Radindranath was born May 7, 1861, the youngest son of thirteen surviving children of Brahman caste Debendranath Tagore, founder of a religious order that attempted a revival of the monistic roots of Hinduism as exposed in the holy books, the Upanisads. This liberal-minded start in life was further fostered when sent to England in1878 for formal education, an education he never finished. He returned to Bengal in 1880 and married in 1883. He assumed control of the family estates in 1890 where he worked closely with less fortunate Indian classes and developed a keen sense of social awareness and justice. He wrote extensively about village life in the three-volumed, "Galpaguchchha".

In 1901, Tagore established an Ashram in West Bengal that included a marble floored prayer hall, an experimental school, library and extensive gardens. His literary work here culminated in a 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Asian to obtain one. Of special note is his collection of 103 poems, mostly love poems, the Gitanjali, which rocketed Tagore to International notability. In 1915 he was Knighted by the British Crown, an honor he renounced in 1919 as protest for the massacre of hundreds of innocents in Jallianwallah by British General Dyer.

He was a devoted follower of Ghandi but denounced many of his approaches to social change. Along with agricultural economist, Leonard Elmhirst, Tagore established the Institute for Rural Reconstruction, later renamed the Shriniketan (Abode of Peace), and the Viswa Bhavan University in 1921, where he recruited scholars from around the world to "free villagers from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance by vitalizing knowledge". The Arts wing of the University, Kala Bhavan, gained international recognition. Ironically, Tagore had no formal training in art.

His sense of social awareness deepening, Tagore lectured about the evils of caste. His poems and dramas from this period utilized protagonists from the untouchable caste. He went so far as to petition the authorities of the Guruayoor Temple to admit Dalits (Untouchable Outcastes).

A true renaissance man and defender of the defenseless, Rabindranath Tagore died 80 years of age on August 7, 1941 in the Bengali family mansion where he was raised. His songs, paintings, poetry and other literary works live on.

The Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal in 1632 as a mausoleum for his late wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. The edifice took over 20 years to complete and incorporated Iranian, Turkish, Indian Hindu and Muslim styles reflecting the multi-ethnic empire the Shah ruled. Soon after it was completed, the Emperor was deposed and placed under house arrest by his son Aurangazebin Agra Fort until his death . His last days were spent in quarters that afforded the Emperor an uninhibited view of the Taj Mahal. Aurangazeb had his father buried in the Taj next to his beloved Mumtaz where they both still lie miraculously undisturbed for centuries. The Taj's perfect symmetry is broken only by the inclusion of the sarcophagus of the Shah himself.