Written by Mantsha, a grade 10 student

Rabindranath Tagore was one of the most significant people in India.

Here’s a brief history of the great poet, scholar, and writer.

Rabindranath Tagore was born on the 7^th of May in 1861 at Calcutta (Kolkata). He was not only a poet but a great philosopher, patriot, humanist, educationist, composer, and painter too. In those times people used the word ‘Gurudev’ to regard him. His father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore was a leader of Brahmo Samaj and his mother’s name was Sarda Devi.

Since his childhood, he had a great interest in literature and writing, so he started to write poems at an early age. He wrote hundreds of poems, songs, dramas, acts, essays, etc.

In his school life, Tagore didn’t like the way teachers used to teach students inside a room. He wanted to study with the open sky under the trees so he pursued his studies with private tutors and for higher studies; he went to England in 1878.

He went to England to study law there but he came back to India without completing his studies. He came back because he wanted to fulfill his passion.

Rabindranath’s Shantiniketan

To further his methods of teaching and learning, Rabindranath Tagore established a school in Bolpur, Bengal, and named it Shantiniketan. It was an open place so the teachers used to take classes under the trees with open blue sky. In Shantiniketan, the Gurukul pattern of teaching was followed. Gurukul was an education system in the ancient time of India where students used to live with their Guru (teachers).

Later on, the school was converted into a college and then a university named “Visva-Bharati”. Even now people from all over the world come to study here.

Rabindranath Tagore’s rich base of work includes some very popular names like the famous poem Gitanjali; moving stories like Chokher Bali, Gora, Kabuliwallah, Shesher Kabita, and many more.

Some interesting facts about Rabindranath Tagore

• He was the first non-European to win a literature Nobel prize.
• Apart from the national anthem of India, he also wrote “Amar sonar Bangla” for Bangladesh and he also inspired the national anthem for Sri Lanka “Sri Lanka matha.”
•  In 2004 his Nobel Prize was stolen from Visva-Bharti University but later the Swedish academy presented him with replicas of the Nobel Prize; one was of gold and the other one was of bronze.
  
  On 7 August 1941 Rabindranath Tagore left us and we lost an extraordinary gem of our nation. He has left behind a great collection of work that he did all his life for us to remember him. To mark his significance Rabindra Jayanti is celebrated every year on the 25th day of the Bengali month of Boishakh or Pochishe Boishakh – as it is known in Bengali.

Want to write for us? We publish children’s writing Click Here