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Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan is a Central University in India and is located in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is one of the most well known universities of the country and has been the alma mater of several prominent personalities of the nationalist movement in India, most notably Indira Gandhi, a former prime minister of India. Tagore coined the name Visva Bharti, which means the communion of the world with India. In its initial years Tagore expressed his dissatisfaction with the word 'university', since university translates to Vishva-Vidyalaya, which is smaller in scope than Visva Bharti (Bangla: বিশ্ব-ভারতী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়).
[edit] History
The origins of the university date back to 1863 when Maharshi Debendranath Tagore established an ashram (called Brahmacharya Ashram and later renamed Brahmacharya Vidyalaya) at the spot that has now come to be known as chatim tala at the heart of Santiniketan. It was established with a view to encourage people from all walks of life to come to the spot and meditate. In 1901 his youngest son Rabindranath Tagore established a co-educational school inside the premises of the ashram called Patha Bhavana. Tagore used to also organise the Hindu Mela in Santiniketan, which became a centre of nationalist activity at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1921 Tagore started the university with proceeds from the prize money of the Nobel Prize he received for the publication of his book of poems entitled Gitanjali in 1913. The university also became a centre of Brahmo learning in this period. The institution was granted its full university status 1951. Rathindranath Tagore was appointed as the first upacharya of the university. Another member of the Tagore family who performed the role of upacharya was Indira Devi Chaudhurani.
| Upacharyas |
- Rathindranath Tagore, 1951-1953
- Kshitimohan Sen, 1953-1954
- Probodhchandra Bagchi, 1954-1956
- Indiradevi Chaudhurani, 1956-1956 (acting)
- Satyendranath Bose, 1956-1958
- Kshitishchandra Chaudhuri, 1958-1959 (acting)
- Sudhirranjan Das, 1959-1965
- Kalidas Bhattacharya, 1966-1970
- Pratul Chandra Gupta, 1970-1975
- Surajit Chandra Sinha, 1975-1980
- Amlan Dutta, 1980-1984
- Nemai Sadhan Bosu, 1984-1989
- Ajit Kumar Chakrabarty, 1989-1990 (performed the duty of upacharya)
- Ashin Dasgupta, 1990-1991
- Sisir Mukhopadhyaya, 1991-1991 (performed the duty of upacharya)
- Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 1991-1995
- Sisir Mukhopadhyay, 1995-1995 (performed the duty of upacharya)
- R.R.Rao, 1995-1995 (performed the duty of upacharya)
- Dilip K.Sinha, 1995-2001
- Sujit Basu, 2001-2006
- Rajat Kanta Ray, 2006- present
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[edit] Organisation
The high officials of the university include the paridarshaka (visitor), acharya (chancellor), and the upacharya (vice chancellor).
The university has several institutes and colleges under its supervision for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies. They are Vidya Bhavana (Institute of Humanities), Shiksha Bhavana (Institute of Sciences), Palli-Shiksha Bhavana (Institute of Agricultural Sciences), Binay Bhavana (Institute of Education) and Kala Bhavana (Institute of Fine Arts). It has a museum under its aegis, which is called Rabindra Bhavana which is housed in the Uttarayan complex, the residence of Tagore.
It also has four schools under its supervision. They are Patha Bhavana, Shiksha Satra (two elementary and secondary schools) and Uttar Shiksha Sadana (a higher secondary school) also confer certificates of the university.
Apart form that It has associate institutes.Bengal Institute of technology and Management(BITM,Santiniketan),IIIT Kolkata are among them.
[edit] Famous alumni/academics/affiliates
- Brajendra Nath Seal
- Savitri Devi
- Satyajit Ray, filmmaker and writer
- Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate and economist
- Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India
- Gayatri Devi, Maharani of Jaipur
- Abanindranath Tagore, painter and children's writer
- Nandalal Bose, artist
- Benode Behari Mukherjee, painter and sculptor
- Ramkinkar Baij, sculptor and painter
- K.G. Subramanyan, painter and theoretician
- Somnath Hore, artist, printmaker & sculptor
- Prabhatmohan Bandyopadhyaya, painter, poet, and social activist
- Kanika Bandyopadhyay, singer
- Suchitra Mitra, singer
- Bhimrao Hasurkar Sastri, musician
- Charles Freer Andrews, Anglican priest and lecturer, philanthropist
- Giuseppe Tucci, Italian scholar
- Gourgopal Ghosh, Mohan Bagan football player
- Guru Kelu Nair, Kathakali maestro
- Leonard Knight Elmherst, agricultural educationist
- Moriz Winternitz, German professor of Indian philology and ethnology
- Dr Probodh Chandra Bagchi,[1]cf.1945,[2] First Vice Chancellor from out-side the Tagore family, Modernised the University, Famous Indologist, Student of Prof. Sylvain Levy [3]
- Santidev Ghosh, author, singer and dancer
- Stella Kramrisch, Austrian-born South Asian art historian
- Syed Mujtaba Ali, Bengali novelist and litterateur
- Sylvain Levi, Oriental scholar
- Tan Yun-Shan, Chinese Buddhist and Confucian scholar
- Vincenc Lesny, Indologist and Iranian studies scholar
- William Winstanley Pearson, philanthropist and translator of Tagore's work
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Universities in West Bengal |
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