Santiniketan

Facts In News

Syllabus: GS1/Culture and History

News

• Santiniketan is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Geography

• Location: Santiniketan, popularly known today as a university town, is  located in the Birbhum district in West Bengal.
• Rivers:The area is flanked on two sides by the rivers, the Ajay and the Kopai. 

History

• Santiniketan was earlier known as Bhubadanga. It was established by Maharshi Debendranath Tagore in 1862, and later expanded by his son, Rabindranath Tagore.
• In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore chose a vast tract of land and started a school on the ‘Brahmacharya Ashram’ modeled on the ancient Indian Gurukul system.The school was upgraded to a University and was renamed Visva Bharati in 1921.
• In 1951, Visva Bharati was declared to be a central university and an institute of national importance.

Cultural Significance

• Rabindranath Tagore penned many of his literary classics (namely Tagore songs, poems, novels etc) here.
• The Santiniketan campus is adorned by splendid sculptures, frescoes, murals, and paintings of Rabindranath Tagore,Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar, Binodbehari Mukhopadhyay and others.
• Santiniketan stands out as a unique cultural destination, where Rabindranath Tagore tried to bring the world together through architecture, arts and the landscape design.

Source: TH