Dwijendranath Tagore

Dwijendranath Tagore (11 March 1840 – 19 January 1926) was an Indian Bengali poet, song composer, philosopher, mathematician and painter. He was one of the pioneers of shorthand and notation in Bengali script. He was the eldest son of Debendranath Tagore and the eldest brother of Rabindranath Tagore. Early life Dwijendranath Tagore (born on 11 March 1840) was the grandson of Dwarkanath Tagore of the Jorasanko branch of the Tagore family and the eldest son of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. His childhood education was mainly with the tutor. However, he also studied for some time at St. Paul's School and Hindu College in Calcutta (now Presidency University). Dwijendranath was very close to his later brother Satyendranath Tagore. Although there were some natural differences between the two brothers. Dwijendranath was a staunch follower of the conventional reforms of the society. On the other hand, Satyendranath was in favor of breaking these reforms and forming a new modern society. Dwijendranath, accustomed to a simple life, was a man of poetry, knowledge-loving and experiment-loving. His wife, Sarbasundari Devi, died in 1878. Dwijendranath spent the rest of his life as a widower. Two of Dwijendranath's nine children died soon after birth. The remaining five sons were Dwipendranath, Arunendranath, Nitindranath, Sudhindranath and Kripendranath. The names of the two daughters are Saroja and Usha. As a poet Dwijendranath's first contribution to Bengali literature was the Bengali translation of Kalidasa's Meghaduta Kavya written in classical Sanskrit. The book was published in 1860, exactly one year before the birth of Nobel Prize-winning younger brother Rabindranath Tagore. At the time of publication, Dwijendranath was only twenty years old. This translation was the first Bengali translation of Meghdoot. Dwijendranath used two different Bengali rhyming styles while translating this book.