POET-PHILOSOPHER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 188, 12 August 1941, Page 5

POET-PHILOSOPHER

FAMOUS INDIAN’S DEATH SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE Calcutta, Aug. 7. The death has occurred of Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the famous Indian poet and philosopher.—U.P.A. Sir Rabindranath Tagore was born in Bengal in 1861. He began his literary work very early. At the age of 14 he published his first book of poems. In 1878 he went to London to study law. but soon returned to India and lived for a time in Calcutta. In 1885 he succeeded to his father's property and gave himself up entirely to his poetry and his philosophical ideas, producing 303 books of poems and 28 prose works, all in the Bengali language. The majority of these he translated into English. Sir Rabindranath's reputation spread all over tin' world. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and in 1915 he was created a knight. He made frequent visits to Europe, Japan and the United States, where his son studied at the University of California, and v. idertook several lecturing tours. The main work of his life he regard:?.! as the famous Shantiniketan, or "abode of peace,” v.hich he established at Bolpur, in 1201. This was a school on unconventional lines, deal'ng w’th every •branch of Eastern cuiiur.? which developed into an international institution called Visvabharati.