Rabindranath Tagore (lang-bn??????????? ?????)cref?cref? (7 May 1861 - 7 August 1941),cref? sobriquet Gurudev,cref? was an Indian Bengali (Bengali people) polymath. He was a popular poet, novelist, musician, and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music (Music of Bengal) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", and as the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature,OConnell, K. M. (2008), "Red Oleanders (Raktakarabi) by Rabindranath Tagore?A New Translation and Adaptation: Two Reviews", Parabaas. Retrieved 2009-11-29. Tagore was perhaps the most widely regarded Indian literary figure of all time. He was a mesmerizing representative of the Indian culture whose influence and popularity internationally perhaps could only be compared to that of Gandhi, whom Tagore named Mahatma out of his deep admiration for him.

A Pirali BrahminDatta, P. K. (2003), "Introduction", Rabindranath Tagores The Home and the World: A Critical Companion, Orient Longman, p. 2, ISBN 8-1782-4046-7citation last1=Kripalani first1=Krishna title=Tagore: A Life year=1971 publisher=Orient Longman isbn=8-1237-1959-0 chapter=Ancestry pages=2-3citation last1=Kripalani first1=Krishna title=Dwarkanath Tagore year=1980 pages=6, 8 edition=1st eprint=2002 isbn=81-237-3488-3Thompson 1926, p. 12 from Kolkata, Tagore was already writing poems at age eight. At age sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion")Thompson 1926, pp. 27-28 and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. Tagore denounced the British Raj and supported independence. His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and contemplation. Tagore was perhaps the only litterateur who penned anthems of two countries: Bangladesh and India: Amar Shonar Bangla and Jana Gana Mana.