A lonely Rabindranath Tagore was haunted by depression: Biography

Famed for his literary, artistic and intellectual capabilities the world over, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore led a very lonely life and even suffered from frequent bouts of depression, says his new biography.

"In January 1915 Tagore again speaks of a 'breakdown', 'deep depression', but in February he claimed to have been healed in the solitude of the boat he inhabited on the banks of the Padma (river) in north Bengal," says Prof Sabyasachi Bhattacharya in his book 'Rabindranath Tagore: An Interpretation'.

Incidentally, one of Tagore's worst spells of depression was in 1914, a year after his book of poems 'Gitanjali' brought him sudden international fame as he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 prize in literature.

"Another such bout of depression is recorded in Tagore's letters in October 1914....Earlier to that, in May 1914, he had one of his worst spells of depression," the book says disclosing a part of the poet's life rarely examined by Tagore scholars.