Short answers, pulled from the story.
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath of the Bengal Renaissance who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter. Born on the 7th of May 1861 in Calcutta, he reshaped Bengali literature, music, and Indian art. He died on the 7th of August 1941 at the age of 80.
Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, largely for the English translation of his poetry collection Gitanjali, or Song Offerings. The Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic and, for Western readers, accessible nature of the translated material. He was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in any category.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote and composed the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh. India's Jana Gana Mana was adopted in 1950, and Bangladesh's Amar Sonar Bangla became its national anthem in 1971. Sri Lanka's national anthem was also inspired by his work.
Rabindranath Tagore renounced the knighthood awarded to him by King George V in response to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. In his letter to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, he wrote that he wished to stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of his countrymen.
Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan. Its foundation stone was laid on the 24th of December 1918, and it was inaugurated three years later. Teaching was often done under trees, and Tagore contributed his Nobel Prize monies and wrote the students' textbooks himself.
Rabindranath Tagore was somewhat critical of Gandhian activism and rebuked Gandhi after he called the 1934 Bihar earthquake divine retribution for the oppression of Dalits. Despite their disagreements, Tagore was key in resolving a Gandhi-Ambedkar dispute over separate electorates, and Gandhi favoured his song "If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone."
Rabindranath Tagore composed around 2,230 songs, a body of work known as rabindrasangit. Influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani music, the songs ranged across the full spectrum of human emotion, from Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions.