Rabindranath Tagore, Asia’s first Nobel Laureate – once described by Ezra Pound as a “flawless” poet, “greater than any of us” – was born on 7 May 1861, in a rich, culturally prominent, Brahmin family, in Calcutta, India. His grandfather, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846), was a personal friend of Queen Victoria. Tagore’s father, Maharishi (a great saint) Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905), was a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a reformist religious movement that sought the revival of the monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. This movement was founded in the nineteenth century, by an enlightened and influential Bengali, who is often deemed the pioneer of the Bengal/Indian Renaissance, and …
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Citation: Quayum, Mohammad. "Rabindranath Tagore". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 September 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4307, accessed 22 November 2024.]