The Visvabharati University is at Shantiniketan, three km from Bolpur. The brilliant and prolific poet, writer and nationalist Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) founded a school here in 1901. It later developed into a university with emphasis on humanity's relation with nature - many classes are conducted in the open air. Tagore went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1913 and is credited with introducing India's historical and cultural greatness to the modern world. In 1915 Tagore was awarded a knighthood by the British but he surrendered it in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar massacre.

There are colleges of science, teacher training, Hindi, Sino-Indian studies, arts and crafts, and music and dance. It's difficult to get the real atmosphere of the place if you're not studying here but there are a number of things to visit. There's a museum and art gallery within the Uttarayan complex where Tagore lived. The university is open to visitors in the afternoon but closed on Wednesday, the day the university was founded.Four km away is Sriniketan, started as a project to revitalise traditional crafts, such as kantha embroidery, weaving, batik and pottery.