I’m sure you know that the creator of our national anthem is poet, musician and artist Rabindranath Tagore. But did you know that he also created the national anthem of Bangladesh and the original song for the Sri Lankan national anthem? Such a multi-talented person with a wide range of knowledge and learning is called a “polymath”.
Rabindranath was born on May 7, 1861 in his family mansion in Jorasanko, Kolkata. He had 13 older brothers and sisters — imagine so many siblings bossing over you! His family was wealthy and full of famous people. Many of his brothers and sisters were famous playwrights, poets and civil servants in the British government. Famous writers, musicians, poets and artists visited his home regularly. Little “Rabi” had a lot to live up to and he certainly did so!
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Rabindranath was a lonely child because his mother died when he was only 13 and his father travelled a lot for work.He hated going to school. So one of his older brothers took charge of his education, and taught him Literature, History and Geography, Math, Sanskrit, English and drawing. He loved to roam free in nature, swim in the Ganga and climb the hills. When he grew up, Rabindranath built a famous school called Santiniketan with open air classrooms, surrounded by beautiful woods.
Tagore is most famous for his writing — his short stories, poems, songs, and plays are world famous classics. His collection of poems, Gitanjali , was translated into English and won the Nobel Prize for Literature, making him the first Asian to win it.
Painting came very late in Rabindranath’s life — he was 60 years old when he started painting seriously. Yet he created over 2,000 paintings and drawings. He had no formal training in art. But Tagore’s paintings were praised by artists all over the world.
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Tagore’s style was unique. He had travelled all over Europe and had seen the modern art of Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and Kandinsky. He painted abstracts, landscapes and portraits, including several self-portraits. Many of his paintings are dark in character and colour. From the colours in his paintings, people think he might have been colour blind and not able to see the difference between red and green.
To celebrate Tagore’s achievements, the British king, George V made him a knight of the British Empire in 1915. Tagore was a nationalist and believed that India should be independent from the British. He was friends with Mahatma Gandhi, who respected him and gave him the name Gurudev. After the British killed hundreds of peaceful Indian protesters at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, he gave up his knighthood in protest. Rabindranath died in 1941 at the age of 80, but still lives in the hearts and minds of art lovers through his many wonderful works of literature, music and art.
To view paintings of Rabindranath Tagore, visit this website:
> www.calcuttaweb.com/about/people/rabindranath-tagore/tagore-paintings/