Hello All members are requested not to post such off-topic messages on the list.
Please don't force me to take action. Harish. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Srinivas Karnati" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 6:02 PM Subject: [AI] today is the 150th birth anniversary of rabindhranath tagore > today is the 150th birth anniversary of rabindhranath tagore > > Greatest writer in modern Indian literature, Bengali poet, novelist, > educator, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore was awarded > the knighthood in 1915, but he surrendered it in 1919 as a protest against > the Massacre of Amritsar, where British troops killed some 400 Indian > demonstrators protesting colonial laws. Tagore's reputation in the West as a > mystic has perhaps mislead his Western readers to ignore his role as a > reformer and critic of colonialism. > > "When one knows thee, then alien there is none, then no door is shut. Oh, > grant me my prayer that I may never lose touch of the one in the play of the > many." (from Gitanjali) > > Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta in a wealthy and prominent Brahman > family. His father was Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, a religious reformer > and scholar. His mother Sarada Devi, died when he was very young - her body > carried through a gate to a place where it was burned and it was the moment > when he realized that she will never come back. Tagore's grandfather had > established a huge financial empire for himself, and financed public > projects, such as Calcutta Medical College. The Tagores were pioneers of > Bengal Renaissance and tried to combine traditional Indian culture with and > Western ideas. However, in My Reminiscenes Tagore mentions that it was not > until the age of ten when he started to use socks and shoes. Servants beat > the children regularly. All the children contributed significantly to > Bengali literature and culture. Tagore, the youngest, started to compose > poems at the age of eight. He received his early education first from tutors > and then at a variety of schools. Among them were Bengal Academy where he > studied Bengali history and culture, and University College, London, where > he studied law but left after a year without completing his studies. Tagore > did not like the weather. Once he gave a beggar a gold coin - it was more > than the beggar had expected and he returned it. In England Tagore started > to compose the poem Bhagna Hridaj (a broken heart). > > In 1883 Tagore married Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri, with whom he had two > sons and three daughters. He moved to East Bengal in 1890. His first book, a > collection of poems, appeared when he was 17; it was published by Tagore's > friend who wanted to surprise him. In East Bengal (now Bangladesh) he > collected local legends and folklore and wrote seven volumes of poetry > between 1893 and 1900, including Sonar Tari (The Golden Boat), 1894 and > Khanika, 1900. This was highly productive period in Tagore's life, and > earned him the rather misleading epitaph 'The Bengali Shelley.' More > important was that Tagore wrote in the common language of the people and > abandoned the ancient for of the Indian language. This also was something > that was hard to accept among his critics and scholars. > > In 1901 Tagore founded a school outside Calcutta, Visva-Bharati, which was > dedicated to emerging Western and Indian philosophy and education. It became > a University in 1921. He produced poems, novels, stories, a history of > India, textbooks, and treatises on pedagogy. His wife died in 1902, followed > in 1903 by the death of one of his daughters and in 1907 his younger son. > > > > Tagore's reputation as a writer was established in the United States and in > England after the publication of Gitanjali: Song Offerings, in which Tagore > tried to find inner calm and explored the themes of divine and human love. > The poems were translated into English by Tagore himself. His cosmic visions > owed much to the lyric tradition of Vaishnava Hinduism and its concepts > about the relationship between man and God. The poems appeared in 1912 with > an introduction by William Butler Yates, who wrote "These lyrics - which are > in the original, my Indians tell me, full of subtlety of rhythm, of > untranslatable delicacies of colour, of metrical invention - display in > their thought a world I have dreamed of all my life long." His poems were > praised by Ezra Pound, and drew the attention of the Nobel Prize committee. > "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." (Ezra Pound in Fortnightly > Review, 1 March 1913) However, Tagore also experimented with poetic forms > and these works have lost much in translations into other languages. > Especially Tagore's short stories influenced deeply Indian Literature, and > he was the first Indian to bring an element of psychological realism to his > novels. Tagore wrote his most important works in Bengali, but he translated > his poems into English, forming new collections. Many of his poems are > actually songs, and inseparable from their music. His written production, > still not completely collected, fill 26 substantial volumes. At the age of > 70 Tagore took up painting. He was also a composer, settings hundreds of > poems to music. Tagore's song Sonar Bangla Our Golden Bengal became the > national anthem of Bangladesh. He was an early advocate of Independence for > India and his influence over Gandhi and the founders of modern India was > enormous. > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
