Tagore was also critical about the traditional style of education. While on a visit to Santa Barbara, California on October 11, 1917, he thought of a new type of education: a new type of university which he wanted to set up at Shantiniketan. On December 22, 1918, work for building the new university began. It opened on December 22, 1921. He named the university Visva-Bharati University. Tagore worked hard to raise funds for the university, and he toured many parts of Europe and the United States for this purpose. He gave all his Nobel Prize money to this university. The university gave personal guidance to all students. Students lived close to nature, and the teacher-student relationship followed a pattern of the gurukul system of ancient India. In his own words, he wanted this university to become "a world center for the study of humanity ... somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography".
He also had a dream for the future India. He wanted India's freedom from the British rule. He dreamt of an India "where the mind is without fear".
Even many decades after his death, people hold festivals in his honor in many parts of the world. Examples include the following:
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who is also a Bengali, once noted that even for modern Bengalis, Tagore was a "towering figure", being a "deeply relevant and many-sided contemporary thinker".
Tagore's collected 1939 Bangla-language writings (Rabīndra Rachanāvalī) are one of Bengal's greatest cultural treasures, and Tagore himself has been proclaimed "the greatest poet India has produced".
He was also famous in much of Europe, North America, and East Asia. Translations of his works are available in many languages, including Russian, English, Dutch, German, and Spanish. In the United States, Tagore gave many lectures during 1916 and 1917. Many people attended those lectures.
Between 1914 and 1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí spouses translated at least twenty-two of Tagore's books from English into Spanish. These Spanish translations influenced many leading figures of Spanish literature, including Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral of Chile; Octavio Paz of Mexico; and José Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Camprubí, and Juan Ramón Jiménez of Spain
Various composers, including classical composer Arthur Shepherd’s, have set Tagore's poetry to music.
Tamil people
The Tamil people are an ethnic group from South Asia. Traditionally, they have been living in the southern parts of India, and the northeastern parts of Sri Lanka.
The Tamil people number around 74 million in the world. Of that, there are about 63,000,000 in India; about 3,600,000 live in Sri Lanka; about 2,900,000 live in Malaysia; and about 430,000 live in Singapore. The remaining Tamil people live in many other places. Other peoples are related to the Tamil people by language, culture, and ancestry. Some of them are Brahui people, Kannadigas, Malayalis, Telugu people and Tuluvas. Tamil people, are not closely related to people in the Middle East and Europe, except the Romani people.
Tamil people identify themselves with their language, Tamil and their rich culture and literature. In recent times, they have broadened the definition of Tamil people. They now also include descendants of Tamil speaking people even when they no longer speak Tamil language.
The history of Tamil people has three broad time periods as described below.
No one is sure about the exact origins of the Tamil people. Some connect them with the Elamite people of ancient Iran. Historians confirmed with the scripts and names of towns of Indus that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization were Tamil.
In Tamil Nadu, the earliest presence of Tamil people dates back to around 10000 BC on wards. Archaeologists have found many burial places of megalithic era. The style of burials is same as described in classical Tamil literature. Recent excavations at these sites have also provided samples of early Tamil writing, dating back to at least 5000 BC ("The Hindu", 2005).
Three royal families emerged in the lands of the Tamil people: the dynasties of the Cholas, Cheras, and the Pandyas.
At that time, agriculture and trading were two main economic activities of Tamil people. They even traded with many other countries, including places in Europe. In Karur (Tamil Nadu), archaeologists found a large number of coins of Ancient Rome and Egypt. The Pandyas sent at least two ambassadors to the Roman Emperor Augustus. Archaeologists have also found Tamil writings in broken pieces of pottery in the Red Sea, where Tamil Merchants settled there and became one of the Acestor the Romani people, as DNA studys shows.
An unnamed traveler from ancient Greece had described in Greek language ports of the Pandya as "The land of Punt" and Chera kings. He had detailed the items exported by the Tamil people. These items included black pepper, pearls, ivory, silk, diamonds, sapphires, and tortoiseshell.
The classical period ended at around 2nd century. People from northern parts of India invaded the lands of the Tamil people. For Tamil people, this was a dark period of their history called kalapiraras. They are the Jewish Invaders from Western coast of Karnataka and Kerala with help of the local Telugu tribal's who lived in the jungles of Western ghats and chambal. This dark phase ended with the rise of the Pandyas and Pallava dynasty again.
Historical records of ancient Tamil rulers have been destroyed on purpose. Only later pallava period is mentioned during the 6th century, they became powerful after they drove the kalapirars. Later The Pallavas also encouraged the worship of Shiva and Vishnu; and built large temples.
In the 9th century, the Cholas and the Pandyas defeated Pallavas. By the 10th century, the Cholas had established a big empire, covering most of south India and Sri Lanka. They had a strong navy, That reached Thailand, Burma and Sumatra. They also had a strong trading links with China. By the 12th – 13th centuries, the power of the Cholas had declined. For some time, Pandyas became powerful. However, by that time Muslim rulers invaded Tamil lands. The Pandya dynasty came to an end by the 16th century.
Over a period of time, western parts of Tamil lands were developing in a separate manner. By the 13th century, the Cholas and the Pandyas had lost control over these areas. The people living there developed their own language and culture. By the 15th century they had a separate language, Malayalam language, now the language of the Indian state of Kerala.
After 16th century no major rulers emerged to rule Tamil lands. But, there were many smaller local rulers. For some time, rulers from the present day Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh also ruled over the Tamil lands. By the 17th century, Europeans from the United Kingdom, France and Denmark started to establish their settlements in Tamil lands. They fought many battles. Finally, the British won, and by the end of the 18th century, most of the Tamil lands came under the British rule.
Before the deluge at about 11600 yrs, Sri Lanka was a part of Tamil Nadu and Tamil rulers of the ancient pandyas ruled this place.After deluge Sri Lanka separated from Tamil Nadu. One north Indian king of Tamil origin exiled his son Vijayan out of country for his wrongdoing Vijayan with a small troop reached Sri Lanka. The Tamil Nagas, Yakkars and vedars were the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka before Vijanyan's arrival and the land was under Pandiyan control. Pandiyan of Madurai welcomed Vijayan with good heart and facilitated his troops.He sent Tamil girls from Pandiyan kingdom to marry Vijayan and for his troops.The Tamil people ruled parts of Sri Lanka from time to time, and played important role in the ruling of Sri Lanka. In the 10th century, the Chola kings made Sri Lanka a part of their kingdom. This continued until late 11th century.