Shantiniketan Tourism, West Bengal
(Shantiniketan is also known as Shanthiniketan)
Shantiniketan Tourism, Tourist places in Shantiniketan, Sightseeing, Shantiniketan Travel Guide, Holiday Packages, weekend getaways, places near Shantiniketan, reviews, map and trips
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Shantiniketan Fast Facts
- State: West Bengal
- District: Birbhum
- Famous for/as: Culture
- Altitude: 58 m
- Language: Bengali, Hindi, English
- Best Season: Throughout the year
- Weather: Summers 19 to 37°C, Winters 3 to 24°C
- Clothing: Summer - Cotton/Tropical, Winter - Woollens
- Local Transport:
- Pincode: 731235
- STDCode: 03463
Shantiniketan, Overview
Shantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town (Visva-Bharati University) that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Santiniketan is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath Tagore wrote many of his literary classics here, and his house is a place of historical importance.
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, History
Shantiniketan was previously called Bhubandanga (named after Bhuban Sinha). This area was gifted from the Sinha family (family of Lord Satyendra Prasanno Sinha) to the Tagore family. Rabindranath's father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, found it very peaceful and renamed it Shantiniketan, which means abode (niketan) of peace (shanti). It was here that Rabindranath Tagore started Patha Bhavana, the school of his ideals, whose central premise was that learning in a natural environment would be more enjoyable and fruitful. After he received the Nobel Prize (1913), the school was expanded into a university in 1921. By 1951, it had become one of India's central universities. Many world famous teachers came to be associated with it, including C.F. Andrews and Alex Aronson. Some of its illustrious students are Gayatri Devi, Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Abdul Ghani Khan and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.