Tagore (ta-gor'), Sir Rabindranath. Hindu poet. Born in Calcutta 1860. He spent his childhood in his native city, but at 17 went to Europe for further education. Returning to India and devoting his time to writing, Tagore became a prominent journalist and well known also as an educator, philosopher, and religious teacher. His early productions were romantic and sensuous, but his later work reveals a marked change to idealism and spirituality. His native tongue was Bengali, but he also acquired a fine English style so that his influence, at first confined to the Bengali peoples, was extended to the western world. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. among his works available in English are: "The Crescent Moon (child poems)," "The Gardener," "Gitanjali," "Song Offerings," and "Sadhana: The Realization of Life."

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