Dhansukhlal Mehta

Dhansukhlal Mehta
Born Dhansukhlal Krishnalal Mehta
(1890-10-20)20 October 1890
Wadhwan, Gujarat, India
Died August 29, 1974(1974-08-29) (aged 83)
Occupation Novelist, short story writer, humourist
Language Gujarati
Nationality Indian
Alma mater Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute
Genre Short story, novel
Notable works Ame Badha (1935)
Notable awards
Signature

Dhansukhlal Krishnalal Mehta was a Gujarati writer from Gujarat, India. He is considered a pioneer of Gujarati short stories. His humorous novel Ame Badha, co-written with Jyotindra Dave, is widely regarded as one of the best humorous novels in Gujarati literature. He received the Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1940 and the Narmad Suvarna Chandrak in 1957.

Life

Dhansukhlal Mehta was born on October 20th, 1890, at Wadhwan in Kathiawar (now in Surendranagar district, Gujarat). His family was native of Surat. After completing his schooling from Wadhwan Palitana and Surat, he obtained a diploma from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, Mumbai. From 1914 to 1925, he worked at different places in Mumbai, and in 1925, he joined Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. .[1]

He died on August 29th, 1974.[1]

Works

Dhansukhlal Mehta wrote short stories, plays, literary criticism, book reviews, an autobiography, and humorous essays. According to Mansukhlal Jhaveri, he was a pioneer of Gujarati short stories, and one of the first writers who depicted psychological conflicts of his characters.[2] His short stories dealt with the family life of contemporary time.[3] However, according to Encyclopedia of Indian Literature, he couldn't develop the short stories as an art form.[4] He profoundly studied humorous writers of the West. He started writing humorous essays, short stories, and sketches in 1908, his short stories appearing in Jnanasudha, a magazine edited by Ramanlal Desai.[5] Krishnalal Jhaveri wrote in Further Milestone in Gujarati Literature, "Dhansukhlal Mehta never goes far afield in search of humor, but finds it in the actual work-a-day life around him. His art can be fully enjoyed only by a man who has sometime or other lived in a small town in Gujarat, and as one read his works, he almost comes to love the everyday life of modern Gujarat in spite of its shortcomings."[6]

Hu, Sarla ane Mitramandal (1920) and Asadharan Anubhav ane Biji Vato (1924) are collections of his short stories.[7][8] In 1936, he co-wrote Ame Badha (lit. We All), a humorous autobiographical novel, with Jyotindra Dave. It was highly acclaimed and is widely regarded as one of the best humorous novels in Gujarati literature.[9][5] It was the second humorous novel in Gujarati, after Bhadrambhadra by Ramanbhai Neelkanth. According to Harshavadan Trivedi, it was the first co-written Gujarati novel.[1]

In collaboration with Gulabdas Broker, he wrote Dhumraser, a dramatization of Broker's short story of the same name.[2][10] His selected humorous works were edited by Vinod Bhatt and published as Hasya Visesha: Dhansukhlal Mehta in 2017.[11]

Awards

He was awarded the Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1940 for contributions to Gujarati literature. He received the Narmad Suvarna Chandrak in 1957 for Garib Ni Jhunpadi.[9][1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "સવિશેષ પરિચય: ધનસુખલાલ મહેતા, ગુજરાતી સાહિત્ય પરિષદ". Gujarati Sahitya Parishad (in Gujarati). Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  2. 1 2 Mansukhlal Maganlal Jhaveri (1978). History of Gujarati Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 166.
  3. ↑ Maharashtra State Gazetteers: Language and literature. Directorate of Government Printing, Stationery and Publications. 1953. p. 371. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Mohan Lal (1992). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 4041. ISBN 978-81-260-1221-3. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 Amaresh Datta (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 1602. ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  6. ↑ Jhaveri, Krishnalal Mohanlal (1956). Further milestones in Gujarāti literature (2nd ed.). Mumbai: Forbes Gujarati Sabha. p. 321. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ↑ K. M. George (1992). Modern Indian Literature, an Anthology: Surveys and poems. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 131. ISBN 978-81-7201-324-0.
  8. ↑ Nalini Natarajan; Emmanuel Sampath Nelson (1996). Handbook of Twentieth-century Literatures of India. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-313-28778-7.
  9. 1 2 Rekha Menon (1963). Cultural Profiles: Calcutta. Santiniketan. Inter-National Cultural Centre. p. 35. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  10. ↑ Proceedings. 1957. p. 288. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  11. ↑ "ધનસુખલાલ મહેતાનું હાસ્ય-ધન". divyabhaskar (in Gujarati). 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
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