Poets

Nanalal Dalpatram Kavi (Gujarati: નાનાલાલ દલપતરામ કવિ) was a noted author, poet of Gujarati literature, and was given a title of "Kavishwar" (God of Poets) by people of Gujarat. His name is sometimes spelt Nhanalal.

Biography

Nanalal was born on March 16, 1877 as the fourth son of Dalpatram, the illustrious and popular poet of the second half of the last century, who was a pioneer of modern Gujarati Poetry. After passing his M.A., Nanalal served as a Headmaster of the Princes’ School at Sadra and later joined the Rajkumar College, Rajkot. He then became the Chief Justice of the Native State of Rajkot before becoming Education Officer for the whole of Kathiawad under the British Political Agency in 1918. He hailed Mahatma Gandhi on his 50th birthday as the Hermit of Gujarat in a memorable poem which he composed in 1919. When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, Nanala Kavi responded to it by resigning his Government post in 1921, whereafter he lived in Ahmedabad, wholly devoted to writing. He breathed his last on January 9, 1946 in adverse pecuniary as a gifted poet of our time.

A romantic idealist in the tradition of the English romantic poets of the 19th century, Nanalal was a lyrical poet par excellence. He also wrote a good number of plays and attempted narrative poetry on epic scale, besides other literary forms like novel, short story, biography, essay and criticism. His book..