Vivekananda's Ancient History
Vivekananda was born as Narendranath Datta on 12 January 1863 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He was the eldest of eight siblings in a traditional Bengali family. His father, Vishwanath Datta, was a successful attorney, and his mother, Bhubaneswari Devi, was a devout housewife. As a child, Narendranath was interested in a wide range of subjects, including science, philosophy, and literature. He was also skilled in meditation and had a deep interest in spirituality. He later became a disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna, and in 1887, he took the monastic name Vivekananda, which means "one who has attained enlightenment through knowledge."