Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore, the great poet of India. He was born in Kolkata on 8th May, 1861. He was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore and Sharda Devi.
He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling did not finish his studies there.
He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. He started writing from a very young age. He was a great poet, novelist, painter and philosopher.
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. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.
For the world he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.
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. The great poet died on 8th August, 1941.
