500+ Words Essay on Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore, also famous as Gurudev, was born on 7th May 1861 in Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta (India). His full name was Rabindranath Thakur. Tagore Ji was a great thinker, reformer, patriot, poet, novelist, philosopher, playwright, cultural leader, and humanist.
During the First World War in 1857, Indian people were, unfortunately, becoming foolish and also aping the ways of the west. They hardly had any hope to alive. Since Tagore was a cultural ambassador of India, he took a step ahead and raised voice for the country and also started spreading the knowledge of Indian culture across the world.
Rabindranath Tagore Family Background
Rabindranath Tagore was born in an orthodox and wealthy Brahmin family. Debendranath Tagore was his father. Sarada Devi was his mother who died when he was just fourteen years old. After her death, he was served by servants as his father was usually on tours. He was the youngest child of his parents.
Dwijendranath was his eldest brother, who was a philosopher and a poet. Satyendranath, who was his another brother, had excellent intellectual skills. Swarnakumari was his sister, who was a very well-known novelist. Tagore Ji got inspirations from his sisters and brothers. His siblings trained him to the most in the areas like martial arts, gymnastics, anatomy, art, history, mathematics, and literature.
The fact, as a child, he didn’t like to go to school. Thus, his siblings made him educated initially. He began to write at the age of eight years only. He also took part in the Bengal renaissance wherein his family was actively participated.
In the year 1873, with his father, he toured the country for a long time where he accumulated knowledge on different subjects. During his travelling, he also stayed at Amritsar, Punjab, where he learned about Sikhism. Later, he penned down about the knowledge he gained there.
Education Background
Tagore learned the basic of his education at home. For his early education, he was approached by a home tutor. Later, he went to England to pursue his higher studies to fulfil his father’s dream of becoming a barrister. However, he discontinued his studies in between as he did not want to learn from school.
Then he took admission in the University College in London to learn the law. However, once again, he also dropped this option. But he learned about the work of Shakespeare on his own along with learning about the essence of Irish, English, Scottish literature and music. Then he came back to India.
Marriage and Children
Tagore got married to Mrinalini Devi at the age of 10 years only. Mrinalini Devi was a translator who was just nine years at her marriage. The couple was blessed with three daughters and two sons.
Establishment of Shantiniketan
Rabindranath Tagore’s father suggested the Shantiniketan. Debendranath Tagore set up an Ashram in 1863 and Tagore established an open-air school there, where also had a prayer hall named as Mandir. Patha Bhavana was another name of that Mandir where initially five students were admitted.
To teach at Patha Bhavana, Guru-Shishya’s method used to arise the modern education system. Eventually, all of his efforts towards the Shantiniketan recognized all over the world and he was called by Asian where he was honoured with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature that made him become Asia’s first Nobel laureate. Today, Shantiniketan is considered as a remarkable university in West Bengal.
Works of Rabindranath Tagore
During his lifetime, Tagore wrote many novels, poems, and short stories. He started writing at a very young age. Some of his famous literary includes;
Short stories: Tagore started to write short stories when he was in his teenage. His first short story was ‘Bhikharini’. In his short stories, he used to capture those moments that were reflecting in his life. Besides, he also highlighted social issues and problems suffered by the poorer at the time.
He also shed light on matters regarding Hindu marriages and other customs. Some of his well-known short stories are ‘Kshudita Pashan’, ‘Atottju’, ‘Musalmanir Golpo’, ‘Kabuliwala’ and ‘Haimanti’.
Novels: The fact is, his novels are always unappreciated as having a unique style of narrating a story that is daunting to comprehend by traditional readers. His novels revealed about the impending dangers of nationalism in between other reliable social evils. Some of his famous novels are Gora, Ghare Baire, Naukadubi, Jogajog, and Chaturanga.
Poems: Tagore got his inspiration to write poetry from the ancient poets like Ramprasad Sen and Kabir. In poetry, he did infuse not only his thoughts but also highlighted the works done by the ancient Indian poets. Surprisingly, he wrote a poem in 1893 where he addressed a future poet on his name. Some of his famous poems are Purobi, Balaka, Gitanjali, and Sonar Tori.
Rabindranath Tagore also wrote several dramas that were based on Indian mythology along with traditional social issues. When he was 20 years old, with his brother, he began writing dramas. He penned down, one of the famous dramas- Valmiki Pratibha where he also played a character known a ‘Titular’.
Jana Gana Mana’ is the national anthem of India that was written by the Rabindranath Tagore in the honour of the Queen of England and King George V when they visited India in 1919.
Adaptations of his work
Renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray was made his famous short stories and novels into films. Besides, other filmmakers also used his novel and stories to narrate in their movies. Thirty-nine of his stories were converted into films by different directors. Some were used to describe in TV series. Some of Tagore’s famous movie adaptations are Jogajog, Tasher Desh, Shesher Kabita, Detective, and Postmaster.
Death of Rabindranath Tagore
In the last four years of life, Rabindranath Tagore was in constant pain. In the year 1937, Tagore was gone into a comatose (unconscious) condition that became worse after three years. After some more years of suffering of pain, he died on 7th August 1941 in the same place (Jorasanko Mansion) where he was brought up. The loss of this great personality is unrecoverable for India.
Famous Quotes by Rabindranath Tagore
- Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
- Grey hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue, speak and they are but hairs, as in the young.
- The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough.
- We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.
- I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold; service was a joy.
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