Santiniketan Sightseeing - Visva Bharati University

The Visva Bharati University at Shantiniketan is world famous and is acknowledged as one of the greatest temples of learning in Fine art and Literature in India. Founded by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in 1901, the university has always defined the standards of literary excellence and its fine arts division carries on the Gurudev's tradition of uncompromising and unparalleled standards of excellence.

Maharshi Debendranath, father of Rabindranath Tagore, founded an Ashram here in 1863. Almost 40 years later, his son Rabindranath started an open-air school here that gradually blossomed into an international university where the cultures of the East and the West meet in common fellowship. The university today is a center of international culture and studies and has two campuses, one at Shantiniketan and another at Sriniketan.

The sprawling campus houses several institutions dedicated to different aspects of Arts and Culture -  Patha Bhavana, Uttar Siksha Sadana, Siksha Bhavana, Vidya Bhavana, Vinay Bhavana, Kala Bhavana, Sangeet Bhavana, Rabindra Bhavana, China Bhavana, Hindi Bhavana etc.

The Vichitra Museum houses the personal effects and a good collection of photographs of the Gurudev. The Nandan Art Gallery displays some of Tagore’s works along with murals, paintings, frescoes and artistic tributes by Ramkinkar, Nandlal Bose et al.

Following the Gurukul tradition, classes at the university are conducted outdoors. Many a great literary genius and music maestro has visited this temple of learning and gone back inspired or moved by its cultural ethos.