Harilal Harshadrai Dhruv (10 May 1856 – 19 June 1896) ( gu, હરિલાલ ધ્રુવ) was a lawyer, poet, editor,

indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') i ...

and scholar of

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as ...

. Educated in Arts and Law, he served as a teacher and later as a judge of

Baroda state Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its ...

. He was interested in

oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern stu ...

. He wrote poetry and edited some works too.

Life

Dhruv was born in Hindu

Nagar Brahmin The Nagar Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Gujarat. Author T. Sasaki says, Among Brahmins in Gujarat Nagar Brahmins were most prominent subdivision in the political, economic and social activities of this r ...

family in 1856. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1873 and LL.B in 1880. Dhruv worked as a teacher from 1881 to 1885. Later he started his law career as a pleader from

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is ...

, and was elevated to post of District and Session Judge of

. He was sent as a representative of

Bharuch Bharuch (), formerly known as Broach, is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since ti ...

in the annual session of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

in 1898 by Baroda state. In 1882, Dhruv founded ''Prajahita Vardhak Sabha'' in Surat with Ukabhai Parabhudas. He left by SS. Maria Theresa and attended the eighth

International Congress of Orientalists The International Congress of Orientalists, initiated in Paris in 1873, was an international conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

and Christiania as representative of Baroda in 1889 where he was honoured with Doctor of Literature and Arts. He was a member of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

and the

Anthropological Society of London The Anthropological Society of London (ASL) was a short-lived organisation of the 1860s whose founders aimed to furnish scientific evidence for white supremacy which they construed in terms of polygenism. It was founded in 1863 by Richard Francis ...

. Dhruv received Ph.D. from

Berlin University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. His brother

Keshavlal Dhruv Dewan Bahadur Keshavlal Harshadrai Dhruv (17 October 1859 – 13 March 1938), also spelt as Keshavlal Harshad Dhruva and known by his pen name Vanmali, was a research scholar, philologist, critic, editor of Middle and Old Gujarati works, ...

was also author, editor and translator. He died in 1896.

Works

His initial poetry was influenced by medieval Gujarati, medieval Hindi and classical

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

poetry while his later poetry was influenced by English poetry and

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. ''Kunjavihara'' and ''Pravasapushpanjali'' are the collections of poems. ''Kunjavihara'' has section of patriotic songs titled ''Swadesh Bhakti''. ''Aharmimansa'', ''Aryotkarsha Vyayog'', ''Laghu Chanakya'', ''Vasant Vilasija'', ''Prana Gujarati Sahitya Ratnamala'' are his other works.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhruv, Harilal Gujarati-language writers 19th-century Indian lawyers Indian editors Indian male poets Indian Indologists Indian Sanskrit scholars 1896 deaths 1856 births 19th-century Indian journalists Indian male journalists 19th-century Indian male writers Poets from Gujarat Journalists from Gujarat Scholars from Gujarat

Life

Works

Bibliography

See also

References