Who is he? Why is he so important to us? What could he possibly have done for us to love him, worship him and his work so much? So, this is for all the people like me who don’t know much about this beautiful, talented, gifted human being.

Ok, shall we start from the very beginning, shall we?

Mr. Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7th, 1861, in the Jorasanko Thakurbari, which is located in Kolkata, India, and was the youngest of seven sisters and six brothers. For those of you who don’t know what Jorasanko Thakurbari is, it is the home, or rather the ancestral mansion of the wealthy and very famous Tagore family.

The Tagore family, even before Rabindranath became who he is now known as, were one of the wealthiest families in Kolkata. Some even say, the Tagore family might’ve been one of the leading families in Kolkata at this period of time. Despite saying this, Rabindranath Tagore, hands off, is and was the most famous and renowned out of all of his family members.

But what exactly did the Tagore family do in order to be one of the leading families in the whole of Kolkata? Keep in mind, during this time, Kolkata was the capital of India (Kolkata was the capital of India from 1772-1911).

Rabindranath was and is known for his literary works, but what many don’t know is that he came from a background in which most of his family members were interested in literature and generally were on the more artistic side.

One of the main reasons why the Tagore family was famous even before Rabindranath Tagore was born was due to the wealth they had and the power they held over others.

Rabindranath came from a line of successful people, but one person that I want to mention is Dwarkanath Tagore. In my opinion, Dwarkanath, Rabindranath’s grandfather is the reason why their family started to become wealthy and famous.

Dwarkanath carved the path out for both his son and grandson to follow. Nonetheless, Rabindranath is and was a very talented individual, although, if his grandfather hadn’t carved this path out for him, perhaps his journey would’ve been different in many ways.

Who knows, if it weren’t for his grandfather, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to flourish the way he did in his career in literature. Or perhaps, he would’ve needed to go through more hardships, without the status that he had.

Dwarkanath Tagore, born in 1794 and died in 1846, was a successful businessman. He was a pioneering entrepreneur. Definition: “Pioneers in that they innovate new products/services, create new processes, open new markets, or organise new industries.” (https://www.sciencedirect.com )

He was also in fact one of the first Indian industrialists who joined their hands with the British, in order to collaborate with them. In terms of business.

Dwarkanath, over the years, was a part of many different types of work. The list below are just a few examples of them:

  • Banking
  • Shipping companies
  • Insurance

In addition to all of this, the Tagore family was always very appreciative of arts (in general), education, social reforms etc. In fact, Rabindranath throughout his childhood, lived in an environment in which music was appreciated.

The Tagore family had well experienced and talented classical Hindustani singers coming to their mansion to teach the kids music every week. Apart from this, there were regular musical performances taking place at the Thakurbari.

Not only did classical singing events take place at Jorasanko but also western musical events.

So, to say the least, from Rabi thakur’s childhood and adolescence, he was surrounded with things and topics like music and art, quite often.

The Tagore family’s servants were the ones who took care of Rabindranath during most of his childhood. This is because his mother, Sarada Devi, died when he was just 14 years old. Now, you would wonder, what about his father? What was he during this time? Why couldn’t he take care of his own children?

Well, that was because he, himself, was busy roaming around the world. He was busy living his own life, building his own career, doing what he was passionate about. Which was bringing change into Indian society. Unlike most other leading families in Kolkata at this time, Debendranath, Rabindranath’s father, was in favour of rebellions etc.

Debendranath Tagore, was best known as a philosopher and social reformer.

Debendranath was influenced by his father, Dwarkanath, and Rabindranath was influenced by both his grandfather and father.

At the age of 12, Rabindranath wrote his first piece of poetry, called Abhilasha. He published this poem in the year 1874. The word Abhilasha directly translates to “Desire”.

Just a while after he turned 11, Debendranath, decided to go on a tour of India for the next several months. Quite obviously, he wanted to join his father for this tour of India, and eventually Debendranath actually let him come with him. During this trip with his father, Rabindranath read many biographies , studied history, astronomy, and many more subjects.

During this time, they visited many different places, including Debendranath’s Santiniketan estate, Amritsar, and the beautiful Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie.

On his trip to Amritsar, Rabindranth found himself intrigued by the melodious gurbani and nanak bani, which was being sung in the Golden Temple. Both he and his father were regular visitors of the Golden Temple, which is famous for its full golden dome, and is known as one of the most sacred pilgrimage spots for all sikhs. The Gurbani and nanak bani is a genre of music which is mainly sung in the region of Punjab.

He mentioned this trip to Amritsar in his poem “My reminiscences”-1912. Although this poem was about his journey and his memories from Amritsar, he had written 6 other poems and also a children’s section in a magazine about Sikhism.

In 1877, Rabindranath returned to the Jorasanko and continued writing a set of major literary works. During this same period of time, Debendranath, wanted his son to become a barrister. So, like any other good father would do, he sent his son to Brighton, East Sussex, which is situated in England.

For the next several months Tagore stayed at a house that his family owned in Brighton itself. Less than two years after this incident, Tagore came back to the city of Kolkata, that too without a degree.

Since he came back from England without a degree, he had resorted to accommodating European novelty with Bramhan traditions. Which meant that he was able to get the best of both worlds.

After his return to Kolkata, Tagore regularly published poems, stories and many other literary works, like “Chokher Bali” and “Kabuliwallah”.

In 1883, Tagore got married to his wife Mrinalini Devi, when she was just 9 years old. As odd as it may sound now. This was a common practice during that time, not only in India, but all over the world.

Mrinalini Devi, died at the young age of 28 years. Out of these 28 years, she spent 19 of them as the wife of Rabindranath Tagore. She didn’t have any identity other than being the renowned Rabindranath Tagore’s wife. She spent these 19 years taking care of her husband and children. She was fulfilling her duties to say the least.

Although Mrinalini Devi wasn’t always known as Mrinalini Devi. Before she got married, she was a young and simple girl named Bhabatarini. Her father worked at the Tagore family’s estate and that’s how they met in the first place.

Rabindranath and Bhabatarini Devi got married through Bramhan rituals. After their marriage, Rabindranath gave his wife a new name, Mrinalini. It is speculated that the name Mrinalini is inspired by the name Nalini. Which is the name that Rabindranath ever so lovingly gave to Anna Turkhad. His alleged first love.

As most of you must have deduced by now, Rabindranath was a rather romantic person and allegedly fell in love quite a few times. The instance that I’ve mentioned is just one of the alleged love stories from his life.

Despite saying that, many do think he truly loved his wife a lot, since he never remarried after Mrinalini Devi’s death. Which was caused by a disease that the doctors of that time couldn’t diagnose.

Throughout Mrinalini Devi’s and Rabindranath’s love life, they had 5 children, two of which died at young age due to diseases.

Just a few years after that Rabindranath decided to start managing his vast estates in Sheladaiha. Both his wife and children moved there with him.

Then in the year 1890, Rabindranath released the Manasi Poems which are one of the most famous set of poems which are written by him. For whatever reason he decided that he and his family should move to their Shantiniketan estate in 1901.

4 years after they moved to the Shantiniketan estate, he lost his wife and two of his children. Him losing his wife and two children one after another, definitely left a void in his heart, which perhaps wouldn’t be filled ever again.

The loss of his wife forever changed Rabindranath’s style of artistic writing. Or atleast had a huge impact on it.

Slowly, slowly, Rabindranath started to gain popularity for his literary works. Rabindranath may have practised writing in all literary forms, but the literary form he is most famous for is lyrical poetry. Not only did he gain Bengali followers but also European ones.

In 1910, Rabindranath published his most famous literary piece “Gitanjali”. But what is Gitanjali all about? Gitanjali was a collection of poems that Rabindranath wrote, which he then went on to translate into English in 1912.

While on a trip to London, he shared this collection of poems that he translated into English to his admirers William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pounds. Both of these people, needless to say, were bigshots in literature during this period of time.

London’s “Indian Society” published his work in a limited edition, and also published a selection of the Gitanjali in the Poetry section of the American Magazine.

Merely a year later, in November, Tagore found out that he had won a Nobel Prize for his work Gitanjali in Literature. He won the Nobel Prize for the translation of the Gitanjali.

Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-european and lyricist to ever win a nobel prize. Right after he won a nobel prize the amount of followers he had, started to flourish more than ever before.

He was awarded knighthood in the section of “Services to Literature” by King George V. At the time, Tagore accepted it but eventually decided to renounce his title of knighthood after what went down in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919.

So, in conclusion, Rabindranath was everything. A writer, lyricist, poet, social reformer, composer, and whatnot.

He is also the only person who has written the national anthem for 3 countries. India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

Sadly, we lost this legend on August 7th 1941, at the age of 80.