Six Incredible Facts about Rabindranath Tagore

 

Six Incredible Facts about Rabindranath Tagore

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was a man of intense spiritual insight. His thoughts were derived from, nature, the virtue of man, and God or Brahma. Several of his works’ themes come from the great classic scriptures of India, the Upanishads, and the Mahabharata. His whole life was based on faith in the basic virtue of mankind.

Today, the world will celebrate the 160th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore whose deeply spiritual life is full of wonderful stories.

Here are six incredible facts related to a life lived so brilliantly.

1. Gave up Law to Study Shakespeare’s Works

Gurudev was a well-travelled person and owed much of his profound vision to experiences gained abroad. The great writer’s journeys started with studies in London where he gave up law to study the works of William Shakespeare and pursue his love for literature.

He responded to his ‘inner calling’ and shaped beautiful artworks in the form of books and paintings. A truly inspiring life indeed!

2. Thieves Stole his Nobel Prize

Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian and the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. The prestigious award was kept in a safety vault of Visva-Bharati University but tragically it was robbed in 2004. The strange theft was even chronicled in a 2012 Bengali film named ‘Nobel Chor’.

3. A Marvelous Institution, Built From his Nobel Prize

Rabindranath Tagore spent his Nobel Prize money in building the ‘Visva-Bharati’ school in Santiniketan in West Bengal. The school gave the country, many eminent personalities, including Satyajit Ray, Amartya Sen, and the famous author Mahasweta Debi, to name just a few.

Only a man of profound intelligence can come with an idea of establishing a world-class educational institution like Visva-Bharati whose first vision & mission is- “To study the mind of man in its realisation of different aspects of truth from diverse points of view.”

4. Tagore was a Painter as Well

Tagore is globally known for his literary skills and music and very few people know that he was also a painter. He took up painting at the age of 60 and exhibited his paintings in public. He admitted that he used the eraser more than the pencil while painting.

Such grit for pursuing the love for art is rare now.

5. He Painted Despite a Deficiency

Tagore had a partial colour vision deficiency leading to confusion between red and green colours in perception. But despite that, he was a great visual artist whose artworks were exhibited even in Europe.

6. Gurudev’s Sister was Also a Novelist

Swarnakumari Devi was Gurudev’s elder sister. She is considered one of the first well-known women writers of Bengali literature. She was a social activist as well who fought for women’s liberation and helped out many orphans and widows in her life.

Famous Books by Rabindranath Tagore

1.            Gitanjali, about devotion to God

2.            The Postmaster, about loneliness and the search for meaning in the world

3.            Gora, the book is a reflection and analysis of the varied social life in colonial India

4.            Kabuliwallah, about deeper layers of human emotions

5.            Sadhana, about the teaching of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha describing virtue of man, compassion, greed, and love

6.            Ghare Baire, about the deeper meaning of life

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore stood for humanity and modesty all his life. A sincere salute to him and his wonderful genius!