Rabindranath Tagore is one of the greatest contributors to what India is today. Born during the British Raj, he was a great artist and philosopher who was internationally acclaimed.

8 Lesser Known Facts about Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore was such a renowned thinker that many educational institutions around the world study his philosophy. This was true in his time and it continues today. One time he met with another great thinker whom the world respects til today- Albert Einstein. They both had a conversation on god, humanity, science, truth, and beauty. 

Everyone knows that Rabindranath Tagore was a Nobel laureate. He was the first Indian, the first non-European to receive the Nobel prize for literature. The award was kept in the safety vault of Visva-Bharati University where it was robbed in 2004. Since then the Swedish Academy has presented two replicas of the prize to the Visva-Bharati University. One is made of gold and the other is made of bronze.

Rabindranath Tagore was honoured with a knighthood in 1915, by King George V. However, he renounced his knighthood in 1919 to protest the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

There are 8 Tagore museums There are 3 Tagore museums in India and 5 in Bangladesh.

His father wanted him to become a barrister so he went to study in a public school in Brighton, England. He briefly attended University College London to study law, but left school, opting instead for independent study of Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra and the Religio Medici of Thomas Browne.

Though he's best known for his writing and even his music, his artistic talent didn't stop there. He took up painting and drawing at the age of 60 and even exhibited his work.

His sister Swarnakumari Devi was a well-renowned poet and novelist. She was among the first women in Bengal to gain importance in these fields as well as for her music and social work.