Biography of Tagore.pptx

Life journey of Rabindranath tagore

1. Biography of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

2. Key points ‘Biography of Rabindranath Tagore’ Birth and Family Education in England Shantiniketan and Sriniketan Marital Life Notable Works Gitanjali or Song Offerings Artistic Works Death

3. Birth and Family Rabindranath Tagore was born as Robindronath Thakur on May 7, 1861, to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India). Tagore's mother Sarada Devi died when he was a child and his father Debendranath Tagore travelled a lot. Therefore, Tagore was raised by servants. Dwijendranath , Rabindranath Tagore's eldest brother was a philosopher and poet. Tagore's other brother Satyendranath was the first Indian to be appointed in the Indian Civil Service. His brother,   Jyotirindranath , was a musician, composer, and playwright while sister Swarnakumari was a novelist.  Rabindranath's brother Hemendranath taught him anatomy (structure of body) , geography and history, literature, mathematics, Sanskrit, and English.

4. Birth and Family At the age of 11, Tagore toured India with his father. Rabindranath Tagore visited his father's Santiniketan estate and stayed in Amritsar for a month before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of ' Kalidasa '. Tagore was highly influenced with the Gurbani (Sikh Kirtan ) and Nanak Bani which were sung at Golden Temple, Amritsar. In 1882, Tagore made his debut with a short story in Bengali ' Bhikarini ‘ (the beggar woman).  

5. Education In 1878, he went to England to become a barrister to fulfill his father's wish. He was not much interested in school learning and later also he joined University College in London to learn law but he dropped this and learned various works of Shakespeare on his own. He also learned the essence of English, Irish and Scottish literature and music; he returned to India and married Mrinalini Devi. His father, Debendranath Tagore bought a huge land for meditation and named it as Shantiniketan . He founded an 'Ashram' in 1863. In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore established an open-air school. It was a prayer hall with marble flooring and was named as 'The Mandir '. It was also named ' Patha Bhavana ' and started with only five students.

6. Shantiniketan and Sriniketan Classes here were held under trees and followed the traditional Guru- Shishya method of teaching. This trend of teaching revived the ancient method of teaching which proved beneficial when compared with the modernised method. Unfortunately, his wife and two children died and he left alone. At that time he was very disturbed. In the meantime, his works started growing and became more popular amongst the Bengali as well as foreign readers. In 1913, he gained recognition and was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature and became Asia's first Nobel Laureate. Now, Shantiniketan is a famous University town in West Bengal. He established the Visva Bharati University in West Bengal. It consists of two campuses one at Shantiniketan and the other at Sriniketan . Sriniketan focuses on agriculture, adult education, village, cottage industries and handicrafts.

7. Marital Life Kadambari Devi was Rabindranath’s elder brother Jyotindranath’s wife. She was nine when she entered the house as a bride and Rabindranath was seven. She was Rabindranath’s childhood companion and they both grew up together. After the death of his mother, their friendship turned into a motherly affection. And soon it was transformed into a romantic relationship. Their relationship progressed through three stages; firstly as his childhood princess, secondly as a mother and thirdly when both of them fell in love with poetry. She was considered the woman who looked after him in his early life and was part of his success in his later life. Tagore gave her a nickname ‘Hecate’, which is a name of a Greek goddess associated with the moon.

8. Marital Life Like Rabindranath , Jyotindranath also possessed multiple skills; he had a keen interest in painting, editing, and music. He translated many books from different languages in Bengali. He looked after his family business and later started his own venture which incurred a heavy loss and soon he opted out of it. He was an open-minded person who helped Kadambari Devi to pursue her education and also taught her horse-riding. He had a busy schedule and could hardly spare much time for his wife. Hence she always felt lonely and starved for companionship. In 1883, when Tagore turned 22 he got married to Bhabatarini Devi who was 11-year-old then. Tagore renamed her Mrinalini . Kadambari Devi never wanted Tagore to get married; she secretly tried to stop his marriage but was unsuccessful.

9. Marital Life She thought that his marriage would distance them and she would lose all the rights she had over him. On April 19, 1884, 4 months and 10 days after Tagore’s marriage, Kadambari Devi committed suicide by consuming opium. Her death is considered as the most-talked tragedy in the Bengali psyche. Tagore was deeply moved by her sudden death. It is also said that Rabindranath dedicated many of his poems to her. During a meeting with Nandalal Bose, Rabindranath confessed that most of his paintings with woman’s face were created keeping Kadambari’s face in mind. And this confession was made when Tagore was 70 years old.

10. Notable Works In 1890, Tagore released one of his best poems ' Manasi '. During 1891-1895, Tagore wrote more than half of the stories of ' Galpaguchchha '.  In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore moved to Santiniketan where he found 'The Mandir ' which was an experimental school having trees, gardens and library. Tagore's wife and 2 children died at Santiniketan and Tagore lost his father in 1905. Tagore received monthly payments from Maharaja of Tripura (as part of his inheritance), sales of his family's jewellery , his seaside bungalow in Puri . In 1901, Tagore published ' Naivedya '.   In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

11. Notable Works By his initiative the Muslim Hall (present Shaheed Sulaiman Hall) for Anjunan -e- Islamia was established in Sylhet in 1912 . In 1921, Tagore along with Leonard Elmhirst (agricultural economist), set up the 'Institute for Rural Reconstruction' which was later renamed ' Shriniketan ' in Surul . Tagore started receiving donations from Indian and around the world to free the Indian villages from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance by strengthening their knowledge.

12. Notable Works In 1930, Tagore lectured against 'abnormal caste consciousness' and 'untouchability'. He campaigned against these issues, penned several poems and finally managed to open doors of Guruvayoor Temple to Dalits . Tagore published his prose-songs and dance drama works in Chitra , Shyama in 1939 and Chandalika (the story of an untouchable girl and Ananda, disciple of Gautama Buddha asks the tribal girl for water) in 1938. Rabindranath Tagore along with his brother Jyotirindranath started experiencing drama at the age of sixteen. At the age of 20, Tagore wrote his first original dramatic piece ' Valmiki Pratibha '.

13. Notable Works In 1890, Tagore wrote ' Visarjan '-- his finest drama. Rabindranath Tagore composed nearly 2,230 songs which are known as ' Rabindrasangit '. In 1971, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem ‘Amar Sonar Bangla‘ (National Anthem of Bangladesh), to protest the Partition of Bengal in 1905 on communal lines . In 1911, 'Jana Gana Mana' was first at Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) and was adopted as National Anthem of India in 1950. 'Sri Lanka Matha ' by Ananda Samarakoon , a Christian poet from Sri Lanka, inspired by Tagore's work, wrote the National Anthem of Sri Lanka.

14. Gitanjali Gitanjali  or Song Offering is a collection of 156/157 poems, originally published in Bengali in 1910. The English  Gitanjali  or  Song Offerings  is a collection of 103 English, first published in November 1912 by the Indian Society of London. It is part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Its central theme is devotion, and its motto is 'I am here to sing thee songs ’ William Butler Yeats, famous Irish poet, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 for his outstanding works in English Literature, wrote a preface to Tagore’s English Translation.

15. Artistic Works In late 1937, Rabindranath Tagore began losing consciousness and remained in a coma for a long period. In 1940, Tagore again went in a coma and never recovered. After years of chronic pain and long term illness, Tagore died on August 7, 1941, at the age of 80 years. Rabindranath Tagore took his last breath in the mansion he was brought up.  Tagore was also a very good artist. Even though he was not satisfied with his own artistic works, he attained fame across the globe for his artistic works. Tagore's 102 works are listed by India's National Gallery of Modern Art lists in its collections at present . Death

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