Ranjitram Mehta

Ranjitram Mehta
Portrait of Ranjitram Mehta
Portrait of Ranjitram Mehta
Native name
રણજિતરામ વાવાભાઇ મહેતા
Born(1881-10-25)25 October 1881
Surat, Bombay Presidency, British India
(present-day Gujarat, India)
Died4 June 1917(1917-06-04) (aged 35)
Bombay, British India
OccupationResearcher, writer
LanguageGujarati
NationalityIndian
EducationBachelor of Arts
Alma materGujarat College
Notable worksRanjitram Gadyasanchay 1-2 (1982)
ChildrenAsoka Mehta

Ranjitram Vavabhai Mehta (25 October 1881 – 4 June 1917) was a Gujarati language writer from British India.

Biography[edit]

Mehta was born on 25 October 1881 in Surat to Vavabhai. He completed his schooling in Ahmedabad where his father was the Chief Engineer of the Ahmedabad Municipal Committee.[1] He completed Bachelor of Arts from Gujarat College in 1903 and served as a fellow for eight months. From 1906 to 1917, he served as a personal assistant of Prof. Gajjar and Prabhashankar Pattani, Dewan of Bhavnagar State. He had served as principal of high school at Umreth in 1905.[2][3]

He founded Gujarat Sahitya Sabha in 1904 and Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in 1905.[4][5] He died on 4 June 1917 by drowning in sea at Juhu beach. The highest award of Gujarati literature and culture, Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, is named after him.[3][6]

His son Asoka Mehta (1911-1984) was an Indian independence activist and socialist politician.[1][7][8]

Works[edit]

Mehta worked in different genres of literature such as essay, novel, drama and short story. Ranjitkruti Sangrah, a collection of his writings, was published posthumously in 1921 by K. M. Munshi. Ranjitramna Nibandho, a collection of his essays, was also published posthumously in 1923. Gujarat Sahitya Parishad published his complete work as Ranjitram Gadyasanchay 1-2 in 1982 on his birth centenary. Gujarati Sahitya Akademi has published Ranjitram Vavavbhai ane Temnu Sahitya.[6] His Ahmad Rupande (1908) was a love story between Hindu girl and Muslim boy.[9] In 1905, he had coined the Gujarati words Lokgeet and Lokkatha for folklore in a paper presented at Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.[10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Verinder Grover (1994). Asoka Mehta. Deep & Deep Publications. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-81-7100-567-3.
  2. ^ Topiwala, Chandrakant, ed. (1999). "Ranjitram Mehta". Gujarati Sahitya Kosh (Encyclopedia of Gujarati Literature) (in Gujarati). Ahmedabad: Gujarati Sahitya Parishad. p. 463.
  3. ^ a b "રણજિતરામ વા. મહેતા" [Ranjitram V Mehta]. Gujarati Sahitya Parishad (in Gujarati). Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  4. ^ Desai, Padma (1 November 2014). From England with Love: An Indian Student Writes from Cambridge (1926–27). Penguin UK. p. 115. ISBN 9789351189022.
  5. ^ Chandra, Sudhir (13 August 2014). The Oppressive Present: Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonial India. Routledge. p. 220. ISBN 9781317559931.
  6. ^ a b Parekh, Madhusudan. "Mehta Ranjitram Vavabhai". In Thakar, Dhirubhai (ed.). Gujarati Vishwakosh. Vol. 15. Gujarati Vishwakosh Trust. pp. 524–525.
  7. ^ Himmat. Vol. 2 Part 2. May 1976. p. 496.
  8. ^ Mainstream. N. Chakravartty. 1994. p. 36.
  9. ^ Das, Sisir Kumar (2000). History of Indian Literature. Sahitya Akademi. p. 309. ISBN 9788172010065.
  10. ^ Chattopadhyaya, D. P.; Ray, Bharati. Different Types of History: Project of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Volume XIV Part 4. Pearson Education India. p. 538. ISBN 9788131786666.

External links[edit]