Rabindra Jayanti 2023: Interesting facts about Rabindranath Tagore’s early life and his work
Rabindra Jayanti: Know Rabindranath Tagore’s early life, works, and other interesting facts. His birthday is celebrated on the 25th of Baisakh, as per the Bengali calendar. – By Mahasweta Sarkar
FollowRabindra Jayanti is the birthday of India’s first Nobel Prize winner and polymath, Rabindranath Tagore. He was a world-renowned poet, melodious music composer, revolutionary novelist and playwright, and painter. He was also a scholar, a humanist, a philosopher and a social reformer.
Going by the English calendar, Tagore was born on May 7, 1861. His birthday is celebrated on the 25th of Baisakh, per the Bengali calendar. The date generally occurs on the 8th or 9th of May.
Early Life
Rabindranath was born in Kolkata’s Jorasanko. He hailed from a reputed Bengali family known for their inclination towards the arts. His father was Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, and his grandfather was a famous entrepreneur, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore.
Tagore had a natural flair in poetry composition from childhood. He did not go to a formal school and was home-schooled. His father sent him to Shelaidaha (now in Bangladesh) to look after their family estates. Here Tagore started writing poetry, which was later published. Some of his greatest works were penned down here.
Tagore’s famous works
Tagore brought about a stylistic shift in Bengali literature. His writings are simple yet very powerful, it has a conversational tone and expresses human emotions with profound impact on the readers.
Rabindranath Tagore’s most famous work is the collection of poems, ‘Song Offerings’ or ‘Gitanjali’ for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Other than this, some of his popular novels are ‘Shesher Kobita’ (The Last Poem), ‘Gora’, ‘Ghore o Baire’ (The Home and the World) etc. Tagore’s collection of short stories ‘Galpaguccha’ is a favourite to all. His works have also been translated into several languages.
He is very famous for his dance dramas, some of which are ‘Chitrangada’, ‘Chandalika’, ‘Shyama’ and ‘Tasher Desh’. The songs from these dance dramas play in every Bengali household even today.
Rabindra Jayanti Celebrations
Students organise special programmes commemorating Rabindranath Tagore in schools and colleges on his birthday every year. In Bengal, Tagore’s melodies can be heard in every neighbourhood on Rabindra Jayanti.
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