Dalpatram

Dalpatram Biography

Dalpatram Dahyabhai Travadi, popularly called Dalpatram was a famous poet who lived during the period, 1820–1898. Famous poet, Nanalal Dalpatram Kavi who wrote the prayer song, Asatyo mahe thi was his son. Dalpatram was a Sanskrit scholar and poet. He taught Gujarati language to Alexander Kinloch Forbes, a British colonial administrator who was interested in developing Gujarati literature and Gujarat Vernacular Society. He authored treatise, Pingal, which is used as a source book by many scholars over the past decades. He supported British rule for the benefits it gave India. He was given the title Mahakavi by Shahjanand Swami, the founder of Swaminarayan Sampraday.

He was born in 1820 in British India, present day Gujarat. As born into a Brahmin family, since childhood he was brought up in a religious background, chanting mantras and recitals. A child prodigy he composed ‘hondulas' at the age of 12. He moved to Ahmedabad at the age of 24. Brijbhasha was his mother tongue and he wrote poetry in Brijbhasha dialect than Gujarati. He didn’t know English. But he taught Alexander Kinloch Forbes the Gujarati language. Gujarati was considered as the lowest hierarchy language those days and Alexander Kinloch Forbes, who became a close friend of Dalpatram wanted to revive this language. He even inspired Dalpatram to write a Gujarati play - Laxmi Natak in 1849.

Found the Gujarat Vernacular Society, Forbes started Biddhiprakash periodical in 1850 to popularize Gujarati language. Dalpatram served as its editor for many years till 1878. When Forbes died in 1865, Dalpatram composed Farbesvirah, a Gujarati elegy and also Farbesvilas in his memory. He supported the good things which British rule gave to India; for instance, social reforms such as widow remarriage and abolishing child marriage. A bronze statue of Kavi Dalpatram weighing 120 kgs was installed in the year 2001, at the same place where his house got destroyed in 1985.

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Updated: February 27, 2016