Sarada Devi was Rabindranath’s mother. She had altogether fifteen children with her husband Debendranath Tagore. When Rabindranath was born, his eldest sister Saudamini looked after the baby, because his mother was ailing. Read more
Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath’s father, was a Hindu philosopher and religious reformer. He lived from 15 May 1817 to 19 January 1905. Debendranath was the oldest son of “Prince” Dwarkanath Tagore. He grew up in the midst of luxury and power. Yet even when he was still young, he turned away from the focus on wealth and towards a deeply religious outlook that was particularly inspired by a night beside his grandmother’s death bed and by finding a page from the Ishaponishad. Read more
Digambari Devi, Rabindranath’s paternal grandmother, was a very religious woman who found it difficult to follow her husband Dwarkanath’s reformist approaches and disdained his anglophilia. Read more
Dwarkanath Tagore, Rabindranath’s grandfather, was the founder of Jorosanko and extremely successful and increasingly wealthy through his entrepreneurial endeavours with Great Britain. He contributed substantially to the Bengal Renaissance. Read more
![Hermann Hesse in 1946 Image: Nobel Foundation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://scotstagore.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Hermann-Hesse-135x135.png)
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) never met Rabindranath Tagore, although one would have expected him, more than anybody else, to seek and maintain a contact with the Indian poet. Hesse had been involved with Indian Thought since his childhood. His parents were Protestant Christian missionaries in South India. Read more