Shantiniketan is a famous university town in West Bengal. It is mainly known for the university set up by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, one of Bengal's greatest figures.
Shantiniketan also spelled Santiniketan, was previously called Bhubandanga (named after Bhuban Dakat, a local dacoit), and owned by the Tagore family. It is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath wrote many of his literary classics (namely Tagore songs, poems, novels etc) here, and his house is a place of historical importance.
In 1862, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath Tagore, came across a landscape, which he found to be very peaceful and an ideal place for meditating. He renamed it Shantiniketan.
