Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore Birth: 25 Baishakh 1268/ 7 May 1861. Death: 22 Shravan 1348/ 7 August 1941. Place of birth and death: the ancestral home Jorasanko, Calcutta. A great literary genius, Tagore was a ‘myriad-minded man’ poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, short story writer, lyricist, music composer, singer, actor, painter, philosopher, educationist, editor, social reformer, traveler and what not. The vast corpus of his works include poetry books 65; songs about 2 thousand and 5 hundred; short stories 119; novels 13; plays (poetic drama, prose drama, dance drama and farce) 50; travel books 9; juvenile books 9; paintings: about 2 thousand. Exhibitions of his paintings were held many times at home and abroad (in Paris, 1930 and in Bombay, 1933). Composer of the national anthems of both Bangladesh and India. The first Nobel Prize winner of Asia on 13 November 1913 for the poetry book Gitanjali. University Awards: Oxford University of Hibbert speeches in 1930 and D.Litt. in 1940; Calcutta University: D.Litt. in 1913; Jagattarini Gold Medal in 1921; Kamala speeches m 1933; and Ramtanu Lahiri Professor 1932- 34; Dacca University: D.Litt. in 1936; Hindu University, Kashi: D.Litt. in 1935; and Andhra University: Krishnasami speeches in 1933. Stay in Shilaidaha, Shajadpur and Patisar in Bangladesh for looking after landlordism: mainly in the last decade of 19th century and erratically in the first and the second decades of 20th century. Arrival in Dacea: attended a Provincial Conference (1898). Delivered lecture at Dacca University (1926). Established Brahmacharashram in Santiniketan: December 1901. Established isuabharati in Santiniketan: December 1921. Established Palligram (rural village) Rebuilding Institution in Sriniketan: 1922. Protest against Bangabhanga (Division of Bengal) in 1905. Rejected the knighthood in protest against Jalianwalabagh killing: 1919. Spent the Nobel Prize money on establishing an agricultural bank in Patisar and on other humanitarian deeds.