Image of Rabindranath Tagore

Timeline

Lifetime: 1861 - 1941 Passed: ≈ 83 years ago

Title

Poet, Writer, Composer, Philosopher, Social Reformer

Country/Nationality

British India
Wikipedia

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, writer, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European as well as the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

A Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Burdwan district and Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. By 1877 he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name. As a humanist, Universalist, internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist, he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's "Jana Gana Mana" and Bangladesh's "Amar Shonar Bangla". The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.

Books by Rabindranath Tagore

The Sadhana: Realisation of Life Cover image

The Sadhana: Realisation of Life

Philosophy Essays
Thoughts Culture Beliefs India

Sadhana is a collection of essays, most of which he gave before the Harvard University, describing Indian beliefs, philosophy and culture from different viewpoints, often making comparison with Western thought and culture.

Gitanjali Cover image

Gitanjali

Poetry
Devotion

Gitanjali is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, largely for the English translation, Song Offerings. It is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Its central...

Sadhana, the Realisation of Life Cover image

Sadhana, the Realisation of Life

Philosophy Non-Fiction
Humankind

Sadhana is a collection of essays, most of which he gave before the Harvard University, describing Indian beliefs, philosophy and culture from different viewpoints, often making comparison with Western thought and culture.

Creative Unity Cover image

Creative Unity

Memoir
Modern

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore talks of the many things he feels is necessary for creativity through joy of unity, he covers many topics like the creative ideal, makes comparisons of creativity between the east and the west, the spirit of freedom and ab...

The Crescent Moon Cover image

The Crescent Moon

Poetry
Family Love

This is a wonderful collection of lyrical poetry and poetry in prose by India's most well-known poet, Rabindranath Tagore, whose book Gitanjali shot him to fame in the west. Originally written in Bengali, the poet himself translated the book into Eng...

My Reminiscences Cover image

My Reminiscences

Non-Fiction Biography
Autobiography

These Reminiscences were written and published by the Author in his fiftieth year, shortly before he started on a trip to Europe and America for his failing health in 1912. It was in the course of this trip that he wrote for the first time in the Eng...

The Hungry Stones And Other Stories  Cover image

The Hungry Stones And Other Stories

Fiction Novel
Children Nature Short Stories Life Humanity Hunger

'The Hungry Stones and Other Stories' is a collection of thirteen soul-stirring short stories by Tagore. Each and every one of the stories is aesthetically appealing, which vividly portrays every small aspect of human life in great detail.

Glimpses of Bengal  Cover image

Glimpses of Bengal

Memoir Travel
Nature Fantastique Sea Geography Classics Letters

This beautifully written letters showcases the lyrical and poetic rhythm of Tagore ‘s writing as he traverses Bengal and waxes eloquently on nature, life and living. The imagery is fantastic, his way with words strikes a chord and the simplest occur...

XVIII Cover image

XVIII

Poetry
Love Beauty Poems Life Emotion Fortnightly

This poem reflects Tagore's thoughts and musings on love, life, and the complexities of the human experience. Tagore, often referred to as the "Bard of Bengal," was a prolific writer who produced an extensive body of work in his lifetime. He is rega...

Home and the World Cover image

Home and the World

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centurie...

Sadhana, The Realisation of Life, version 2 Cover image

Sadhana, The Realisation of Life, version 2

A collection of essays on the Hindu/Buddhist view of humankind's place in the universe. As the author says in his introduction: "in these papers, it may be hoped, western readers will have an opportunity of coming into touch with the ancient spirit o...

Mashi and Other Stories Cover image

Mashi and Other Stories

A 1918 collection of short stories, by the popular Bengali writer. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

First Jasmines Cover image

First Jasmines

Rabindranath Tagore, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful v...

Gardener Cover image

Gardener

Most of the lyrics of love and life, the translations of which from Bengali are published in this book, were written much earlier than the series of religious poems contained in the book named Gitanjali. The translations are not always literal—the or...

Stories from Tagore Cover image

Stories from Tagore

This is a wonderful collection of ten stories written by Rabindranath Tagore, often recalled as 'The Bard of Bengal'. Tagore is known for his elegant prose and natural poetry, and has even blessed India with her very own National Anthem. Readers are...