Nhanalal Dalpatram, Kavi

Born Mar. 16, 1877, in Ahmadabad; died there Jan. 9, 1946. Indian poet and dramatist. Wrote in Gujarati.

Nhanalal was the son of the writer Dalpatram. His first work was the lyrical narrative poem Spring Festival (1899). His lyrical drama Jaya-Jayanta (1914), in which he defended equal rights for women, is imbued with philosophical reflections. His translations into Gujarati included Kalidasa’s Messenger Cloud (1917) and Shakuntala (1926), as well as the long philosophical poem Bhagavad-Gita (1928) from the Mahabharata and Five Upanishads (1931). Nhanalal turned to historical subjects in his dramas Jahangir-Nurjahan (1928) and The Emperor Akbar (1930). In his multivolume epic poem Kurukshetra (1926–40; based on motifs from the Mahabharata), Nhanalal depicted the human suffering caused by war.