Page:Who's Who in India Supplement 2 (1914).djvu/129

 SUPPLEMENT Si during Queen Victoria's reign and had a most cordial recep* tion at court. The members of the Maharshi's family are all distinguished. The eldest son Dwijendranath Tagore is a great philosopher and the second son was the first Indian to enter the Civil Service. The poet's cousins, Gogonendranath TagiDre and Abanindra Nath Tngore, are great artists. One of the Maharshi's daughters conducts the *' Bharti " magazine. The purity and spirituality of the poet's father's life are well-known* These tracts are to be found in Rabindranath Tagofe in per- fection and have contributed to make his poems great morai and spiritual forces besides being temples of beauty. His love of meditation and the cloistral repose and seclusion of his life have enabled him to perceive truths that are not visible to the ordinary eyes. As a boy, Dr. Rabindranath did not like school-life and early acquired the habit of self-education. His earliest poems were written when he was very young but they received little encouragement. He then went to England to study Law but came back as he did not find the study of Law congenial to him to any extent. Since then he has written various poems that have made his name universally known. He wrote exquisite love poetry in his youth. He had a great sorrow in his 35th year and after that his art grew deeper and became religious and philosophical. His patriotism and the practical bent of his genius are clear from his conducting a large school at Bolepur where the pupils, about 200 in number, are instructed in the open air. His recent translations of his poems into exquisite English prose have won for him a European reputation and in 19 1 3, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature which Is awarded for *' the most distinguished work of an idealistic tendency in the field of literature," and every reader ot Tagore's poems can well realise how worthy he is of the great honor thus conferred on him. With characteristic patriotism he has devoted the entire prize amount of £S,ooo to the Bolepur School. The degree of Doctor of Literature was conferred on him by the Calcutta University in December, tgt^. The worki