|
Rabindranath Tagore, son of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, a leader of
Brahmo Samaj, was born on May 7, 1861 in Calcutta. He was the fourteenth and the youngest
child of Debendranath and Shardadevi. They lived in a joint household in Jorasanko. Tagore
belonged to a family of poets, scholars, philosophers, artists, musicians and freedom
fighters. The family name was actually Thakur; Tagore is its anglicized version. He grew
up in the lap of nature, learning to love and worship it.
Tagore was admitted into
the Oriental seminary in 1868. Rabi, as Rabindranath was called in his childhood and young
days, cleared his first examination with distinction and stood first in Bengali. At this
time he got his first lesson in composing poems from Jyotiprakash, grandson of
Girindranath, Rabi’s uncle. Soon he found himself in this new hobby and started
filling it up with poems. But school and classroom was a bar with four walls. At this
stage, special arrangements were made for imparting lessons in English. The lessons were
held in the evenings. He used to feel so miserable that he would consider the birds
luckier than himself as they did not know the art of lighting lamps and were spared the
misfortune of taking lessons at night. His ideas were also expressed in form of poetry.
"I do not aspire to
study and be learned
or be wise and a good boy as you wish
I would rather play always and wander about
To search for the corzune in the Mulberry bush.
When I hear the cart-driver’s song,
to cross the vast fields, he drives fast,
I cannot learn my lessons any long"
And promise to become
uliterate at last.’He found lessons in the school uninteresting and hated the
idea of punishment for making mistakes. He was then transferred to a regular school and
thereafter to St. Xavier’s.
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL
In 1875, when Tagore was only fourteen years old, his mother passed away. This was the first time that he en countered death at such close quarters. Her death introduced him to the harsh realities of life. Deeply affected by the incident, he became extremely sensitive. He reached out to his sister-in-law (his elder brother’s wife), Kadambari for support. After that she always kept guarding Rabi, even when she would shift with her husband to places away from their ancestral house. She was a highly gifted lady. She not only loved literature but also took keen interest in it, particularly in poetry. She naturally felt delighted and encouraged the poetic talent of her brother-in-law, Rabi. She proved to be Rabi’s guardian angel who replaced his mother and alongside became his playmate, the company he wanted the most in the critical period of his adolescence. It was she who introduced Biharilal, the first lyric – poet in Bengal to Rabi. She also admired |
|
Bankim Chandra Chaterjee’s writings. She preferred her younger brother-in-law to read them for her. Thus a warm friendship and love grew between young Rabindranath and Kadambari devi. Kripalne, an eminent biographer of Rabindranath described this love as : "Too deep and sacred to be categorized in terms of normal human relationship." 
"Where Thou and in
union with the multitudo.
I shall seek union with Thee,
Neither in the forest, nor in solchede,
Nor inside my own mind,
But where Thou art the beloved of everybody
Thou art my beloved too" –
At this time he
wrote a patriotic poem, which was published in the Amrit Bazar Patrika. In fact,
his first poem was written at the age of seven.
 |
