c
  
 (Bengali: Ã
  Ã, Y
Y  
Y (7 May 1861 ± 7 August
Ȗ
 į

1941, sobriquet º   , was an Indian Bengali polymath. He was a popular poet, novelist, musician,painter
and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author

1
of º and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", and as the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in

2
Literature, agore was perhaps the most widely regarded Indian literary figure of all time. He was a mesmerizing
representative of the Indian culture whose influence and popularity internationally perhaps could only be compared to
that of Gandhi, whom agore named 'Mahatma' out of his deep admiration for him.

A Pirali Brahmin

4

6 from Kolkata, agore was already writing poems at age eight.

7
At age sixteen, he published

8
9
his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym  ("Sun Lion" and wrote his first short stories and
dramas in 1877. agore denounced the British Raj and supported independence. His efforts endure in his vast canon
and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

agore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and
essays spoke to political and personal topics. º  ( Y, º Y (Y, and ºYY (
  Y  are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed for their
lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and contemplation. agore was perhaps the only litterateur who penned anthems
of two countries: India and Bangladesh: º and Y Y .

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editarly life (1861±1901

Y   !
Y Y"#$%#&#'(#)

In ngland, 1879

agore and Mrinalini Devi, 188

he youngest of thirteen surviving children, agore was born in the Jorasanko mansion in Kolkata of
İ

10
parents Debendranath agore (1817±190 and Sarada Devi (180±187. agore family patriarchs were
the Brahmo founding fathers of the Adi Dharm faith. He was mostly raised by servants, as his mother had died in his

11
early childhood; his father travelled extensively. agore largely declined classroom schooling, preferring to roam

12
1
the mansion or nearby idylls: Bolpur, Panihati, and others. Upon his *+ initiation at age eleven, agore
left Kolkata on 14 February 187 to tour India with his father for several months. hey visited his
father's Santiniketan estate and stopped in Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. here,
young "Rabi" read biographies and was home-educated in history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and

14
1
examined the poetry ofKālidāsa. He completed major works in 1877, one a long poem of the Maithili style
pioneered by Vidyapati. Published pseudonymously, experts accepted them as the lost works of Bhānusi ha, a
ȗ

16
newly discovered 17th-century Vai ava poet. He wrote "Bhikharini" (1877; "he Beggar Woman"²the Bengali

17
18
language's first short story and + (1882²including the famous poem "Nirjharer Swapnabhanga"
("he Rousing of the Waterfall".

A prospective barrister, agore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, ast Sussex, ngland in 1878. He read law
at University College London, but left school to explore Shakespeare and more: !  , , Y ,
and  +,  *Y;
19 he returned degreeless to Bengal in 1880. On 9 December 188 he married Mrinalini
Devi (born Bhabatarini, 187±1902; they had five children, two of whom died before reaching adulthood.
20 In 1890,
agore began managing his family's vast estates in Shilaidaha, a region now in Bangladesh; he was joined by his
wife and children in 1898. In 1890, agore released his  poems, among his best-known work.
21 As
"Zamindar Babu", agore crisscrossed the holdings while living out of the family's luxurious barge, the -, to
collect (mostly token rents and bless villagers, who held feasts in his honour.
22 hese years²1891±189:
agore's  period, after one of agore¶s magazines²were his most fecund.
11 During this period, more than
half the stories of the three-volume and eighty-four-story º * were written.
17 With irony and gravity, they
depicted a wide range of Bengali lifestyles, particularly village life.
2

editShantiniketan (1901±192
Y   !
Y Y"#'(#&#'./)

Shot by John Rothenstein, Hampstead, 1912

singhua University, 1924

In 1901, agore left Shilaidaha and moved to Shantiniketan to found an Y which grew to include a marble-
floored prayer hall ("he Y", an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, and a library.
24 here, agore's
wife and two of his children died. His father died on 19 January 190. He received monthly payments as part of his
inheritance and additional income from the Maharaja of ripura, sales of his family's jewellery, his seaside bungalow
in Puri, and mediocre royalties (Rs. 2,000 from his works.
2 By now, his work was gaining him a large following
among Bengali and foreign readers alike, and he published such works as 01+ (1901 and 2+(1906 while
translating his poems into free verse. On 14 November 191, agore learned that he had won the 191 Nobel Prize
in Literature, becoming the first Asian Nobel laureate. he Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic and²for
Western readers²accessible nature of a small body of his translated material, including the 1912 º  

26
Y. In 191, agore was knighted by the British Crown. He later returned his knighthood in protest of the
massacre of unarmed Indians in 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh.

In 1921, agore and agricultural economist Leonard lmhirst set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction, later
renamed Shriniketan²"Abode of Peace"²in Surul, a village near the ashram at Santiniketan. hrough it, agore

27
bypassed Gandhi's symbolic 3Y protests, which he despised. He sought aid from donors, officials, and
scholars worldwide to "free village
s from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitalis
ing

28
29
knowledge". In the early 190s, he targeted India's "abnormal caste consciousness" and untouchability.
Lecturing against these, he penned untouchable heroes for his poems and dramas and campaigned²successfully²

0
1
to open Guruvayoor emple to Dalits.

editwilight years (192±1941

Y   !
Y Y"#'./&#'4#)
In Berlin, 190

o the end, agore scrutinized orthodoxy. He upbraided Gandhi for declaring that a massive 1 January 194
earthquake in Bihar²leaving thousands dead²was divine retribution brought on by the oppression of Dalits.
2 He
mourned the endemic poverty of Kolkata and the accelerating socioeconomic decline of Bengal, which he detailed in
an unrhymed hundred-line poem whose technique of searing double-vision would foreshadow Satyajit Ray's film *Y
Y.

4 Fifteen new volumes of agore writings appeared, among them the prose-poems
works - (192, *
(19, and -Y* (196. xperimentation continued: he developed prose-
songs and dance-dramas, including ,Y (1914,
 + (199, and, 
 (198, and wrote the
novels 5  (19,   (194, and ,Y++ (194. agore took an interest in science in his last
years, writing 61-Y+ (a collection of essays in 197. His exploration of biology, physics, and astronomy
impacted his poetry, which often contained extensive naturalism that underscored his respect for scientific laws. He
also wove the process of science, including narratives of scientists, into many stories contained in such volumes
as  (197, (1940, and º * * (1941.
6

agore's last four years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. hese began when agore lost
consciousness in late 197; he remained comatose and near death for an extended period. his was followed three
years later, in late 1940, by a similar spell, from which he never recovered. he poetry agore wrote in these years is
among his finest, and is distinctive for its preoccupation with death.
7
8 After extended suffering, agore died on 7
August 1941 (22 Shravan 148 in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised;
9
40 his death
anniversary is mourned across the Bengali-speaking world.
41

editravels

Between 1878 and 192, agore visited more than thirty countries on five continents;
42 many of these trips were
crucial in familiarising non-Indian audiences with his works and spreading his political ideas. In 1912, he took a sheaf
of his translated works to ngland, where they impressed missionary and Gandhi protégéCharles F. Andrews,Irish

4
poet William Butler Yeats, zra Pound, Robert Bridges, rnest Rhys, homas Sturge Moore, and others. Indeed,
Yeats wrote the preface to the nglish translation of º , while Andrews joined agore at Santiniketan. On 10

44
November 1912, agore began touring the United States and the United Kingdom, staying in Butterton,

4
Staffordshire with Andrews's clergymen friends. From  May 1916 until April 1917, agore went on lecturing

46
47
circuits in Japan and the United States and denounced nationalism. His essay "Nationalism in India" was

48
scorned and praised, this latter by pacifists, including Romain Rolland.

With instein, 190

Shortly after returning to India, the 6-year-old agore accepted the Peruvian government's invitation to visit. He then
travelled to Mexico. ach government pledged US$100,000 to the school at Shantiniketan (Visva-Bharati in
commemoration of his visits.
49 A week after his 6 November 1924 arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
0 an ill agore
moved into the Villa Miralrío at the behest of Victoria Ocampo. He left for India in January 192. On 0 May 1926,
agore reached Naples, Italy; he met Benito Mussolini in Rome the next day.
1 A warm rapport ended when agore
criticised Mussolini on 20 July 1926.
2

At the Majlis, ehran, 192


On 14 July 1927, agore and two companions began a four-month tour of Southeast Asia, visiting Bali, Java, Kuala
Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. agore's travelogues from the tour were collected into the work

4
"Jatri". In early 190 he left Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of urope and the United States. Once he returned
to the UK, while his paintings were being exhibited in Paris and London, he stayed at a Friendssettlement
 Ț

in Birmingham. here he wrote his Oxford Hibbert Lectures and spoke at London's annual Quaker


gathering. here (addressing relations between the British and Indians, a topic he would grapple with over the next

6
two years, agore spoke of a "dark chasm of aloofness". He visited Aga Khan III, stayed at Dartington Hall, and

7
toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany from June to mid-September 190, then the Soviet Union. Lastly, in
April 192, agore²who was acquainted with the legends and works of the Persian mysticHafez²was hosted

8
9
by Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran. Such extensive travels allowed agore to interact with many notable
contemporaries, including Henri Bergson, Albert instein, Robert Frost, homas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G.

60
61
Wells and Romain Rolland. agore's last travels abroad, including visits to Persia and Iraq (in 192 and Ceylon

62
(in 19, only sharpened his opinions regarding human divisions and nationalism.

editWorks

Y  Y
 !
Y Y

agore's Bengali-language initials are worked into this "Ra-ha" wooden seal, which bears close stylistic similarity to designs used in

traditional Haida carvings. agore often embellished his manuscripts with such art.
6

hough known mostly for his poetry, agore also wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and
thousands of songs. Of agore's prose, his short stories are perhaps most highly regarded; indeed, he is credited
with originating the Bengali-language version of the genre. His works are frequently noted for their rhythmic,
optimistic, and lyrical nature. Such stories mostly borrow from deceptively simple subject matter: common people.

edit 

agore wrote eight novels and four novellas, among them ,Y, Y2
, ,Y+,
and 0 

. ºYY(  Y ²through the lens of the idealistic 7Y protagonist
Nikhil²excoriates rising Indian nationalism, terrorism, and religious zeal in the 3 movement; a frank
expression of agore's conflicted sentiments, it emerged out of a 1914 bout of depression. he novel ends in Hindu-

64
Muslim violence and Nikhil's (likely mortal wounding. º Y raises controversial questions regarding the Indian
identity. As with ºYY, matters of self-identity (8, personal freedom, and religion are developed in the

6
context of a family story and love triangle.

In    (!  *, the heroine Kumudini²bound by the ideals of 91, exemplified by Dākshāyani²is
torn between her pity for the sinking fortunes of her progressive and compassionate elder brother and his foil: her
exploitative, rakish, and patriarchical husband. In it, agore demonstrates his feminist leanings, using *  to
depict the plight and ultimate demise of Bengali women trapped by pregnancy, duty, and family honour;

66
simultaneously, he treats the decline of Bengal's landed oligarchy.

Others were uplifting: Y2
 (translated twice as -  and Y3   is his most lyrical novel,
with poems and rhythmic passages written by the main character, a poet. It also contains elements of satire and
postmodernism; stock characters gleefully attack the reputation of an old, outmoded, oppressively renowned poet
who, incidentally, goes by the name of Rabindranath agore. hough his novels remain among the least-appreciated
of his works, they have been given renewed attention via film adaptations by Satyajit Ray and others: ,
Y
  and ºYY are exemplary. heir soundtracks often feature Y
Y:.

edit

agore wrote many non-fiction books, writing on topics ranging from Indian history to linguistics to spirituality. Aside

from autobiographical works, his travelogues, essays, and lectures were compiled into several volumes,
including öY *YY-Y ( YY öY * and Y5 Y (!   .

edit½   

"Dancing Girl", undated ink-on-paper

agore composed roughly 2,20 songs and was a prolific painter. His songs comprise Y
Y: (Ã


²

"agore Song", an integral part of Bengali culture. agore's music is inseparable from his literature, most of which²
poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike²became lyrics for his songs. Influenced by the Y style
of Hindustani music, they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like Brahmo devotional

67
hymns to quasi-erotic compositions. hey emulated the tonal color of classical Y to varying extents. hough at
times his songs mimicked a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully, he also blended elements of different ragas to

68
create innovative works.

For Bengalis, their appeal, stemming from the combination of emotive strength and beauty described as surpassing
even agore's poetry, was such that the  Y!13 observed that "
there is in Bengal no cultured home where
Rabindranath's songs are not sung or at least attempted to be sung ... ven illiterate villagers sing his songs". Arthur
Strangways of 
Y1Yintroduced non-Bengalis to Y
Y in   , calling it a
"vehicle of a personality ...
that go behind this or that system of music to that beauty of sound which all systems put

69
out their hands to seize." Among them are Bangladesh's national anthem Y Y  which became the
national anthem of Bangladesh in the year 1971 (? Ã Ã  and India's national anthem º is
written in the year 1911 (A  , making agore unique in having scored two national anthems. He influenced the

styles of such musicians as Y maestro Vilayat Khan, and the Y +Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali
Khan.
68

agore dabbled in primitivism: a pastel-coloured rendition of aMalagan mask from northern New Ireland

At age sixty, agore took up drawing and painting; successful exhibitions of his many works²which made a debut
appearance in Paris upon encouragement by artists he met in the south of France
70²were held throughout urope.
agore²who likely exhibited protanopia ("color blindness", or partial lack of (red-green, in agore's case colour
discernment²painted in a style characterised by peculiarities in aesthetics and colouring schemes. agore emulated
numerous styles, including craftwork from northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from the west coast of Canada
(British Columbia, and woodcuts by Max Pechstein.
6 agore also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting,
embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs, and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs, including
simple rhythmic designs.

edit  
At age sixteen, agore led his brother Jyotirindranath's adaptation of Molière's  Y º  .
71 At age
twenty, he wrote his first drama-opera²6 
-Y
 (º 6 
²which describes how the
bandit Valmiki reforms his ethos, is blessed by Saraswati, and composes the !88+.
72 hrough it, agore
vigorously explores a wide range of dramatic styles and emotions, including usage of revamped
Y and

7
adaptation of traditional nglish and Irish folk melodies as drinking songs. Another notable play, 5
ºY (
- , describes how a child²striving to escape his stuffy confines²ultimately "fall
s asleep" (which suggests
his physical death. A story with worldwide appeal (it received rave reviews in urope, 5
ºY dealt with death as,

74
7
in agore's words, "spiritual freedom" from "the world of hoarded wealth and certified creeds". During World War
II, Polish doctor and educator Janusz Korczak selected "he Post Office" as the play the orphans in his care in
the Warsaw Ghetto would perform. his occurred on 18 July 1942, less than three weeks before they were to be
deported to the reblinka extermination camp. According to his main nglish-language biographer, Betty Jean Lifton,
in her book 2 , Y, Dr. Korszak thought a great deal about whether one should be able to determine
when and how to die. He may have been trying to find a way for the children in his orphanage to accept death.

His other works²emphasizing fusion of lyrical flow and emotional rhythm tightly focused on a core idea²were unlike
previous Bengali dramas. His works sought to articulate, in agore's words, "the play of feeling and not of action". In
1890 he wrote 6Y (Y, regarded as his finest drama.
72 he Bengali-language originals included intricate
subplots and extended monologues. Later, his dramas probed more philosophical and allegorical themes; these
included 5
ºY. Another is agore's , 
 (; 
ºY , which was modeled on an ancient Buddhist
legend describing how Ananda²the Gautama Buddha's disciple²asks water of an 1 (belonging to an
indigenous tribe girl.
76 Lastly, among his most famous dramas is !

Y1 (! Y, which tells of a
kleptocratic king who enriches himself by forcing his subjects to mine. he heroine, Nandini, eventually rallies the
common people to destroy these symbols of subjugation. agore's other plays include ,Y, !, and +Y
2 . Dance dramas based on agore's plays are commonly referred to as Y
YY++.

editâ
A Nandalal Bose illustration for "he Hero", part of the 191 Macmillan release of ,Y 

he "Sadhana" period, 1891±189, was among agore's most fecund, yielding more than half the stories contained
in the three-volume º *, itself a group of eighty-four stories.
17 hey reflect upon agore's surroundings,
on modern and fashionable ideas, and on mind puzzles. agore associated his earliest stories, such as those of the
"" period, with an exuberance of vitality and spontaneity; these traits were cultivated by zamindar agore¶s
life in villages such as Patisar, Shajadpur, and Shilaida.
17 Seeing the common and the poor, he examined their lives
with a depth and feeling singular in Indian literature up to that point.
77

In "he Fruitseller from Kabul", agore speaks in first person as a town-dweller and novelist who chances upon the
Afghani seller. He channels the longing of those trapped in mundane, hardscrabble Indian urban life, giving play to
dreams of a different existence in the distant and wild mountains: "here were autumn mornings, the time of year
when kings of old went forth to conquest; and I, never stirring from my little corner in Kolkata, would let my mind
wander over the whole world. At the very name of another country, my heart would go out to it ... I would fall to

78
weaving a network of dreams: the mountains, the glens, the forest .... ". Many of the other º * stories

17
were written in agore¶s 
-Y period (1914±1917; also named for one of agore's magazines.
A 191 illustration by Asit Kumar Haldar for "he Beginning", a prose-poem in ,Y 

agore's º *  (  Y remains among Bengali literature's most popular fictional works,
providing subject matter for many successful films and theatrical plays. Satyajit Ray's film ,Y  was based upon
agore's controversial novella, 0Y (Y
0. In  (also made into a film, the young Brahmin boy
arapada shares a boat ride with a village 7Y. he boy reveals that he has run away from home, only to
wander around ever since. aking pity, the zamindar adopts him and ultimately arranges his marriage to
the7Y< own daughter. However, the night before the wedding, arapada runs off²again. YY-Y (
YY  is among Bengali literature's earliest depictions of the bold emancipation of women. he heroine
Mrinal, the wife of a typical patriarchical Bengali middle class man, writes a letter while she is travelling (which
constitutes the whole story. It details the pettiness of her life and struggles; she finally declares that she will not
return to her husband's home with the statement  

=ö
 : "And I shall live. Here, I live".

 assails Hindu marriage and the dismal lifelessness of married Bengali women, hypocrisies plaguing the
Indian middle classes, and how Haimanti, a sensitive young woman, must²due to her sensitiveness and free spirit²
sacrifice her life. In the last passage, agore directly attacks the Hindu custom of glorifying Sita's attempted self-
immolation as a means of appeasing her husband Rama's doubts.  5 examines Hindu-Muslim tensions
and, in many ways, embodies the essence of agore's humanism. 5Y*Y exhibits agore's self-consciousness,
describing a fey young man harboring literary ambitions. hough he loves his wife, he wishes to stifle her own literary
career, deeming it unfeminine. agore himself, in his youth, seems to have harbored similar ideas about
women. 5Y*Y depicts the final humbling of the man as he acknowledges his wife's talents. As do many other
agore stories, 
  Y equips Bengalis with a ubiquitous epigram: 2 
 Y+*Y 
Y  Y
²"Kadombini died, thereby proving that she hadn't".

edit*
Bāuls in Santiniketan during Holi

agore's poetry²which varied in style from classical formalism to the comic, visionary, and ecstatic²proceeds from
a lineage established by 1th- and 16th-century Vaishnava poets. agore was awed by the mysticism of the Y-
authors who²including Vyasa²wrote the Upanishads, the Bhakti-Sufi mystic Kabir, and Ramprasad Sen.
79 Yet
agore's poetry became most innovative and mature after his exposure to rural Bengal's folk music, which
included Baul ballads²especially those of bard Lalon.
80
81 hese²rediscovered and popularised by agore²
resemble 19th-centuryKartābhajā hymns that emphasize inward divinity and rebellion against religious and social
orthodoxy.
82
8 During his Shilaidaha years, his poems took on a lyrical quality, speaking via the Y (the
Bāuls' "man within the heart" or meditating upon the 11 ("living God within". his figure thus sought
connection with divinity through appeal to nature and the emotional interplay of human drama. agore used such
techniques in his Bhānusi ha poems (which chronicle the romance between Radha and Krishna, which he
repeatedly revised over the course of seventy years.
84
8

agore responded to the mostly crude emergence of modernism and realism in Bengali literature by writing
experimental works in the 190s.
86 xamples works include Y and , , which are among the better known
of his later poems. He occasionally wrote poems using  (a Sanskritised dialect of Bengali; later, he
began using,  (a more popular dialect. Other notable works include ,  Y Y (º 

87
 ,  
 ( º²the title being a metaphor for migrating souls, and -Y
.  Y Y<s most famous
poem²dealing with the ephemeral nature of life and achievement²goes by the same name; hauntingly it ends:
"MMMMM MMMM MMMM MMMMM MMMM / MMMM MMM MMMM MMM MMMMM MMM" ("  YYY * >
?  @  Y Y"²"all I had achieved was carried off on the golden boat²only I was left behind.".

88
Internationally, º  (
 is agore's best-known collection, winning him his Nobel Prize. Song VII
(
127 of º :
itle page of º 

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 VMMMMMVMMM V

From agore's hand, committed in Hungary, 1926: Bengali and nglish

Free-verse translation by agore (º , verse VII:
89

ü
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V
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V V&
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"Klanti" (Bengali: Â; "Fatigue", the sixth poem in º :

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agore's poetry has been set to music by various composers, among them classical composer Arthur Shepherd's
triptych for soprano and string quartet, as well as composer Garry Schyman's "Praan", an adaptation of agore's
poem "Stream of Life" from Gitanjali. he latter was composed and recorded with vocals by Palbasha Siddique to
accompany Internet celebrity Matt Harding's 2008 viral video.
90 In 1917 his words were translated adeptly and set to
music by Richard Hageman (an Anglo- Dutch composer to produce what is regarded as one of the finest art songs in
the nglish language: Do not go my love (d.Schirmer NY 1917.

editPolitical views
Y !
Y Y<*  13

agore hosts Gandhi and wife Kasturbaat Santiniketan in 1940

agore's political thought was complex. He opposed imperialism and supported Indian nationalists.
91
92
9 His views

21
have their first poetic release in , mostly composed in his twenties. vidence produced during the Hindu-
German Conspiracy trial and later accounts affirm his awareness of the Ghadarite conspiracy, and stated that he

94
sought the support of Japanese Prime Minister erauchi Masatake and former Premier Ōkuma Shigenobu. Yet he

9
lampooned the Swadeshi movement, denouncing it in "he Cult of the Charka", an acrid 192 essay. He
emphasized self-help and intellectual uplift of the masses as an alternative, stating that British imperialism was a
"political symptom of our social disease", urging Indians to accept that "there can be no question of blind revolution,

96
97
but of steady and purposeful education".

Such views enraged many. He narrowly escaped assassination by Indian expatriates during his stay in a San

98
Francisco hotel in late 1916. he plot failed only because the would-be assassins fell into argument. Yet agore
wrote songs lionizing the Indian independence movement and renounced his knighthood in protest against the

99
1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. wo of agore's more politically charged compositions, "Chitto Jetha
Bhayshunyo" ("Where the Mind is Without Fear" and "kla Chalo Re" ("If hey Answer Not to hy Call, Walk

100
Alone", gained mass appeal, with the latter favoured by Gandhi. Despite his tumultuous relations with Gandhi,
agore was key in resolving a Gandhi-Ambedkardispute involving separate electorates for untouchables, ending

101
102
Gandhi's fast "unto death".

agore lampooned rote schooling: in "he Parrot's raining", a bird is caged and force-fed pages torn from books
until it dies.
10
104 hese views led agore, while visiting Santa Barbara on 11 October 1917, to conceive of a new
type of university, desiring to "make Santiniketan the connecting thread between India and the world
and a world
center for the study of humanity somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography."
98 he school, which he
named Visva-BharatiȘ
 had its foundation stone laid on 22 December 1918; it was later inaugurated on 22 December
1921.
10 Here, agore implemented a
YY+ pedagogical structure employing Y to provide
individualised guidance for pupils. agore worked hard to fundraise for and staff the school, even contributing all of
his Nobel Prize monies.
106 agore¶s duties as steward and mentor at Santiniketan kept him busy; he taught classes
in mornings and wrote the students' textbooks in afternoons and evenings.
107 agore also fundraised extensively for
the school in urope and the U.S. between 1919 and 1921.
108

editImpact

agore Room, Sardar Patel Memorial, Ahmedabad

agore's relevance can be gauged by festivals honouring him: 2
*Y, agore's birth anniversary; the annual
agore Festival held in Urbana, Illinois, in the United States; !
Y--Y
Y walking pilgrimages from
Kolkata to Shantiniketan; ceremonial recitals of agore's poetry held on important anniversaries; and

44
109
110
others. his legacy is most palpable in Bengali culture, ranging from language and arts to history and
politics. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen saw agore as a "towering figure", being a "deeply relevant and many-sided

110
contemporary thinker". agore's Bengali-language writings²the 199!
AY!81 A²is also canonised
as one of Bengal's greatest cultural treasures. agore himself was proclaimed "the greatest poet India has

111
produced".

Bust in Prague

agore was famed throughout much of urope, North America, and ast Asia. He co-foundedDartington Hall School,
a progressive coeducational institution;
112 in Japan, he influenced such figures as Nobel laureate Yasunari
Kawabata.
11 agore's works were widely translated into nglish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and other uropean
languages by Czech indologistVincenc Lesný,
114 French Nobel laureate André Gide, Russian poet Anna

11
116
Akhmatova, former urkish Prime Minister Bülent cevit, and others. In the United States, agore's lecturing
ș

circuits, particularly those in 1916±1917, were widely attended and acclaimed. Yet, several controversies involving
agore resulted in a decline in his popularity in Japan and North America after the late 1920s, concluding with his

117
"near total eclipse" outside of Bengal.

Via translations, agore influenced Hispanic literature: Chileans Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, Mexican
writer Octavio Paz, and Spaniards José Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Camprubí, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Between
1914 and 1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí spouses translated twenty-two of agore's books from nglish into Spanish
and extensively revised and adapted such works as agore's ,Y . In this time, Jiménez developed

118
"naked poetry" (Spanish: «poesia desnuda», a landmark innovation. Ortega y Gasset wrote that "agore's wide
appeal
may stem from the fact that he speaks of longings for perfection that we all have ... agore awakens a
dormant sense of childish wonder, and he saturates the air with all kinds of enchanting promises for the reader, who
... pays little attention to the deeper import of Oriental mysticism". agore's works circulated in free editions around
1920 alongside those of Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Plato, and Leo olstoy.

agore was deemed overrated by some Westerners. Graham Greene doubted that "anyone but Mr. Yeats can still

117
take his poems very seriously." Modern remnants of a past Latin American reverence of agore were discovered,

119
for example, by an astonished Salman Rushdie during a trip to Nicaragua.

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edit]  
V

w he danger inherent in all force grows stronger when it is likely to gain success, for then it becomes temptation.V

w Our fight is a spiritual fight, it is for Man.

w I say again and again that I am a poet, that I am not a fighter by nature. I would give everything to be one with
my surroundings. I love my fellow beings and I prize their love.

w Creation is an endless activity of God's freedom; it is an end in itself.

w Freedom is true when it is a revelation of truth.

w India has ever declared that Unity is ruth, and separateness is maya.

w I believe in the true meeting of the ast and the West.

w It hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that the
Western education can only injure us.

w hat which fails to illuminate the intellect, and only keeps it in the obsession of some delusion, is its greatest
obstacle.

w After sixty years of self-experience, I have found that out and out hypocrisy is an almost impossible achievement.

w Our country is the land of rites and ceremonials, so that we have more faith in worshiping the feet of the priest
than the Divinity whom he serves.

w the religion of economics is where we should above all try to bring about this union of ours ... If this field ceases
to be one of warfare, if there we can prove, that not competition but cooperation is the real truth, then indeed we
can reclaim from the hands of the vil One an immense territory for the reign of peace and goodwill.

w I have no zeal for life. You know the only thing that concerns me? hat I have laboured so hard to build
Viswabharati, wouldn't it have no value after my exit? ... I think I have one reservation regarding death, and that
is Viswabharati, nothing else.

w It's difficult to know a person until he turns twenty-five---difficult to say what would happen to him ... but it is easy
to recognise a twenty seven years old--- it can be said he's become what he's supposed to be, and from now on
this is how his life would be guided, there's in left anything in his life to get astonished.
w o enjoy something, it's essential to guard it with the fence of leisure

editNotes

 Y 

Y
Y

w ¥
Bengali:

pronounced
obind onat M Maku ( listen; Hindi:pronounced
ԥ iMn d ԥnaMt M MaMku ( listen.

w ¥ 
Romanized from Bengali script:

!
Y B
Y.

w ¥ 
Bengali calendar: 2 Baishakh, 1268 ± 22 Srabon, 148 ( MM MMMMM, ± MM MMMMMM,

MMMMMMMM.

1
w ¥ 
ºY1 translates as "divine mentor".

w ¥ 
agore was born at No. 6 Dwarkanath agore Lane, Jorasanko²the address of the main mansion (the Y



Y
Y inhabited by the Jorasanko branch of the agore clan, which had earlier suffered an acrimonious split.

16
Jorasanko was located in the Bengali section of Kolkata, near Chitpur Road.

w ¥ 
... and wholly fictive ...

w ¥ 
tymology of "Visva-Bharati": from the Sanskrit for "world" or "universe" and the name of a Rigvedic goddess

10
("Bharati" associated with Saraswati, the Hindu patron of learning. "Visva-Bharati" also translates as "India in the

World".

117
w ¥ 
agore was no stranger to controversy: his dealings with Indian nationalists Subhas Chandra Bose andRash

17
18
19
Behari Bose, his yen for Soviet Communism, and papers confiscated from Indian nationalists in New York

140
allegedly implicating agore in a plot to use German funds to overthrow the Raj. he latter destroyed agore's image

17
141
and book sales in the U.S. His relations with and ambivalent opinion of Mussolini revolted many; close

friendRomain Rolland despaired that "
he is abdicating his role as moral guide of the independent spirits of urope and

142
India".

w ¥
On the "idea of the humanity of our God, or the divinity of Man the ternal".
V