|
Rabindranath
Tagore (7 May 1861-7 August 1941)also known
by the sobriquet Gurudev,d[›] was a
Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist, visual
artist, playwright, novelist, and composer
whose works reshaped Bengali literature
and music in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel
laureate[1] when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize
in Literature.
A Pirali Brahmin (a ".. supposed stigma",
".. formed a party for degrading them",
".. orthodox kind relying on hearsay
for their facts") from Calcutta, Bengal,
Tagore first wrote poems at the age of eight.
At the age of sixteen, he published his
first substantial poetry under the pseudonym
Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and
wrote his first short stories and dramas
in 1877. In later life Tagore protested
strongly against the British Raj and gave
his support to the Indian Independence Movement.
Tagore's life work endures, in the form
of his poetry and the institution he founded,
Visva-Bharati University.
Tagore wrote novels, short stories, songs,
dance-dramas, and essays on political and
personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings),
Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The
Home and the World) are among his best-known
works. His verse, short stories, and novels,
which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism,
colloquial language, meditative naturalism,
and philosophical contemplation, received
worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural
reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali
art by rejecting strictures binding it to
classical Indian forms. Two songs from his
canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh
and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the
Jana Gana Mana respectively.
Early life (1861-1901)
Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was
born the youngest of thirteen surviving
children in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta
(now Kolkata, India) of parents Debendranath
Tagore and Sarada Devi.e The Tagore family
were the Brahmo founding fathers of the
Adi Dharm faith. After undergoing his upanayan
at age eleven, Tagore and his father left
Calcutta on 14 February 1873 to tour India
for several months, visiting his father's
Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before
reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie.
There, Tagore read biographies, studied
history, astronomy, modern science, and
Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry
of Kalidasa. In 1877, he rose to notability
when he composed several works, including
a long poem set in the Maithili style pioneered
by Vidyapati. As a joke, he maintained that
these were the lost works of Bhanusi?ha,
a newly discovered 17th-century Vai??ava
poet. He also wrote "Bhikharini"
(1877; "The Beggar Woman"-the
Bengali language's first short story) and
Sandhya Sangit (1882) -including the famous
poem "Nirjharer
Seeking to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled
at a public school in Brighton, England
in 1878. He studied law at University College
London, but returned to Bengal in 1880 without
a degree. On 9 December 1883 he married
Mrinalini Devi (born Bhabatarini, 1873-1900);
they had five children, two of whom later
died before reaching adulthood. In 1890,
Tagore began managing his family's estates
in Shilaidaha, a region now in Bangladesh;
he was joined by his wife and children in
1898. Known as "Zamindar Babu",
Tagore traveled across the vast estate while
living out of the family's luxurious barge,
the Padma, to collect (mostly token) rents
and bless villagers; in return, appreciative
villagers held feasts in his honour. These
years, which composed Tagore's Sadhana period
(1891-1895; named for one of Tagore's magazines),
were among his most fecund. During this
period, more than half the stories of the
three-volume and eighty-four-story Galpaguchchha
were written. With irony and emotional weight,
they depicted a wide range of Bengali lifestyles,
particularly village life.
Shantiniketan (1901-1932)
In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved
to Santiniketan (West Bengal) to found an
ashram, which would grow to include a marble-floored
prayer hall ("The Mandir"), an
experimental school, groves of trees, gardens,
and a library. There, Tagore's wife and
two of his children died. His father died
on 19 January 1905, and he began receiving
monthly payments as part of his inheritance.
He received additional income from the Maharaja
of Tripura, sales of his family's jewellery,
his seaside bungalow in Puri, and mediocre
royalties (Rs. 2,000) from his works. By
now, his work was gaining him a large following
among Bengali and foreign readers alike,
and he published such works as Naivedya
(1901) and Kheya (1906) while translating
his poems into free verse. On 14 November
1913, Tagore learned that he had won the
1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. According
to the Swedish Academy, it was given due
to the idealistic and-for Western readers-accessible
nature of a small body of his translated
material, including the 1912 Gitanjali:
Song Offerings. In 1915, Tagore received
the knighthood from the British Crown. But
as a mark of rebuke to the rulers, post
the Jalianwalabagh massacre in 1919, he
renounced the title.
In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist
Leonard Elmhirst set up the Institute for
Rural Reconstruction (which Tagore later
renamed Shriniketan-"Abode of Wealth")
in Surul, a village near the ashram at Santiniketan.
Through it, Tagore sought to provide an
alternative to Gandhi's symbol- and protest-based
Swaraj movement, which he denounced. He
recruited scholars, donors, and officials
from many countries to help the Institute
use schooling to "free village[s] from
the shackles of helplessness and ignorance"
by "vitaliz[ing] knowledge". In
the early 1930s, he also grew more concerned
about India's "abnormal caste consciousness"
and untouchability, lecturing on its evils,
writing poems and dramas with untouchable
protagonists, and appealing to authorities
at the Guruvayoor Temple to admit Dalits.
Twilight years (1932-1941)
In his last decade, Tagore remained in the
public limelight, publicly upbraiding Gandhi
for stating that a massive 15 January 1934
earthquake in Bihar constituted divine retribution
for the subjugation of Dalits. He also mourned
the incipient socioeconomic decline of Bengal
and the endemic poverty of Calcutta; he
detailed the latter in an unrhymed hundred-line
poem whose technique of searing double-vision
would foreshadow Satyajit Ray's film Apur
Sansar. Tagore also compiled fifteen volumes
of writings, including the prose-poems works
Punashcha (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and
Patraput (1936). He continued his experimentations
by developing prose-songs and dance-dramas,
including Chitrangada (1914), Shyama (1939),
and Chandalika (1938), and wrote the novels
Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), and Char
Adhyay (1934). Tagore took an interest in
science in his last years, writing Visva-Parichay
(a collection of essays) in 1937. His exploration
of biology, physics, and astronomy impacted
his poetry, which often contained extensive
naturalism that underscored his respect
for scientific laws. He also wove the process
of science (including narratives of scientists)
into many stories contained in such volumes
as Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa
(1941).
Tagore's last four years were marked by
chronic pain and two long periods of illness.
These began when Tagore lost consciousness
in late 1937; he remained comatose and near
death for an extended period. This was followed
three years later in late 1940 by a similar
spell, from which he never recovered. The
poetry Tagore wrote in these years is among
his finest, and is distinctive for its preoccupation
with death. After extended suffering, Tagore
died on 7 August 1941 (22 Shravan 1348)
in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion
in which he was raised; his death anniversary
is still mourned in public functions held
across the Bengali-speaking world.
Travels
Owing to his notable wanderlust, between
1878 and 1932, Tagore visited more than
thirty countries on five continents; many
of these trips were crucial in familiarising
non-Indian audiences to his works and spreading
his political ideas. In 1912, he took a
sheaf of his translated works to England,
where they impressed missionary and Gandhi
protégé Charles F. Andrews,
Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Ezra
Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas
Sturge Moore, and others. Indeed, Yeats
wrote the preface to the English translation
of Gitanjali, while Andrews joined Tagore
at Santiniketan. On 10 November 1912, Tagore
toured the United States and the United
Kingdom, staying in Butterton, Staffordshire
with Andrews' clergymen friends. From 3
May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore went on
lecturing circuits in Japan and the United
States, during which he denounced nationalism-particularly
that of the Japanese and Americans. He also
wrote the essay "Nationalism in India",
attracting both derision and praise (the
latter from pacifists, including Romain
Rolland). Shortly after returning to India,
the 63-year-old Tagore visited Peru at the
invitation of the Peruvian government, and
took the opportunity to visit Mexico as
well. Both governments pledged donations
of $100,000 to the school at Shantiniketan
(Visva-Bharati) in commemoration of his
visits. A week after his November 6, 1924
arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an ill
Tagore moved into the Villa Miralrío
at the behest of Victoria Ocampo. He left
for India in January 1925. On 30 May 1926,
Tagore reached Naples, Italy; he met fascist
dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome the next
day. Their initially warm rapport lasted
until Tagore spoke out against Mussolini
on 20 July 1926
On 14 July 1927, Tagore and two companions
began a four-month tour of Southeast Asia,
visiting Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca,
Penang, Siam, and Singapore. Tagore's travelogues
from the tour were collected into the work
"Jatri". In early 1930 he left
Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of Europe
and the United States. Once he returned
to the UK, while his paintings were being
exhibited in Paris and London, he stayed
at a Friends settlement in Birmingham. There,
he wrote his Hibbert Lectures for the University
of Oxford (which dealt with the "idea
of the humanity of our God, or the divinity
of Man the Eternal") and spoke at London's
annual Quaker gathering. There (addressing
relations between the British and Indians,
a topic he would grapple with over the next
two years), Tagore spoke of a "dark
chasm of aloofness". He later visited
Aga Khan III, stayed at Dartington Hall,
then toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany
from June to mid-September 1930, then the
Soviet Union. Lastly, in April 1932, Tagore-who
was acquainted with the legends and works
of the Persian mystic Hafez-was invited
as a personal guest of Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi
of Iran. Such extensive travels allowed
Tagore to interact with many notable contemporaries,
including Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein,
Robert Frost, Thomas Mann, George Bernard
Shaw, H.G. Wells and Romain Rolland. Tagore's
last travels abroad, including visits to
Persia and Iraq (in 1932) and Ceylon in
1933, only sharpened his opinions regarding
human divisions and nationalism
Works
Tagore's Bengali-language initials are worked
into this "Ra-Tha" wooden seal,
which bears close stylistic similarity to
designs used in traditional Haida carvings.
Tagore often embellished his manuscripts
with such art. (Dyson 2001)
Tagore's literary reputation is disproportionately
influenced by regard for his poetry; however,
he also wrote novels, essays, short stories,
travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs.
Of Tagore's prose, his short stories are
perhaps most highly regarded; indeed, he
is credited with originating the Bengali-language
version of the genre. His works are frequently
noted for their rhythmic, optimistic, and
lyrical nature. Such stories mostly borrow
from deceptively simple subject matter:
the lives of ordinary people.
Novels and non-fiction
Tagore wrote eight novels and four novellas,
including Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, Char
Odhay, and Noukadubi. Ghare Baire (The Home
and the World)-through the lens of the idealistic
zamindar protagonist Nikhil-excoriates rising
Indian nationalism, terrorism, and religious
zeal in the Swadeshi movement; a frank expression
of Tagore's conflicted sentiments, it emerged
out of a 1914 bout of depression. Indeed,
the novel bleakly ends with Hindu-Muslim
sectarian violence and Nikhil's being (probably
mortally) wounded. In some sense, Gora shares
the same theme, raising controversial questions
regarding the Indian identity. As with Ghore
Baire, matters of self-identity (jati),
personal freedom, and religion are developed
in the context of a family story and love
triangle. Another powerful story is Jogajog
(Relationships), where the heroine Kumudini-bound
by the ideals of Shiva-Sati, exemplified
by Dakshayani-is torn between her pity for
the sinking fortunes of her progressive
and compassionate elder brother and his
foil: her exploitative, rakish, and patriarchical
husband. In it, Tagore demonstrates his
feminist leanings, using pathos to depict
the plight and ultimate demise of Bengali
women trapped by pregnancy, duty, and family
honour; simultaneously, he treats the decline
of Bengal's landed oligarchy.
Other novels were more uplifting: Shesher
Kobita (translated twice-Last Poem and Farewell
Song) is his most lyrical novel, with poems
and rhythmic passages written by the main
character (a poet). It also contains elements
of satire and postmodernism; stock characters
gleefully attack the reputation of an old,
outmoded, oppressively renowned poet who,
incidentally, goes by the name of Rabindranath
Tagore. Though his novels remain among the
least-appreciated of his works, they have
been given renewed attention via film adaptations
by such directors as Satyajit Ray; these
include Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire; many
have soundtracks featuring selections from
Tagore's own [[Rabindra sangeet. Tagore
wrote many non-fiction books, writing on
topics ranging from Indian history to linguistics.
Aside from autobiographical works, his travelogues,
essays, and lectures were compiled into
several volumes, including Iurop Jatrir
Patro (Letters from Europe) and Manusher
Dhormo (The Religion of Man).
Music and artwork
Tagore was a prolific musician and painter,
writing around 2,230 songs. They comprise
rabindrasangit, now an integral part of
Bengali culture. Tagore's music is inseparable
from his literature, most of which-poems
or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike-became
lyrics for his songs. Primarily influenced
by the thumri style of Hindustani classical
music, they ran the entire gamut of human
emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like
Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic
compositions.
They emulated the tonal color of classical
ragas to varying extents. Though at times
his songs mimicked a given raga's melody
and rhythm faithfully, he also blended elements
of different ragas to create innovative
works.
For Bengalis, their appeal, stemming from
the combination of emotive strength and
beauty described as surpassing even Tagore's
poetry, was such that the Modern Review
observed that "[t]here is in Bengal
no cultured home where Rabindranath's songs
are not sung or at least attempted to be
sung ... Even illiterate villagers sing
his songs". Music critic Arthur Strangways
of The Observer first introduced non-Bengalis
to rabindrasangeet with his book The Music
of Hindostan, which described it as a "vehicle
of a personality ... [that] go behind this
or that system of music to that beauty of
sound which all systems put out their hands
to seize." Among them are Bangladesh's
national anthem Amar Shonar Bangla and India's
national anthem Jana Gana Mana; Tagore thus
became the only person ever to have written
the national anthems of two nations. In
turn, rabindrasangeet influenced the styles
of such musicians as sitar maestro Vilayat
Khan, and the sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta
and Amjad Ali Khan
At age sixty, Tagore took up drawing and
painting; successful exhibitions of his
many works-which made a debut appearance
in Paris upon encouragement by artists he
met in the south of France-were held throughout
Europe. Tagore-who likely exhibited protanopia
("color blindness"), or partial
lack of (red-green, in Tagore's case) colour
discernment-painted in a style characterised
by peculiarities in aesthetics and colouring
schemes. Nevertheless, Tagore took to emulating
numerous styles, including that of craftwork
by the Malanggan people of northern New
Ireland, Haida carvings from the west coast
of Canada (British Columbia), and woodcuts
by Max Pechstein. Tagore also had an artist's
eye for his own handwriting, embellishing
the scribbles, cross-outs, and word layouts
in his manuscripts with simple artistic
leitmotifs, including simple rhythmic designs.
Theatrical pieces
Tagore's experience in theatre began at
age sixteen, when he played the lead role
in his brother Jyotirindranath's adaptation
of Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.
At age twenty, he wrote his first drama-opera-Valmiki
Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki)-which describes
how the bandit Valmiki reforms his ethos,
is blessed by Saraswati, and composes the
Ramayana. Through it, Tagore vigorously
explores a wide range of dramatic styles
and emotions, including usage of revamped
kirtans and adaptation of traditional English
and Irish folk melodies as drinking songs.
Another notable play, Dak Ghar (The Post
Office), describes how a child-striving
to escape his stuffy confines-ultimately
"fall[s] asleep" (which suggests
his physical death). A story with worldwide
appeal (it received rave reviews in Europe),
Dak Ghar dealt with death as, in Tagore's
words, "spiritual freedom" from
"the world of hoarded wealth and certified
creeds".
His other works-emphasizing fusion of lyrical
flow and emotional rhythm tightly focused
on a core idea-were unlike previous Bengali
dramas. His works sought to articulate,
in Tagore's words, "the play of feeling
and not of action". In 1890 he wrote
Visarjan (Sacrifice), regarded as his finest
drama. The Bengali-language originals included
intricate subplots and extended monologues.
Later, his dramas probed more philosophical
and allegorical themes; these included Dak
Ghar. Another is Tagore's Chandalika (Untouchable
Girl), which was modeled on an ancient Buddhist
legend describing how Ananda-the Gautama
Buddha's disciple-asks water of an Adivasi
("untouchable") girl. Lastly,
among his most famous dramas is Raktakaravi
(Red Oleanders), which tells of a kleptocratic
king who enriches himself by forcing his
subjects to mine. The heroine, Nandini,
eventually rallies the common people to
destroy these symbols of subjugation. Tagore's
other plays include Chitrangada, Raja, and
Mayar Khela. Dance dramas based on Tagore's
plays are commonly referred to as rabindra
nritya natyas.
Short stories
Tagore's "Sadhana" period, comprising
the four years from 1891 to 1895, was named
for one of Tagore's magazines. This period
was among Tagore 's most fecund, yielding
more than half the stories contained in
the three-volume Galpaguchchha, which itself
is a collection of eighty-four stories.
Such stories usually showcase Tagore's reflections
upon his surroundings, on modern and fashionable
ideas, and on interesting mind puzzles (which
Tagore was fond of testing his intellect
with). Tagore typically associated his earliest
stories (such as those of the "Sadhana"
period) with an exuberance of vitality and
spontaneity; these characteristics were
intimately connected with Tagore's life
in the common villages of, among others,
Patisar, Shajadpur, and Shilaida while managing
the Tagore family's vast landholdings. There,
he beheld the lives of India's poor and
common people; Tagore thereby took to examining
their lives with a penetrative depth and
feeling that was singular in Indian literature
up to that point.
In "The Fruitseller from Kabul",
Tagore speaks in first person as town-dweller
and novelist who chances upon the Afghani
seller. He attempts to distil the sense
of longing felt by those long trapped in
the mundane and hardscrabble confines of
Indian urban life, giving play to dreams
of a different existence in the distant
and wild mountains: "There were autumn
mornings, the time of year when kings of
old went forth to conquest; and I, never
stirring from my little corner in Calcutta,
would let my mind wander over the whole
world. At the very name of another country,
my heart would go out to it ... I would
fall to weaving a network of dreams: the
mountains, the glens, the forest .... ".
Many of the other Galpaguchchha stories
were written in Tagore's Sabuj Patra period
(1914-1917; also named for one of Tagore's
magazines).
Tagore's Golpoguchchho (Bunch of Stories)
remains among Bengali literature's most
popular fictional works, providing subject
matter for many successful films and theatrical
plays. Satyajit Ray's film Charulata was
based upon Tagore's controversial novella,
Nastanirh (The Broken Nest). In Atithi (also
made into a film), the young Brahmin boy
Tarapada shares a boat ride with a village
zamindar. The boy reveals that he has run
away from home, only to wander around ever
since. Taking pity, the zamindar adopts
him and ultimately arranges his marriage
to the zamindar's own daughter. However,
the night before the wedding, Tarapada runs
off-again. Strir Patra (The Letter from
the Wife) is among Bengali literature's
earliest depictions of the bold emancipation
of women. The heroine Mrinal, the wife of
a typical patriarchical Bengali middle class
man, writes a letter while she is traveling
(which constitutes the whole story). It
details the pettiness of her life and struggles;
she finally declares that she will not return
to her husband's home with the statement
Amio bachbo. Ei bachlum ("And I shall
live. Here, I live").
In Haimanti, Tagore takes on the institution
of Hindu marriage, describing the dismal
lifelessness of married Bengali women, hypocrisies
plaguing the Indian middle classes, and
how Haimanti, a sensitive young woman, must-due
to her sensitiveness and free spirit-sacrifice
her life. In the last passage, Tagore directly
attacks the Hindu custom of glorifying Sita's
attempted self-immolation as a means of
appeasing her husband Rama's doubts. Tagore
also examines Hindu-Muslim tensions in Musalmani
Didi, which in many ways embodies the essence
of Tagore's humanism. On the other hand,
Darpaharan exhibits Tagore's self-consciousness,
describing a young man harboring literary
ambitions. Though he loves his wife, he
wishes to stifle her own literary career,
deeming it unfeminine. Tagore himself, in
his youth, seems to have harbored similar
ideas about women. Darpaharan depicts the
final humbling of the man via his acceptance
of his wife's talents. As many other Tagore
stories, Jibito o Mrito provides the Bengalis
with one of their more widely used epigrams:
Kadombini moriya proman korilo she more
nai ("Kadombini died, thereby proved
that she hadn't").
Poetry
Tagore's poetry-which varied in style from
classical formalism to the comic, visionary,
and ecstatic-proceeds out a lineage established
by 15th- and 16th-century Vai??ava poets.
Tagore was also influenced by the mysticism
of the rishi-authors who-including Vyasa-wrote
the Upanishads, the Bhakta-Sufi mystic Kabir,
and Ramprasad.[65] Yet Tagore's poetry became
most innovative and mature after his exposure
to rural Bengal's folk music, which included
ballads sung by Baul folk singers-especially
the bard Lalan Sah. These-which were rediscovered
and popularised by Tagore-resemble 19th-century
Kartabhaja hymns that emphasize inward divinity
and rebellion against religious and social
orthodoxy. During his Shilaidaha years,
his poems took on a lyrical quality, speaking
via the maner manus (the Bauls' "man
within the heart") or meditating upon
the jivan devata ("living God within").
This figure thus sought connection with
divinity through appeal to nature and the
emotional interplay of human drama. Tagore
used such techniques in his Bhanusi?ha poems
(which chronicle the romance between Radha
and Krishna), which he repeatedly revised
over the course of seventy years.
Later, Tagore responded to the (mostly)
crude emergence of modernism and realism
in Bengali literature by writing experimental
works in the 1930s. Examples works include
Africa and Camalia, which are among the
better known of his latter poems. He also
occasionally wrote poems using Shadhu Bhasha
(a Sanskritised dialect of Bengali); later,
he began using Cholti Bhasha (a more popular
dialect). Other notable works include Manasi,
Sonar Tori (Golden Boat), Balaka (Wild Geese-the
title being a metaphor for migrating souls),
and Purobi. Sonar Tori's most famous poem-dealing
with the ephemeral nature of life and achievement-goes
by the same name; it ends with the haunting
phrase ("Shunno nodir tire rohinu pori
/ Jaha chhilo loe gêlo shonar tori"-"all
I had achieved was carried off on the golden
boat-only I was left behind."). Internationally,
Gitanjali is Tagore's best-known collection,
winning him his Nobel Prize.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/
|
