Rabindranath Tagore: Life of a Legend for Children

The Poet, the genius

The name of Tagore reminds one of a grandfatherly figure ─ a wise old gentleman endowed with a white long beard and the sparkling eyes that look introspectively to the viewer. We are told that this great man composed the National Anthem of India. We get a hint that the bearded man was a music composer or a lyricist. But is that information enough to define Tagore? Not at all. Music composition or song writing was one of the qualities he was gifted with. His personality was a combination of a great many talents that one can hardly have. It was like a magical pot of creations where a multitude of ideas were born and they flowed into reality.

Born in 1861, more than 150 years back in Kolkata, Tagore began his creative journey as a poet, when he was just a teenager. He did not like the system of schooling at his time. He found it monotonous and pressurizing where teacher was not a friend but a ruler. Hence, he left formal schooling after a few months or a year. He was not ambitious for building a career. All this did not matter to a genius like him. His house and his family provided him with the right nourishment that helped him to be what he was. His father, who was a wealthy man and a leader of a religious order, gave him freedom to do whatever he wanted in life. Since his childhood, Tagore was a profound reader and an avid observer. He loved to put into words what he saw in his surroundings and how he perceived that in his mind. What was his gain? From being a poet, who sought rhythms in words and lines, he became a master of multiple literary forms ─ a storywriter, a novelist, a playwright and an essayist. In later years, Tagore also got interested in children's education. He presented a new system of schooling that children would embrace as joy of learning. He would be called “Gurudev” which means a great teacher.

Primarily Tagore wrote in his mother tongue Bengali. That was natural for him to experiment with a language which was his own. But he also took up English to widen his horizon of writing. This happened when he was travelling to Britain on sea. Months of stay on a ship gave him an opportunity to translate some of his own Bengali poems into English. This effort gave birth to the famous book of poetry Gitanjali or Song Offering which was truly an offering to the god with a garland of poems. His English friends were so impressed by the divine essence of those poems that they encouraged others to read them too. It was an instant success. Gitanjali made an unknown poet of India famous in the United Kingdom in a short span of time. This book of poems won him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. This Nobel was highly significant for India as this was the first time a prestigious literature award was conferred on someone from a colonized country, outside the British territory. Also, Tagore’s Nobel was the first Nobel of the continent of Asia. The Indian Poet soon became an international figure. People from different nationalities wanted to interact with him and read his work. His books were translated into different languages across the world. He was invited to deliver lectures in America and Europe where he was congratulated for his literary achievements. Tagore always spoke about his country’s deep-rooted contribution to the world history. He also called for a union of the west’s scientific knowledge and the east’s ancient knowledge system. He believed that union would bring an uplift of the human civilization.

Tagore with a group of his students

But his feet strongly stood on the Indian soil. His literature portrayed the lives of Indian men and women who remained in the darkness of poverty and were pressed under the British colonial rule. Tagore spoke for their agony; he sought a way to bring light to their lives. He realized that it was important to educate our people rightly so they could express themselves and achieve freedom from the foreign rule. He founded a school in a rural corner of Bengal and named it Santiniketan which meant the abode of peace. This school was very unique in its system of imparting education. It did not have any classroom made of brick and cement, but his students took lessons under the peaceful shade of large trees. Tagore firmly believed that nature was the best tutor of man and one could attain maximum knowledge sitting in the lap of nature. This nature-dependent schooling, called Brahmacharya, was practised in ancient India. Tagore also introduced a number of festivals in Santiniketan to celebrate the spirit and glory of nature. That included spring festival or Vasant Utsav, monsoon festival or Varsha Mangal, autumn festival or Sharad Utsav and tree planting ceremony or Van Mahotsav. His students, little boys and girls, felt they were privileged to have studied in a school that celebrated the joy of every changing season. Besides taking lessons in other subjects, they also learnt how to sing and dance in a simple delicate way to express their mind.

Though never trained in painting, Tagore started drawing sketches and landscapes when he was approaching his old age. This new experiment started with correcting his manuscripts with ink and making figures out of the marks. When he visited the European countries, those paintings were exhibited in some European galleries and they were highly admired by art-lovers. One can still enjoy those paintings which are well-preserved in the galleries of Delhi and Santiniketan. The most appreciated and well-known among all his works is his music. Tagore composed around 2500 songs which are considered an integral part of Indian culture and Bengal’s musical tradition. Each of his songs is essentially a poem that reflects his philosophy of man’s relation with others and nature. His poetic words added to music makes an ethereal experience. The tunes he set into his songs were influenced by a wide range of musical traditions, from folk and devotional music to Indian classical, from Carnatic music to Scottish folks, British war music and more. Critics say that Tagore’s songs demand originality and they express different moods that a human mind experiences. The Bengalis living in India, Bangladesh and other parts of the world take his music to their heart and sing them or listen to them in their moments of joy or sorrow.

In his lifetime Tagore became a legend. He was regarded as the unofficial cultural ambassador of India. The world knew India which was unknown to some extent through his towering personality, speech and literary works. He travelled to many countries where people showered their love on him and made him their own. Some of the foreigners who got in touch with him closely joined his work in the school of Santiniketan. To them he was an embodiment of India’s ancient and contemporary knowledge. The freedom fighters sacrificed their precious lives while singing his patriotic songs. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru was so impressed by Tagore’s wisdom and words that he decided one of his songs to be the National Anthem of Independent India. The song “Jana Gana Mana” represents India in its entirety. It evokes the divine driver of India’s past, present and future who controls the destiny of our people.

Tagore passed away in 1941. More than 80 years have passed since then, but his persona and his creative spirit are still looked at in awe. His creations, that include his songs, stories, essays, plays and novels, are still read and cherished by those who adore literature, art and music. His school is still visited by travellers and educationists from different parts of India and the world. His songs are sung on different occasions in India and abroad. Every time we sing our National Anthem we not only extend our respect to the motherland, but also pay our homage to the great literary work done by Tagore.

Published as a tribute to Tagore on his Birth Anniversary

Image source: Getty Images

Painting by Tagore