Kavi Dalpatram Chowk

Kavi Dalpatram Chowk is an open square with an image that commemorates the accomplished Gujarati poet, writer and Sanskrit scholar Dalpatram Dahyabhai Travadi.

Kavi Dalpatram was also a social reformer who wrote extensively against caste restrictions and child marriage. He mentioned the matter of widow remarriage at length in his poem, Vencharitra.

Kavi Dalpatram was a Gujarati poet and Sanskrit scholar who lived from 1820 to 1898 AD. A Brahmin from Wadhwan, Dalpatram was accomplished in Gujarati, Sanskrit and Vrajbhasha.

He came to Ahmedabad for his Sanskrit studies at the age of 24. Alexander Kinloch Forbes, a British colonial administrator, came to him to learn Gujarati. Dalpatram used to write poetry in Vrajbhasha and it was Forbes who encouraged him to write in Gujarati.

Forbes started Gujarat Vernacular Society and wanted to promote Gujarati literature.

Forbes and Dalpatram travelled all over Gujarat to collect manuscripts and transcribe oral works. Though largely a poet, Dalpatram encouraged by Forbes started writing persuasive prose to further his ideas of social reform and technological advancement.

Dalpatram also believed in urban civic reform.

Dalpatram wrote many noteworthy works like Laxmi Natak published in 1849, the first modern play in Gujarati, which was a take on Greek drama Plutus. He studied Sanskrit at the Swaminarayan temple. He was given the title of Mahakavi by Lord Sahajanand, the founder of the Swaminarayan Faith.

His son, Nanalal Dalpatram, was also a much-admired Gujarati poet.

The house where Kavi Dalpatram lived was destroyed around 2001 and is now the open square where you can see the statue of the poet commissioned in 2001 as a memorial. The house behind the square is a replica of the original house where the poet lived.

The chowk is also a stop on the Heritage Walk that begins at the Swaminarayan Temple in Kalupur.