Ten months later the award was made to Tagore. Some of his compatriots were his most severe critics, complaining that he “dabbled” in too many forms of literature. He admitted the charge but averred that poetry represented “the deep truth” of his life. As a poet he has revived the work, in kind, of the Vaishnava poets of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of mystic writers like the Upanishads who lived between 2000 and 1000 B. C. He adapted the beauties of these poets to modern interpretation. He was indebted, also, to Kabir, the mystic of the fifteenth century, and to Ramprosad of Bengal, of the eighteenth. In his form and spiritual progress he has shown marked originality, following the work of Bengalese like Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Bankim, who had cleared away many obstacles of British domination over native expression. Much has been written about the school at Bolpur to which, true to his promise, he has devoted funds from his award. In his essays, _Sadhana, or the Realization of Life_, are found several of the “student addresses” made here; the war caused changed conditions and frustrated some of the founder’s hopes. This school was started in 1902, approved by his father, and with the goal, “To revive the spirit of our ancient system of education ... to make the students feel that there is a higher and a nobler thing in life than practical efficiency.” At first, such a venture met with curiosity and some scorn. Parents sent here unmanageable or backward boys. They had simple surroundings and lived and slept outdoors; they sang chants as the birds begin their morning songs; they had time for individual prayer and thought, clad in white silk robes. They enjoyed games and long walks, simple food, no wine or meat, music in the evening and plays, written by Rabindranath Tagore; they wrote and illustrated school papers. There was self-government and close, brotherly relations between boys and teachers. Their scholastic work became satisfactory to the University at Calcutta. The boys were happy, often refusing to go home for their vacations, unless compelled to do so by their parents.