Kalapi

Kalapi Biography

Sursinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil, popularly known by his pen name Kalapi was a popular poet associated with Gujarati language.  This romantic poet was known as John Keats of Gujarati literature. His poems reflected his love towards nature. He had a short life of about 26 years - 1874–1900. 1966 Gujarati film, titled "Kalapi" is based on his life. Bollywood actor Sanjeev Kumar played his role in this biopic. Started his poetic journey at the age of 16 he wrote in various Chhands of Gujarati language. In those 10 years he wrote 250 poems. He died of poisoning. A museum is set up in his residential town which gathers maximum inform about him and life history.

Sursinhji was born to the royal family of Lathi, Saurashtra in 1874. He studied at Rajkumar College, Rajkot. He was married to two princesses - Rajba-Ramaba and Kesharba-Anandiba. Both his wives were elder to him, Ramaba by 8 years and Anandiba by 2 years. Later Sursinhji fell in love with the maid of Rajba and it was rumoured that his love towards his maid resulted in conflicts with his wives and later he was poisoned by his wife, resulting in his death. His romantic poems were mostly dedicated to his love – Shobhana, the maid. As per another source, he married Shobhana and soon after marriage he lost interest in her and soon his mind moved to philosophical thoughts. Before he left the throne, he passed away. A third source says that the maid was poisoned to death by his first wife and heartbroken Kalapi wrote poems.

However in his short life, he wrote numerous poems under the pen name Kalapi. He contributed 250 poems with 15,000 verses to Gujarati literature apart from translating four English novels to Gujarati. He wrote all these works between his 16 and 26 years. He also mentored a few budding poets during his brief literal career. Kavi Lalitji was one among those budding talents prompted by Kalapi, who later became a famous poet. He wrote in various chands - Mandakranta, Shardulvikridit, Shikharini etc and he was the only Gujarati poet who wrote in maximum number of poems in these chands.

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Updated: February 27, 2016