Nanalal Dalpatram Kavi was a noted author and poet of Gujarati literature, and was given a title of "Kavishwar" (God of Poets) by people of Gujarat.
Nanalal was born on March 16, 1877 as the fourth son of Dalpatram, the illustrious and popular poet of the second half of the last century, who was a pioneer of modern Gujarati Poetry. After passing his M.A., Nanalal served as a Headmaster of the Princes’ School at Sadra and later joined the Rajkumar College, Rajkot. He then became the Chief Justice of the Native State of Rajkot before becoming Education Officer for the whole of Kathiawad under the British Political Agency in 1918. He hailed Mahatma Gandhi on his 50th birthday as the Hermit of Gujarat in a memorable poem which he composed in 1919. When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, Nanala Kavi responded to it by resigning his Government post in 1921. He lived in Ahmedabad, wholly devoted to writing. He died on January 9, 1946 in adverse pecuniary conditions.
A romantic idealist in the tradition of the English romantic poets of the 19th century, Nanalal was a lyrical poet par excellence. He also wrote a number of plays and attempted narrative poetry on an epic scale, besides other literary forms like novel, short story, biography, essay and criticism. His books number more than eighty. Though he thoroughly imbibed tradition, he was a bold experimenter, true to his romantic spirit.
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