Kavi Kalapi

Sursinhji Takthasinhji Gohel popularly known as Kalapi, was a renowned Gujarati poet. He was a king of Lathi-Gohilwad, located in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

Personal life

He was born to a royal family in 1874. He had a very short life of 26 years, he died in 1900. At the age of 15 years, he was married to two princesses. Rajba-Ramaba, the princess of Kach - Roha, and Second Kesharba-Anandiba, the Princess of Saurashtra-Kotada. Ramaba was elder to Sursinhji by eight years while Anadiba was elder to him by two years. When he was of 20, he fallen in love with seven year younger Shobhana, who was serving as a maid to his royal family. It is believed that, Kalapi's love for Shobhana became the reason of conflicts with Ramaba, and then the reason for his accidental death due to poisioning by his own wife.

Works

In spite of short life, poet Kalapi's creation was immense and enormous. His creation includes about 250 poems including 15,000 verses. Besides, he has also given us a number of prose writings. His 900 letters to his friends and wives brings the facts and truth in front of us. He not only used Gujarati language as his medium to elaborate his own creation but also translated four great English novels in Gujarati. In his relatively short life, he still managed to mentor a few budding poets who carried on his style of writing, evolved it & became very famous in their own right - the most prominent among these was the great Kavi Lalitji, who was about the same age as Kalapi & already an established poet when he was invited to the Lathi Darbar as a tutor for the Royal children. He came under Kalapi's influence, the two became great friends, and Kavi Lalitji went on to become the Rajya Kavi (Royal Bard) of Lathi.

All of Kalapi's creations, reading, study, and achievements were packed by him during the period of his age from 16 years to 26 years, i.e. in just a span of 10 years. He was the excellent poet in Saurashtra's history and was the glory of Lathi.