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Rabindranath Tagore: A Myriad-Minded Man

Article · February 2008

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 J~",ol6'
"'•••.•••••
_ R_ ••••• . In ~l:(~1Tagor. went 10 East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) 10 manage
'Dr. E~maillare Behlll,h h,s famIly s eslates at Sh,laidah and Shazadpur for 10 years There he often
.,.of _
t.•••.•••• •••••••••••••••••••••
Milan, profe,,,,,rof EnglIshlkpanmem Stayed in a houseboat on the Padma River (ie, the Ganges RiVer), in close
,- ••. I. So-I, ""10k, lOOO
Un""eBily or ChababarManum. contact with village folk, and his s,mpathy for their poverty and
backwardness became the keynote of much of his later writing, Most of his
fincst shon stories, which examine "humble lives and their small miseries"
date from the 1890s and have poignanc~, laced with gentle irony, that is
unique to him, though admirably captured by the director Salyajit Ray in
nabindranath Ta~orc: A "Myriad-Minded Man" later film adaptations Tagore came 10 love the Bengali countryside, most
of all the Padma River, an often,repeated image in his verse. During these
Abstract years he published several poetry collections, notably Sonar Tari (1894;
The Golden Boat), and plays, notably Chitragadl (\892; Chitra). Tagore's
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was essentially a poet but his novels are also worthy of allention, the best known are Gora (1910) and
:erests were not confined to poetry, This Bengali poet, short-story writer, Gharc-llaire (1916; The Home and the World). In the late 1920s, at nearl~-
ng composer, playwright, essayist, and painter was awarded the Nobel 70 years of age,
ize for Literature in 1913 Tagore introduccd new prose and verse forms
d the use of colloquial language into Bengali literalure, thereby freeing it . In 1901 Tagore founded an experimental school in l\Jral West Bengal al
)m tradilional models based on classical Sanskrit lie was highly Santiniketan ("Abode of Peace"), where he sought to blend the best in the
~uenlial in introducing Ihe best of Indian culture to Ihe West and vice Indian and Weslem traditions, He sellied permanently at the school, which
rsa, and he is generally regarded as the oUlsla!1ding creative artist of became Visva-Bhlrati University in 1921. Years of sadness arising from
;Idem India Ihe deaths of his wife and two children between 19Q2 and 19Q7 are
reflected in his later poetry, which was introduced to the West in Gitanjali.
The son of Ihe religious reformer Debendranath Tagore, he early began Song Offerings (1912) This book, containing Tagore's Eng1i,~h prose
write verses, and aner incomplete studies in England in the late 18705, translations of religious poems from several of his Bengali verse
returned to India There he published several books of poetry in the collection" including Gitailjali (1910), was hailed by W.B. Yeats and
:80s and completed Manas. (1890), a collection that marks the maturing Andre Gide and won him the Nohd Prize in 1913. Tagore was awarded a
'his genius knighthood in 1915. but he repudiated it in 1919 as a prolest against the
Amritsar Massacre.

"'C)- words: Rabindranath Tagore, :-<obcl. Golden Boat, Song

Offerings, Indian Identity, National Anthem

I. Inlroduction
, Em.il bellla,Il'itomJus.ir
Bengali mystic and artist, Rabindranath Tagore was a great poet,
.eceipl. 20_l_201lK Acecp,anc.:2 5- It-WOK philosopher, music composer and a leader of Brahm a Samaj, who took the
d ••..••••
Y,••..•••• v.. ..~..~--. --_.
" ••""n,,, •• w •••~ ." •• -0 "'" "''''''''''''''''''uno'nglalners 01 the Adl Uharrn faith, He was largely raised by
an heritage Best known for his poems and short stories. Tagore servants, as his mother had died in his early childhood; his father travelled
ely contributed \0 the Bengali literature in the lale 19th and early 20th extensively. Tagore largely declined classroom schooling, preferring to
t ry and created his masterpieces such as Ohare-8alre, Yogayog. roam the mansion or explore idyllic vistas: BolpUT,Panihati, and others.2
I~jali and Gilimalya The 311lhorextended his contriblltion during ~he After his upanayan initiation at age eleven, Tagore left Calcutta on 14
Ian l~depcndencc Movement and wrote ~n.gs and.~ms galvamzmg February 187) to tour rndia witll his father for several months. They
movemen" , "h"gh
, he never directly partICIpated10 It.'ful
As autllor
"h of v)sited lIis fatller's Santiniketan estate and stopped in Amritsar before
'I'
mjalanhS d" "profoundly sensitive , fresh and beaull verse,
hi" e reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie, There, young "Rabi"
arne Asia's first Nobel laureate by winning the 1913 No e. Pr,lze.10 read biographie~, studied history, amonomy, morlern science, and
~rature The present paper is a brief account of thiS great wTlterS bfe, Sanskrit, and exammed the classical poetry of KalidasaJ Tn 1877, he
rks and legacy, composed several major works, including a long poem sct in the Maithili
style pioneered by Vidyapati, As a joke, he maintained that these were the
lost works of BMnusirpha, a newly discovered 17th.century Vaisnava
pootA He alw wrote "Bhikharini" (1877; "The Beggar Woman"---the
Bengali language's first short story) and Sandhya Sangit (1882) _
including the famous poem "NiJjharer S"'llpnabhanga" ("The Rousing of
the Waterfall"),

A prospective barrister, Tagore enrolled at a pllblicschool in Brighton.

2, TagoTe's Life
The youngest of thirteen surviving children, "Tagorewas born in \he
nasanko mansion in Caleulla of parents Dcbend,ranathTagore (18l7-
~5) and Salada Devi (1830-1875) 1 Tagore family patnarchs were the
East Sussex. England in 1878, Ill.' read law at Uni,'c'''lyCellcg.london, but
left school to explore Shakespeare and more: RcligioMedici,Coriot'n"" and
Anlnn)'and CIOOP.lt,.;5he returned degree-Ic% to Bengal in 1880. On 9
December 1883 he married Mrinalini Devi (born Bhabatarini. 187)-
1900), they had five children, two of whom died before reaching
adulthood.6 [n 1890, Tagore began managing his family's vast estates in
Shilaidaha, a reginn now in Bangladesh; he was joined by his wife and
children in 1898. As "Zamlt,d., Babu", Tagore crisscrossed the holdings
while living out of the family's 11Ixilfiousbarge. the Padrna, to collect
(mmtly token) rents and bless villagers, who held feasts in his honour 7
These yea's-1891-1895. Tagore's Sadhana period. named for one of
Tagore's maga7Jncs-were among his most fecund During this period,
more than half the stories of the three-volume and eighty-four-story
Galpaguchehha were written. With irony and emotional weight, they
depicted a wide range of Bengali lifestyles, particularlyvillage life
In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to Santiniketan to found an
ashram, which would grow to include a IT\lIrble.noored prayer hall
"tk ManOlr"),an e~penmemal scnool, grows Ul Ll~~',l:\~ILl~II', altu a
~,There, Tagore's wife and two of his children died, His father died
.19 January 1905, and he began receiving monthly payments as part of
a inheritance, He received additional income from the Maharaja of
npura, sales of his family'sjewellery, his seaside bungalow in Puri, and
lCdiocreroyalties (Rs 2,000) from his worh. By now, his work was
aining him a large following among Bengali and foreign readers alike,
~dhe published such works u Naivedya(1901) and Kheya (1906) while
translating his poems into free verse On 14 November 1913, Tagore
:arned that he had won the 1913 Nobel Prite in Literature. The Swedish
,cademy appreciated the idealistic and-for Western readers-accessiblc
ature of a small body of his translated material, including the 1912
iitanjali' Song Offerings. In 1915, Tagore was knighted by the British
'rown
In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up
Ie Institute for Rural Reconstmction (which Tagore laler renamed
hrinikctan-"Abode of Wealth") ill Sumt a village ncar lhe ashram al
antiniketan. Through it, Tagore sought to provide an alternative to
iandhi's symbol- and protesl-ba.~cd Swaraj 'movement, which he
enounced fie recruited scholars, donors. and officials from many
ountTies to help Ihe Instilute use schooling to "free villagers}from the
hackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitalis[ingj knowledge".S In
1e early 19305, he criticised India's "abnormal caste consciousness" and
ntouchability He leclured against these, wrote poems and dramas with
ntouchahle protagonists, and campaigned succe~~fully to open
;ufUvayoorTemple 10Dalits
To the end, Tagore scrutinized orthodo~y, He upbraided Gandhi for
eelaring that a ma~sive 15 January 1934 earthquake in llihar~leaving
lOusands dead-was divine retribution brought on by the oppression of
lalits He mourned the endemic poverty of Calcutta and the accelerating
ocioeconomic decline of Bengal. which he detailed in an unrhymed
undred-line poem whose technique of scaring double-vision woukl
;lreshadow Satyajit Ray's film Apur Sansar. Fifteen new volumes of
.agore writings appeared. among Themthe prose-poems works Punas!Tdll
tj\J~.l), ~nes :lapla" tT\1J~), and Patraput (1936) E~perimenlation
continued: he developed prose-songs and dance-dramas, including
Chitrangada (1914), Shyama (1939), and Chandalika (1938), and wrole
the novels Dui Bon (1933), MaJancha (1934), and Char Adhyay (1934),
Tagore look an inlerest in science in his last years, writing Visva-Parichay
(a collection of essays) in 1937. His exploration of biology, physics, and
aSTronomy impacted his poetry. which often conlained extensive
naluralism lhal underscored his respect for scientific laws tic also wove
Ihe process of science, ineludingnarratives of scientists, into many stories
contained in such volumes as Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and
Galpasalpa (1941)9
Tagore's last four years were marked by chronic pain and two long
periods of illness. These began when Tagore lost consciousness in late
1937~he remained comatose and near dealh for an extended period. This
was followed Ihree years later in late 1940 by a similar spell. from whieh
he never recovered. The poetry Tagore wrote in these years is among his
finest, and is distinctive for its preoccupation with death. I0 After extended
suffering, Tagore died on 7 Aogust 1941 {22 Shravan 1348)in an upstairs
room of Ihe Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised~11 his death
anniversary is mourned across the Bengali-speakingworld.
3. Tagore's Worlu
Tagore's literary repulation is disproportionaTelyinfluenced by regard
for his poetry; however, he also wrote novels, essays, short stories,
travelogues, dramas, and lhousands of songs Of Tagore's prose, his short
stories are perhaps most highly regarded~ indeed, he is credited with
originating the Bangia-language version of the genre I lis works are
frequently noted for their rhythmic, optimistic, and lyrical nature
However, such slories mostly borrow from deceptively simple subject
mailer - the lives of ordinary people

Tigore's experiences wilh drama began when he was s~xteen,wh~~ h,e
II:yedthe lead rolc in his brothcr Jyotnindra,nath'sada~tatlOnof ~ohere s
.e Bourgeois Genlilhommc,Tagore wrote h,s first onglnal dramatICpIece
lhen he was twenty - Valmiki I'ratibha ("The Gcniu~ of Valmiki"),
mi<:hwas shown at the Tagores' mansion, I1is works - cmphasl~mg
lsion of lyrical flow and emotional rhythm tightly focused on a ~ore Idea
- were unlike previous Bengali drama, Tagore stated that hIS works
)Ughl 10 ar1iculate "the play of feeling and nOi of action", In 1890 he
rcote Visarjan ("Sacrifice"); it has been regarded as. hIS.finest drama In
le original Bangia language, such works included mtTlcalesupl.ots and
xtended monologues, Later, Tagore's dramas used more phIlosophIcal
nd allegorical themes, For example, his 1912 Dakghar ("pOSIOm~")
~ceivedrave reviews in Europe and was shown in La.ndon"(~I the Insh
.hcae,
,,' Berlin, and Paris.12 Lastly, Tagore's Chandaltkad(Untouchable
.h. h
iirl") was modeled on an ancient Buddhist legend . e5~n mg ?w
iaUlamaBuddha's disciple Ananda asks water of an AdlVasl(tubal ~r1,
robably of the numerous Santal tribes found throughout western regIons
fBengaL
Tagore's plays also are important to Bengali literature. All of his p~
ave been repeatedly staged and re-interpreted over the ycars, HIS .-
tamous play, perhaps, is Raktakaravi ("Red Oleanders") ~ the name of a
red flower It tells of a king who lives behind an iron eunain while his
subjects have cruelty and death delivered upon them al the slightest
pretext People are forced to work in the mines so that the kleptocratic
king and his cronies may render thcm~clveseVen more wealthy Thc play
follow, the hcroine Nandini, who Icads lhe people and finally the king
him~elftowards Ihe destruction of this artifact of subjugation Howevcr.
thi, ultimate victory is preceded by numerous deaths, most imponanlly
thaI of Ranjan, Narnlini'slover, and Ki~hore a young boy devoted 10 her
Tagore devoled much effort to Raktakaravi, wilh (at Icast) cleven extant
revlsinns, However, Tagore's motivation in writing Raktakaravi is
disputed, with some suggesting negative opinions formed during his VIsit
to the mines of Bombay, Others amibute it to dislike of the Wesl, while
others think that a woman motivated him to create Nandini, Tagore's other
notable plays include ChiITangada, Raja, Valmiki-Pratibha, and II.Iayar
Khela,
lJ. Short Stori •••
s
Tagore began his carccr in shor1 stories in J877 - when he wa.'!only
sixteen - with "llhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman"), With this, Tagore
effectively invented the BangIa-language short story genre The four years
from 189J to 1895 are known as Tagorc's "Sadhana" period (named for
one of Tagore's magazines) This period was among Tagore's most
fecund, yielding more than half the stories contained in the three-volume
Galpaguehchha. which itself is a collection of eighty-four stories, Such
slories usually showcase Tagore's reJlections upon his surroundings, on
modern and fashionable ideas, and on imeresting mind puzzles (which
Tagore was fond of testing his intellect with), Tagore typically associated
his earliest stories (such as tho,e of the 'Sadhana" period) with an
exuberance of vitalilY and spontaneity; these characteristics were
intimalely connected with Tagore's life in the common villages of, among
others, Patisar, Shajadpur, and Shilaida while managing the Tagore
family's vast landholdings There, he beheld the lives of India's poor and
common people, Tagore thereby took to examining their lives with a
penetrative depth and feeling that was singular in Indian literature up to
that point In particular, such stories as "Cabuliwallah" ("The Fruitseller
from "abul", published in 1892), "Kshudita Pashan" ("The Hungry
,tones") (August 1895), and "Atithi" ("The Runaway", 1895) typified thi."
I1alytic focus on the downtrodden In "The Fruitseller from Kabul",
-agore speaks in first person as town-dweller and novelist who chances
Ipon the Afgh.1mseller. lie attempts to distill the sense of longing fell by
hose long trapped in the mundane and hardscrabble confmes of Indian
nban life, giving play to dreams of a different existence in Ihe dislant and
vild mountains "Thcrc wcre aulumn mornings, thc time of ycar when
:ings of old went forth to conquest; and 1, ncver stirring from my little
:orner in Calculla, would let my mind wandcr over the whole world At
he very namc of another country, my heart would go out to it .., I would
all to weaving a network of drcams: the mountains, the glens, the forest
.._ ". Many of the other "Galpaguchchha" storie. wcre wrinen in Tagore's
;abuj Patra period (1914-1917, again, named aftcr one of the magazmcs
hat Tagore cdited and heavily contributed to). Tagore's Glllpoguchchho
"Bunch of StOlies") rcmains among the most popular fictional works in
langla litcrature Its continuing influcnce on Bengali art and culture
:annot be overstated; 10 this day, Golpoguchchho remains a point of
;uhural rcference Golpoguchchho has furnished subject mailer for
lumerous successful films and theatrical plays, and its charactcrs are
lmong the most well known to Bengalis, The'acclaimed film director
,atyajil Ra~based his film Chamlal" ("The Lonely Wifc") on Na,ranirh ("The
3roken Nest"), This famous story has an autobiographical element to I'"
nodelled to some extent on the relationship between Tagore and his sister-
n-Iaw. Kadambari Devi. Ray has also madc memorable films of other
;torieo; from Golpoguchchho, indudiog Samapti, Postmaster and
\.1onihara, bundling them together as Teen Kanya ("Thrce Daughlers")
I\tithi is anothcr poignantly lyrical Tagore story which was made into a
~Im of the same name by another notcd Indian film director Taran S"lh•.
farapada, a young BrahmInboy, catches a boat ride with a village ••m;••••.
It turns OUIthaI he has run away from his home and has been wandering
loround ever sioce, The zamindar adopts him. and finally arranges a
marriage to his own daughter The night bcforc the wcdding Tarapada runs
away again. $trir Palra (The lettcr from the wife) has to be onc of the
earliest depictions in Bangla literature of such bold emancipatioo of
womcn Mrinal is the wife of a typical ncogali middle class man l1>e
leller, written while she is traveling (which constitutes the whole story).
describe, her petty life and slruggles. She finally deelares lhat she will 001
rcturn to his rarriafchic,ll home, slatmg Amio bachbo Ei bachlum ("And I
shall live. Here, Ilivc").
In Haim.anti, Tagore takes on the institution of H",du marriage. He
descrrhcs, vra. Stnr Paull. th.e,dismal lifelessness of Bengali womcn a!ler
the~ are ,marrred, ~ff, hypocnslcs plagumg the lodian middle da,s. and how
Harmanl~, a senslt.lYeyoung woman, muS! - due to hcr sensitiveness and
free spmt - sacnfice her I~fe In the last passage, Tagore direr;tly attacks
the HI~du custom of glonfyrng Sua's attempted -elf,immolationas a means of
appcasrng her hus.baod ~ma's doubts (as depicted io the epic Ramayana)
Tagore also cxamr~es Hmdu-Mu,lIm tcnsions in Musalmani Didi, which in
many ways embodtes the essence of Tagore's humanism, On the other
hand, Darpahar~n exhibits ~~gore's self-consciousness, describing a youog
m.an harbo~mg literary ambJllons. Though he loves his wife, he wishes to
stifle her Irterary carecr, deeming it uofcmininc. Tagore himself, in his
youth, seems to have harborcd similar ideas about women, Darpaharao
depIcts the final humblmg of the man via his acceptance of his wife's
talems" As, With many other Tagore stories, Jibito 0 Mrito provides Ihc
nengabs wlt.h one of therr u:ore widely used epigrams: Kadombini moriya
proman korrlo she more nal ("Kadombini died, thereby proved that she
hadn't")
C. Novels
Am?ng Tagore's works, his novels are among the least-acknowledged,
Thcse rnclude Chaturanga, Gora (1910), Shesher Kobita, Gharc Bairc
Cha~ Odhay, and Noukadubi, Ghare Baire or Thc Home and thc World:
(whrc.h wa~. also r~leased. as the film by Satyajit Ray, Gbare Baire)
examrnes nsrng n~ItOna!lstrc feeling among lodians while warning of its
dangers, eI~arly drsplaymg lagore's distrust of nationalism _ especially
when assocrated with a religioos clcment In some sense Gora shares the
same thcn.lc, raising questions regarding thc Indian idcOlity As with
Ghorc Balre, mat1C~s of self-identity, personal frcedom, and religious
bclicf are developed III the COOle~tof an involving family story and a love
triangle.
~hcshcr Kob!la (translated twice, ao;Last Poem and as Farewell Song)
rs hIS mMt lyrical novcl, containing as it does poems and rhylhmic
anages wrillen by the main character (a poet) Nevertheless, it is also
"agore's most satirical novel, e~hibiting po~t.modernist element!; whereby
::veral characters make gleeful attacks on the reputation of an old,
utmoded oppressively-renowned poet (named Rabindranath Tagore),
"hough h'is novels remain under-apprecia:ed, Ihey ~ave recently been
iven new attention through many mOVie adaptatlOns by such film
irectors as Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Tarim Majumdar, Thc recem
mong these is a vCrslon of Chokher B~\i directed by RilU~arno G~osh,
Ihich features Aishwariya Rai. A favontc trope of these directors IS to
mploy rabindra sangeet in the film adaptations' soundtracks.
Among Tagore's notable non-fiction books are lu:op Jalrir P~lro
'Letters from Europe") and Manusher Dhormo ("The ReligIOnof Man ),
D. Poetry
Internationally, Gitanjali is Tagore's best-known collection of
oetry,Tagore was awarded the :"<oblePrize in 1913 for his ~ook Gitanjali
ong VII from Gitanjali reads as follows Free-verse translation by Tagore
:Jitanjali, vcrse VII):
"My song has put off her adornments She has no pride of dress au:!
ecoralion Ornaments would mar our union; they would come betwtt1l
lee and me; their jiogliog would drown thy whispers,"
"My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy sight, a master poet, I ha...e
It down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like I
ute of reed for thee to fill with music."
Oesides Gilanjali, other notable works include Manasi, Sonar Tori
'Golden Boat"), Balaka ("Wild Geese" - the title being a metaphor f•..•
ligrating souls),13 and Porohi So~ar Tori's most famous poem -
caling with the ephemeral nature of life and achievement --:- g~ bJ ~
lme name; it ends with the haunting phrase "shunya nadn tire ~ pm
jaha chhilo loye gelo shonar tori" - "all I had achieved was ~ df
n the golden boat - only I was left behind"). In Dui Bigha JOlIlI ("'A
trip of Land"), Tagore explores the plight of a sharecropper whosI:
meager parcel of fannland is taken over - using falsified papers _ by a
moneylender; the poem concludes: "rajar hosto kore shomosto kangaler
dhon ehuri" ("it is the king's hand 1hat steals from the downtrodden")
Sonar Tori also contains Hing Tiog Chhol. Ahhough comic in form, it
ill~mina"tes what ~agore saw as Bengali society's crippling lack of vision,
ongmahty, and W)!;(]om:durbodh ja chhilo kichu hoye gclo jol, shunno
akashcr moto oUonto ninnol ("Oh yes, now all has been explained, like the
empty c:<panse of the open sky") Throughout his life, Tagore
experimemed with differenl poetic styles For example, in his early years,
he occasionally wrote his works in Shadhu Bhasha (a Sllmkriuud d;alecl of
BangIa); later, Tagore moved seamlcssly 10 using ehalit (a more popular
dialect), Lastly, the poems in Balaka mark the stan of an epoch; the most
notable of these reads
Oh youth, oh the tender, oh green, oh unknowing, hit the bodies of the
halfdead to bring them hack to life
Later, with the development of new poetic ideas in Bengal _ many
originating from younger poets seeking to break with Tagore's style _
Tagore absorbed new poetic concepts, which allowed him to further
develop a unique identity, Examples of this include Africa and Camalia
which arc among the betler known "fhis latter poems '
K Music lind Artwork
Tagore was also an accomplished musician and painter Indeed, he
wrote some 2,2]0 songs; together, the!;e comprise rabindra sangee! now an
integral pan of Bengali culture, Yet, Tagore's mu~ic is inseparable from
h,s literature, most of which - poems or pans of novels, stories, or plays
alike - became lyrics for his songs These ran the gamut of human
emotion, and arc still frequently used !O give voice to a wide range of
experiences Such is true of two such works: Bangladesh's Aamaar Sonaar
Baanglaa and India"s Jana Gana :\1ana; Tagore thus became the only
person ever to have written the national anthems of two nations. Tagore
also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting, embellishing the cross-
OlliSand word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs
 At age MXty, (aBore took up drawmg and. pamtlng; succesSTut
,hibitions of his many works - which made a debut appearance in Paris
pon encouragement by artisTs he met in The south of France - were held
lfoughout Europe Tagore - who likely exhibited protanopia ("color
lindness"), or partial lack of (red-green, in Tagore's case) colour
iscemment - [XIintedin a style characterised by peculiarities in aesthetic
,d colouring style Nevertheless, lagore took to emulating numerous
.yles, including that of craftwork by the Malanggan people. of nonhem
Tew Ireland, Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of Nonh
Jnerica, and woodcuts by Max Pcchstein,
4, Taj(ore's Impact and Lej(8C)'
lagore's relevance can be gauged by festivals honouring him.
,abipranam, lagore's birth anniversary; the. annual Tagor,e Festival h~ld
I Urbana, l11inois,in the UniTed States; Rabmdra Path Pankrama walkmg
ilgrimages from Caleulla to Shantiniketan; ceremonial ~eeiTals of
'agore's poetry held on important anniversaries; and others. lh,s legacy IS
lOst palpable in Bengali culture, ranging from language and arts to
istory and politics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen saw Tagore as a
towering figure", bdng a "deeply relevant and many-sided contemp0fal)'
linker", Tagore's Bengali-language vvritings-The 19J9 Rabindra
achanaval1.is also canonised as one of Bengal's grealest cultural
'easures, Tagore himself was proclaimed "the greatest poet India has
reduced".
Tagore was famed throughout much. of Europe, North America, and
ast Asia He was key in founding Danmgton Hall School, a progressive
oeducational institution; in Japan, he influenced such figures as Nobel
IUreate Yasunari Kawabata, 14 lagore's works were widely translated inlO
,nglish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and other European lan~~es by ~
ldologist Vincenc Lesny, French Nobel laureaTe Andre G,de, RlISSIU
oeT Anna Akhmatova, former Turkish Prime Minisler BiTlent Eccvil.IS
nd others, In the United States, Tagore's popular lecturing circuiils
:specially Those betwecn 1916-1917) were widely attended .nd
cclaimed Yet, several controversies involving Tagore resulted 10 &
decline in his popularity in Japan and North America after the late 1920s,
concluding WiThhis "near total eclipse" outside of Bengal
Via translaTions, Tagore inlluenced Spanish literature: Chileans Pablo
Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, Mexican writer Octavio Pal, and Spaniards
Jose Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Carnprubi, and Juan Ramon Jimenel:
Between 1914 and 1922, the Jimencl:-Campruhi spouses translated
twenTy-two of lagore's books from English into Spanish and extensively
revised and adapted such works as Tagore's The Cre.'lCem Moon In Ihis
time, Jimenez developed "naked poetry-" (Spanish «poesia desnuda»), a
landmark innovation. Ortega y Gasset wroTe thaI "Tagore's wide appeal
[may stem from the fact thaTI he speaks of longings for perfection That we
all have Tagore awakens a dormant sense of childish wonder, and he
saturates the air with all kinds of enchanting promises for the reader, who
... pays lillle allenTion 10 the deeper import of OrienTal mYSTicism",
lagore's works circulaTed in free editions around 1920 alongside Those of
Dante Alighieri, Miguel de Cervantes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Plato, and Leo TolsTOy
Conclu.iotl
For the first fifty-otle years of his life Tagore achieved prosperiTy in
Calcutta area of India raised with his songs, stories and plays His stories
were monthly published in a friend's magazine and he even played key
roles in a few of the public performance" of his plays which made him
known Ollt of the Calcutta area. His spiritual presence considered to be
awesome. He revealed The mYSTicismand sentimental beaUly of Indian
culture to the West for the frrsTlime, His presence was seMational, first in
London literary circle and then in the entire world. He was The first non-
westerner to be honoured as a Nobel I'rize winner for literature Although
a good friend of Ghandi, he stayed OUIof politics He promoted spiritual
valUes and creation of a new world founded in multi-culturalism, diversity
and tolerance For The world, he became Ihe voice of India's spiritual
heritage and for Bengal, hc became a great living institution
 11
~"~,~-----------",",:";,";.",~"",,s:">,;,":":,>;":,c,"",~.~,c,,;,,~,~,,";,~,
"--;;R~'~f,:,=,:"=,,:.~--------------------~
I Thompson, E (1926), Rabindranath Tagorc' POet and Dramatist,
R~ad, ISBN 1-4067-8927_5, p. 20
2. Da:;, S (02 August 2009), lagore's Garden of Eden,
hllp:l/w\VW tclegraphindia comll 090802/jsp/calcullalstory 11299031.j
sp. retrieved 14 August 2009 -
3. DlIIla. K '" A Robinson (I W5), Rabindmnalh TaKOfe: The M\'ri~d-Mindcd
Man, 51 Marull'S Press, ISBN 0- J J 2-140)0-1, pp. 5 S~ S6 .
4, Stewart, T (editor, lranslator); Twichell, Chase (editor, translator)
(2003), Rabindr.m31h Tagore Lowr of God. Copper Canyon Press,
55659-196-9, p. 91
S, Cbakravarty, A (1961), A Tallore Reader, Beacon Press, ISBN 0-
8070-5971_4, p. 45
6. Dulla & Robinson 1997, p. 265
7 Thompson 1926, p. 31
8, Hjarn.," (10 December 1913), The Nobel Prizc in Literature
1913 Presentation Speech, The Nobel Foun<1ation,
hllp :/lllobc1prize.org/nobel Jlrizeslliteratureilaureatcsll913/press hlml,
relrieved 13 AUl;\ust2009
9. Dulla & Robmson 1995, p. 342
10. "Tagore, Rabilldranllth", Bllnglapedill (Asiatic Society of
Bangladesh), httpllbanglapediasearchcom,bdiHTrr 0020,htm,
retrieved 13 August 2009 -
I L "Recilalion ofTagorc's poetry of dealh', Hindustan Times (Indo--
Asian News Service), 2005
12. '68th Death Anniversary ofRabilldrallath Tagore", The Daily S&.
(Dhaka), 07 August 2009,
http://www,thC{jailystar.nCl/newDesignlnews_
details php?nid= J 00259, retrieved 13 August 2009
13. Farrell, G (1999), Indian Music and lhe Wesl, ClarendOn
Paperbacks Series (3 cd), Oxford university Press, p. 162, ISBN 0-
1981-6717_2
J4 DUlla & Robinson J995, p. 202
15. Kinzer, S (05 November 2006), "Bulen! Ecevit, ••••. ho turned TurlEy
toward lhe West, dies", The New York Times,
hl1p:llwww.nytimes.eoml200611i/06lworidfeuropeJ06iht_
web II06ecevit340695intml. relrl•••"td lJ Aug"" 2009

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