Shantiniketan - The Abode of Peace

Shantiniketan was established by Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, the father of the renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore. He had found the place very peaceful and named it Shantiniketan which means the abode (niketan) of peace (shanti).

Rabindranath Tagore established his school Patha Bhavana here as a Gurukul on the ideals of the Guru Shishya Parampara of ancient India. The underlying principle of the school is eduction in a natural environment.

Later on when Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetic masterpiece Gitanjali i 1913, he developed the school into a university in 1921 and named it Viswa Bharati.

This is what Tagore himself had to say on Viswa Bharati, "Viswa Bharati represents India where she has her wealth of mind which is for all. Viswa Bharati acknowledges India's obligation to offer to others the hospitality of her best culture and India's right to accept from others their best."

Mahatma Gandhi had once said, "If you have not seen Gurudev's Viswa Bharati then you have not seen India."

Some of the many notable alumnis of Patha Bhavana and Viswa Bharati are Satyajit Ray, India's greatest movie director, Indira Gandhi India's first woman prime minister and Noble laureate Amartya Sen.