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Rabindranath Tagore was Born in Calcutta in the year 1861 into a wealthy Brahmin family. His grandfather, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore ( 1794-1846 ), was a prominent and wealthy man who financed the Calcutta Medical College. His father, Maharishi Debendranath Tagore ( 1817-1905 ), was a scholar. His mother, Sarada Devi, passed on when Tagore was still very young.
At age 22, Tagore would marry Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri and fathered two sons and three daughters. His sons were educated in the United States.
This Cultural icon of Indian Music, Art, Literature, History and Culture would further India's Artistic legacy into a world wide phenomena. And that too, at a time when India was in struggle for its very own identity. Through his writings, Tagore would show deep compassion for India and every Indian.
His early education came by way of private tutors and later at the Bengal Academy where Tagore would study Bengali literature and culture. He would later study law at the University College in London but would soon return to India without a degree. His heart was in his research and creative work which would form an everlasting imprint on the world in the years to come.
Tagore dreamt of one common language for all of humanity. Thoughts of which he would later express to Albert Einstein.
A contemporary Artist, Tagore was awarded the knighthood in 1915, but relinquished it in 1919 as a protest against the Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre of Amritsar, where British troops killed some 400 Indian demonstrators protesting colonial laws and rule.
The rich treasure of India's arts and folklore would become Tagore's life long mission. His strength was in the simple language in which he wrote, easily grasped by the common man as was his musical compositions which would become India's gift to the world in the years that followed. His early works will bring him to prominence in Bengal and parts of India.
Tagore's first body of work would be published in 1878 as he turned 17. Between 1893 and 1900 he would write 7 volumes of Poems . Alongside this creativity, he wrote 44 short stories.
In his tale of the Rui family, Tagore told the story of the proud Chandara, her farmer husband and his family as exploited by the upper class amongst a backdrop of the powerless, landless oppression.
At age 29 Tagore would move to East Bengal. It was here that his journey to International recognition would begin.
Tagore's attempt to find inner calm explored the themes of divine and human love in his body of work entitled, Gitanjali, Song Offerings. Gitanjali would first appear in 1910. By 1912 at the age of 51, Tagore would return to England where he would carry a small note book around, translating Gitanjali into English.
Gitanjali would establish him as India's foremost modern day writers not only in India but also in the United States as well as in England and elsewhere.
Erza Pound, was an American poet and critic, often called the poet's poet because of his profound influence on 20th Century writing in English. Pound believed that poetry is the highest of arts.
On March 1st, 1913, in his review of Gitanjali, Pound went on to praise Tagore's work saying " There is in him the stillness of nature. The poems do not seem to have been produced by storm or by ignition, but seem to show the normal habit of his mind. He is at one with nature, and finds no contradictions, And this is in sharp contrast with the Western mode, where man must be shown attempting to master nature if we are to have " great drama. "
Erza Pound's review of Gitanjali drew attention of the Nobel Prize committee and in 1913 Tagore would bring home to India, the Nobel Prize for Literature, lending great pride to the land he loved the most amongst all the lands he have travelled and seen. Tagore was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize.
Now, an International figure, Tagore would spread his experiences and teachings more broadly and in person. His travels to the West would take him to Berlin where he would meet with Einstein in 1939.
Back in India, Tagore's greatest tribute to the Motherland was his writing and composing of the nation's National Anthem. Jana Gana Mana was first sung on the 27th of December, 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress and adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24th of January, 1950. The complete song consists of five stanzas of which the first stanza is the full version of the national Anthem. The playing time of the full version is 52 seconds. A short version consisting of the first and last lines of the stanza is played on certain occasions.
The playing time for this version is 20 seconds. Tagore would first write Jana Gana Mana in Bengali and later translated it.
His message to the West was the dream of generations before him in their never ending mission to combine traditional Indian Culture with Western ideas. Tagore's mission would become the very mission of our today's generation whereby some 20 million Indians live outside India and with each passing day we continue to blend our Culture with that of our new and adopted country.
After the English language publication of Gitanjali in 1912, Tagore's work would remain extremely popular throughout the Western world for more than 2 decades. Today, his work remains a canvas of treasure that ignites great curiousity when referring to Indian poetry, music, literature, arts and culture.
Musically yours,
- the Music Merchant
Rohit Jagessar
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