Celebrating Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 2024: Life, Contributions, and Legacy-Puri
Jaswant Singh Puri/ May 8,2024
As per Bengal calendar, Tagore Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore is celebrated on May 8 the date he was born 1861 in Jorasanko Thakurbai, Calcutta(now Kolkata) in an eminent Brahmin family of Bengal.The day is observed with great reverence and enthusiasm across India. He was the son of DevendraNath Tagore, a man known for his saintly habits.
It is a time to remember his contribution to literature, music and philosophy. His literary works were known for their lyrical beauty, social and political commentary and universal humanistic values. He was much influenced by the ‘Upanishads’, the ‘Puranas’. His wide reading and travels also shaped his mind and thinking. He is often referred to as the Bard of Bengal who had a profound desire for exploration.
Tagore visited England, America, Germany etc. The romantic English Poets like Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth and the great Victorians like Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning had ample influence on him. He also praised William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas Brown. In his boyhood days, the most dominant influence on him was of Kadambari Devi, wife of his brother Joytirindranath. She was an enlightened lady. After the death of Tagore’smother in 1875, she was something of a mother to Rabindranath.
Rabindranath was married to Mirnalini Devi in December 1883 who was his partner in his vision and all aspects of life. He began to write early at the age of ten only. He had composed 7000 lines of verses before he was eighteen. Dr.Iyenger quotes: “Tagore was a poet, dramatist, actor, producer, he was a musician and a painter; he was an educationist, a practical idealist, who turned his dreams into reality at Shantiniketan. He was a reformer, philosopher, prophet; he was a novelist and a short-story writer and a critic of life and literature. He was essentially an internationalist. He was an integral whole, the Rishi, the Gurdev, his fecundity and vitality were amazing-next only to Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo”.
Tagore set up a university of his own-Viswa-Bharti University in Shantiniketanwhich has become the World Heritage Site by UNESCO- a great and marvellous achievement. Tagore is the only person on records to have written the national anthem for India ‘Jan GanaMana’ and the national anthem for Bangladesh ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’. His literary output is versatile and large. There are about 250 works and 2500 songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore. In 1913, he achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for his Poetry Collection ‘Gitanjali’.
In West Bengal, Rabindernath Tagore’s anniversary is celebrated according to the local Bengali Calendar. The date of Boisakh 25th usually falls on either May 8 or 9 in the Gregorgian Calendar. He relinguished his Knighthood to protest against the JallianwalaBagh massacre. It is also a little known fact that it was Tagore who introduced sport of Judo to India. His residence in Jorasanko in Kolkata testifies that Tagore was much obsessed with Judo and his interest reached such a high level that he invited people to teach it. We should thank him for the popularity it has today. It was Tagore who brought the Japanese martial arts to our land. Tagore visited Japan many times to show his interest in Judo. One of his famous quotes deserves applause: “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy”. One of his famous quotes is inspiring. “Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them”. Some of his notable works include Gitanjali, Post Master,Kabuliwallah and Nastanirh to name a few. His songs like MajhaMajheTobo, AkashBhara, Amar HiyarMajhe,PuranoSeiHiyarMajhe and MegherKole are still rendered by renowned singers across Bengal and India. Well known film maker Satyajit Raymade a few notable movies based on Tagore’s short stories and novels. He wrote the first drama ValmikiPratibha when he was twenty. Visarjanwas written in 1890. He wrote other plays also like Chitrangada, Shyama, Chandlikaalso. He wrote a number of stories between 1891 and 1895. This period of four years is recognised as Tagore’s‘Sadhana’ period.He was also a novelist of eminence and wrote Gora, NaukaDoobi, Chatu Rang, Chokher Balietc.
Tagore’s most wonderful composition is ‘Gitanjali’which has been translated into a number of languages of the world.Thriving on Hindu mysticism, Gitanjalipresents a code of conduct for the devout yearning for the merger of the self into the supreme deity. It is a poem of detachment from the material surroundings and full of ardour for the Supreme Being.
Tagore wrote: Don’t limit a child to your own learning for he was born in another time”.
Israel bestowed a great honour on Tagore and shared picture of R.N. Tagore street in honour of his 159th birthday. The name of the street is ‘Rehor Tagore’(Tagore Street).
The eminent and great Bengali poet, scholar, novelist, playwright, humanist, philosopher and Nobel Laureate left this world on August 7, 1941 in Kolkata at the age of 80 years. He left a mark not only on India and the neighbouring countries but around the world. That is why Israel paid tribute to him by naming a street after him.
Note: The views expressed are personal. This article is dedicated to Smt. AlkaPuri wife of Dr. Ajit Singh Puri and mother of Jaswant Singh Puri.
