call him Gurudev.
• In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• He was also an influential artist and musician.
  • He wrote around 2230 songs and painted 3000 paintings. His songs are known as Rabindra Sangeet.
• Rabindranath Tagore wrote India’s national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
  • He also wrote Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem for Bangladesh
  • Even, the Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.
• He was awarded a knighthood in 1915, but he returned it in 1919 as a protest against the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre.
• Viswa Bharti University, or Shantiniketan was founded by Rabindranath Tagore.
• He was a good friend of Mahatma Gandhi and is said to have given him the title of Mahatma.
• Major Works:
  • Tagore’s most notable work of poetry is Gitanjali: Song Offerings, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
    • Sonar Tari and Manasi; plays- Chitra and The Post Office are other major works.
  • He is credited with pioneering the short story form in Bengali literature, with some of his best work collected in The Hungry Stones and Other Stories and The Glimpses of Bengal Life.