Poet Narmad
V.N. O'key/Kamat's Potpourri
Poet Narmad (1833-1886)
Portrait in India ink by V.N. O'key
Narmadashankar Dave popularly known as 'Narmad' was a personality of varied talents. He was hailed as the first modern Gujarati writer with a versatile mind. A romantic poet, the father of Gujarati prose, an essayist, a dramatist, a historian, a lexicographer, a critic and a thinker, he dwelt not only in the realm of ideas and literature but of social reforms as well. He campaigned against superstition and fervently pleaded for widow remarriage, a reform he practiced in his own life and demonstrated that he followed what he preached.
