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Rabindranath Tagore

1. Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta, India to a prominent Bengali family that was influential during the Bengal Renaissance. 2. Tagore was a prolific writer who wrote poetry, novels, short stories, songs, plays, and essays. He is particularly renowned for his short stories and poems. 3. Though Tagore was popular in the early 20th century, some prominent Western writers like Graham Greene and Ezra Pound were critical of his English translations and thought he was overrated.

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1K views1 page

Rabindranath Tagore

1. Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta, India to a prominent Bengali family that was influential during the Bengal Renaissance. 2. Tagore was a prolific writer who wrote poetry, novels, short stories, songs, plays, and essays. He is particularly renowned for his short stories and poems. 3. Though Tagore was popular in the early 20th century, some prominent Western writers like Graham Greene and Ezra Pound were critical of his English translations and thought he was overrated.

Uploaded by

Ramiya Markendan
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The youngest of thirteen surviving

children, Tagore was born in the


Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta, India to
parents Debendranath Tagore (1817
1905) and Sarada Devi (18301875). The
Tagore family came into
prominenceduring the Bengal
Renaissance that started during the age of
Hussein Shah (14931519). The original
name of the Tagore family was Banerjee.
Being Brahmins, their ancestors were
referred to as 'Thakurmashai' or 'Holy Sir'.
During the British rule, this name stuck
and they began to be recognised as
Thakur and eventually the family name got
anglicised to Tagore.Tagore family
patriarchs were the Brahmo founders of
the Adi Dharm faith. The loyalist "Prince"
Dwarkanath Tagore, who employed
European estate managers and visited
with Victoria and other royalty, was his
paternal grandfather.Debendranath had
formulated the Brahmoist philosophies
espoused by his friend Ram Mohan Roy,
and became focal in Brahmo society after
Roy'sdeath.

Known mostly for his poetry, Tagore wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues,
dramas, and thousands of songs. Of Tagore's prose, his short stories are perhaps most
highly regarded; he is indeed 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: commoners. Tagore's non-
fiction grappled with history, linguistics, and spirituality. He wrote autobiographies. His
travelogues, essays, and lectures were compiled into several volumes, including Europe
Jatrir Patro (Letters from Europe) and Manusher Dhormo (The Religion of Man). His brief
chat with Einstein, "Note on the Nature of Reality", is included as an appendix to the latter.
On the occasion of Tagore's 150th birthday an anthology (titled Kalanukromik Rabindra
Rachanabali) of the total body of his works is currently being published in Bengali in
chronological order. This includes all versions of each work and fills about eighty
volumes.[91] In 2011, Harvard University Press collaborated with Visva-Bharati University to
publish The Essential Tagore, the largest anthology of Tagore's works available in English; it
was edited by Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarthy and marks the 150th anniversary of
Tagore'sbirth.
Tagore's works circulated in free editions
around 1920alongside those of Plato,
Dante, Cervantes, Goethe, and
Tolstoy.Tagore was deemed over-rated by
some. Graham Greene doubted that
"anyone but Mr. Yeats can still take his
poems very seriously." Several prominent
Western admirersincluding Pound and,
to a lesser extent, even Yeatscriticised
Tagore's work. Yeats, unimpressed with
his English translations, railed against that
"Damn Tagore [...] We got out three good
books, Sturge Moore and I, and then,
because he thought it more important to
know English than to be a great poet, he
brought out sentimental rubbish and
wrecked his reputation.

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