Rabindranath
Tagore was a rare and great personality. He was a scholar, freedom fighter,
writer and painter and above all a humble man. His contributions to Indian
Literature was immense. He won the noble prize in
1913 for his collection
of well known poems 'Gitanjali'.
Tagore
was born on May 7, 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sharada Devi at Jorasanko
in West Bengal. He did his schooling in the prestigious St. Xavier School.
He has written thousands of Poems and lyrics and about 35 plays about 12 novels,
numerous short stories and a mass of prose literature. He was called as 'Vishwa
Kavi'.
Besides
the famous ' Gitanjali' his other well known poetic works include ' Sonar
Tari', 'Puravi', ' The cycle of the spring', ' The evening songs' etc. The
names of his well known novels are: 'Gora', ' The wreck', ' Raja Rani', '
Ghare Baire', ' Raj Rishi' etc. ' Chitra' is his famous play in verse. ' Kabuli
Wallah' and ' Kshudita Pashan' are his famous stories.
In
1901, he founded the Vishwabharati University- earlier known as Shantiniketan
at Bolepur in West Bengal. This was founded with the aim of evolving a world
culture, a synthesis of eastern and western values. Our National Anthem 'Jana
Gana Mana ......' was written by him.