According to Wikipedia: 'Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 - 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music. As author of Gitanjali and its 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse', he was the first non-European who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. His poetry in translation was viewed as spiritual, and this together with his mesmerizing persona gave him a prophet-like aura in the west. His 'elegant prose and magical poetry' still remain largely unknown outside the confines of Bengal.'