Book excerpt: Rabindranath Tagore is the most famous composer of Bengali lyrics and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. This book includes the full text of his prize-winning book, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), in its English version along with an introduction by W.B. Yeats that was published in London in 1912. Up until Gitanjali, Tagore was not popular in Bengal-and his name was not even mentioned in The History of Bengali Language and Literature by Dinesh Chandra Sen, which was Published by the University of Calcutta in 1912. The author examines how the Hindu mystic poet was influenced by the great fictional epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and other ancient Hindu religious books, especially Upanishads. He also explores how Christian and Islamic literature and culture influenced the poet's writings. Discover the untold story of how Tagore's connections with influential Jews of England, other European countries, and the United States may have contributed to him winning the prize that led to his fame.