Chandulal Bahecharlal Patel - who edited the encyclopaedic Gujarati lexicon Bhagavadgomandal, while also leading the education portfolio of Gondal state. This unique lexicographer was born on 5th August 1889 to state poet laureate Bahecharlal, a man of great moral convictions writing under the pen name “Vihari”. Viahriji had translated the national song Vande Mataram from Bengali into Gujarati, and this version was sung regularly in all schools of Gondal state. Chandulal – steeped in the values imbibed in him by his mother Manibai received his primary education in Bhayavadar moving to Gondal for his intermediate classes before joining Bhavnagar’s Shamaladas college for higher education. His association with significant personalities like Motibhai Amin, the literary figure Kant, Himatlal Anjaria, the monk Akhandanand etc. kindled a strong passion for service to society and nation. To that end, he joined “Patidar yuvak Mandal” as soon as he completed his matriculation. Chandulal started his career in 1916 as examiner in Gondal state’s education department, moving onwards to heading the function by 1926.
Passion and duties synchronised in this position. He started by gaining the Maharaja’s consent for making female education compulsory across Gondal state. Next he turned to adult education, and set up facilities for that objective. He supervised the writing and or compilation of rapid readers for schools that inspired and encouraged service to the nation, and similar nationalistic thoughts. He was a key organiser for the “Kathiawad political conference”. He had Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji’s full support who also arranged for whatever resources Chandulal needed. He promptly instituted required reforms for shelters for the abandoned and helpless citizens of Gondal.
Chandulal had been significantly influenced by thoughts and writings of the poet Narmad. This led to the formation of the “Premshaurya Society”. (the word Premshaurya has been adopted from one of Narmad’s famous poems of National fervour, and means “love for bravery” or “love and bravery”). This Society was the platform for various other activities like setting-up a student’s hostel, starting the “Patelbandhu” (Patel Clan) monthly magazine, and a Patel specific students’ hostel as well. The 1915 Literature Conference held in Surat, saw the conference president Ranjitram Mehta assigning Chandulal the responsibility of preservation of old manuscripts, copper plates and even some rock edicts. Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji had noted Chandulal’s integrity and dedication to details and his work ethic, and identified him for an enormous project that Bhagavatsinhji had in mind. He gave the overall project responsibility for compiling and editing a comprehensive Gujarati lexicon. The Maharaja himself was quite the enlightened regent and scholar and he collected the words, meanings, etymology and Chandulal got all that organised and cognitively arranged. He was absolutely convinced that none but Chandulal could do this job.
Chandulal on the other hand was delighted to receive this responsibility, and toiled for the next 29 years on this task. Bhagavatsinhji had a lexicon department in his own office and they had collected over twenty thousand words by 1928, and it was then on 1st Oct 1928, that the task of editing this collection and organising the structure of a lexicon started in earnest. This task was above and beyond Chandulal’s day job as education officer of Gondal state, and he worked regular hours on that job, before a 7pm to 10pm session working on the lexicon.
Ten years later in 1938, The first volume of “Bhagavadgomandal” across 902 pages was published. It contained all words starting with “a” through “å” a total of 26,687 words. The next volume was published 6 years later in 1944, and the speed of compilation increased to the extent that volumes 7 and 8 were published in 1953 and the final 9th volume was out in 1954. Chandulal devoted all his time to this project after retiring from his job as education officer (post-independence, his employment had shifted to the government of Saurashtra). His work ethic and attention to details shines from every page of Bhagavadgomandal. All completed at a thrifty cost of Rupees 2,72,450. The Saurashtra government awarded him an ex-gratia sum of Rupees 11,000 in appreciation of completing this stupendous task. Similarly, The Gujarat Literary Council awarded Chandulal the “Ranjitram Gold Medal” - even though he was not a literary figure – in appreciation of the humongous task of editing the Bhagavadgomandal. Unfortunately, by the time Bhagavadgomandal was completed, Maharaja Bhagavatsinhji himself was no more. But his successor Gondal’s new regent Vikramsinhji awarded him a sum of Rupees 1500, with the comment that “the major credit for completing the lexicon under Bhagavatsinhji’s direction goes to Chandulal Patel, the ex-Gondal state education officer.”
Chandulal had also edited “Gandhigyankosh”, and edited a compilation of Gandhiji’s thoughts under the title “Gandhi Vichaarratno” – Gems of Gandhiji’s thoughts, which had subsequently become a prescribed textbook of Gujarat University. The Rapid reader series created under Chandulal’s supervision had been adopted by other princely states of Saurashtra as standard reading in schools.
Chandulal suffered a stroke later on in his years – well after retirement. A related poignant incident has been described in Rajnikumar Pandya’s biography of Chandulal titled “Shabdayogi” – Wordsmith. Mobility of his right arm had suffered due to the stroke, and he could not write with his right hand. Some papers related to his pension needed his signature, and his trusted assistant of any years suggested a solution – a thumbprint of his left hand. Chandulal – normally a person of even temperament hardly ever given to anger, blew up! He scolded his assistant with the words, “Not a single girl in Gondal state puts her thumbprint on paper, and you want me to put mine on this paper! Take it away, I don’t want a pension!” Such was his pride in his achievements, he would rather not get his pension, than use his thumb print to get it!
Ravaji Gabani
Article written in Nov. 202 Sandesh Vadodara city edn.
