Rabindranath Tagore- the Poet Laureate of India

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Rabindranath Tagore- the Poet Laueate of
India Courtesywww.wikispace.com
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Tagore Family
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EARLY YEARS
Tagore received his education at home. He was
taught in Bengali, with English lessons in the
afternoon. He read the Bengali poets since his
early age and himself began writing poetry
himself by the age of eight.
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YOUNG TAGORE

• Born at JORASANKO to the illustrious Tagore
  Family on 7th May, 1861
• Mother Sarada Debi
• Father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore
• Grandfather Prince Dwarakanath Tagore
• 14th Child of his parents
• First school Oriental Seminary
• Second school Normal school
• Third school Bengal Academy
• Fourth School St Xaviers school
• Formal schooling was not liked by him at allthis
  dislike was the factor behind the foundation of
  his own system of schooling at Viswa- Bharati,
  Shantiniketan in his later years
• Had informal but constructive training from his
  private tutors and elder siblings
• Displayed his literary skills from a very young
  age
• Wrote his first poem in 1877 under the pseudonym
  BHANUSINGHA
• Was sent off for higher studies to England in
  1878. Returned in1880 degreeless

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At age sixteen, he published his first
substantial poetry under the pseudonym
Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first
short stories and dramas
His father wanted him to become a barrister and
he was sent to England for this reason.
In 1879, he enrolled at University College, at
London, but was called back by his father to
return to India in 1880.
W.B. Yeats wrote the introduction to Gitanjali
which was internationally recognised as a great
literary work
With Einstein who he met through a common friend,
Dr. Mendel
W.B.Yeats
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• He read law at, but left school to explore
  Shakespeare and more.He returned degreeless to
  Bengal in 1880. On 9 December 1883 he married
  Mrinalini Devi they had five children, two of
  whom died before reaching adulthood.
• In 1890, Tagore began managing his family's vast
  estates in Shilaidaha, a region now in
  Bangladesh

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AFTER RETURN FROM ENGLAND

• Most of his remarkable pieces of literature and
  songs were written here on the boat Padma, while
  travelling between the different parts of his
  Zamindari between Shilaidaha and Patisar
• In addition to his natural skills as a man of
  letters, he also displayed remarkable ability as
  a benevolent administrator of his subjects
• In 1901 he moved on to Shantiniketan where he
  founded the Brahmacharyashram for young boys and
  girls- the first open air school of its kind in
  India

KUTHIBARI AT SHILAIDAHA
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SHANTINIKETAN
the connecting thread between India and the
world and the study of humanity beyond the
limits of nation and geography
resurrected his people by the introduction of
schools
As one of the earliest educators to think in
terms of the global village, Rabindranath Tagore
felt that a curriculum should  revolve
organically around nature with classes  held in
the open air under the trees to provide for a
spontaneous appreciation of the fluidity of the
plant and animal kingdoms, and seasonal changes
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As author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly
sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", and as
the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in
Literature, Tagore was perhaps the most widely
regarded Indian literary figure of all time.
In 1915 he was knighted by the British King
George V.
Tagore was perhaps the only litterateur who
penned anthems of two countries India and
Bangladesh Jana Gana Mana and Amar Shonar
Bangla. The Indian national anthem has been
recognised as the best in the world
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On 14 July 1927, Tagore and two companions began
a four-month tour of Southeast Asia, visiting
Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam,
and Singapore. Tagore's travelogues
from the tour were collected into the work Jatri

TAGORE HOME THE WORLD
Such extensive travels allowed Tagore to interact
with many notable contemporaries, including Henri
Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Thomas
Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Romain
Rolland.
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• At age sixty ,Tagore took up drawing and
  painting successful exhibitions of his many
  workswhich made a debut appearance in Paris upon
  encouragement by artists he met in the south of
  Francewere held throughout Europe.

Tagore also had an artist's eye for his own
handwriting .His paintings were mostly done by
embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs and his
manuscripts had word layout with simple artistic
form, including simple rhythmic designs.
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Tagore wrote eight novels Chaturanga, Shesher
Kobita, Char Odhay, Noukadubi. Ghare Baire
Jogajog chokher bali gora
Though his novels remain among the
least-appreciated of his works, they have been
given renewed attention via film adaptations by
Satyajit Ray and others Chokher Bali and Ghare
Baire are exemplary. Their soundtracks often
feature rabindras?git.

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He believed that India must earn her freedom
He actively supported Mahatma Gandhi,
Tagore wrote songs lionizing the Indian
independence movement and renounced his
knighthood in protest against the 1919
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Gandhi and the other founding leaders of modern
India were deeply influenced by Rabindranath.
He wanted his country to be a place Where the
mind is without fear    and the head is held high,
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TAGORE-twilight years
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Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941 in
the same house in which he was born at
Thakurbari in Jorasanko
Convincingly, he was the Prophet of Peace
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Tagore's artistic corrections