________________
22. Sampadak Ratna Pandit Shri Nathuram Premi
Childhood and Young Age: This great man was born in 1881 AD at Devri village of Sagar District in Madhya Pradesh. The family was quite ordinary and belonged to Porvad, i.e. a merchant generation. Originally from Mewar, several families had shifted to Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh for better living. His grandfathers moved on horses for selling joggers, salt and other household provisions in distant village and earned hardly four or five paise at the close of the day. In these circumstances, Nathuramji was put up to a village school for study. He was very clever in study and always-maintained first or second rank in the class. His teachers loved him. He passed the teachers' training examination very easily and atonce got the service of a teacher. He was getting salary of one rupee and a half in the beginning, which came to be of rupees six at a later stage. He was therefore; habituated to live with minimum needs and this habit continued till the end of his life. He could, yet, save something because of his simple living without any avoidable habits and used all his savings for the publication of literary books and service to others. Panditji served as a teacher for about two years. He came in contact with poet Amirali in these days and he was interested in making poems. His poems were printed in periodicals like "Kavya Sudhakar", "Rasik Mitra" etc. He wrote his poems under the nickname of Premi. In addition to writing his own poems, he made investigation on other poems also. His contacts with poets, writers and literary critics increased slowly and he was drawn to expand the scope of his writings. He was transferred to Nagpur in these days but he could not keep well there and returned to his native place very shortly.
Towards Mumbai: Just in these days he came to read an advertisement for the post of a clerk at Mumbai Prantik Jain Sabha in a newspaper. He applied for the post and soon got the order to join there. This was a historical town in his life. He had no money for railway ticket to go to Mumbai but this well wisher Sheth Khubchandji arranged for his ticket and landed him Rs. 10. He, thus, joined the service of a clerk at Mumbai in 1901 AD. He had to make correspondence work for six-seven hours and maintain accounts of cash in his job. He had also to do editing of a monthly periodical Jain Mitra and post its copy of subscribers and others. He was learning Sanskrit, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali in his spare time. Once his master suddenly examined his cash and accounts. Nathuramji showed him all the books and accounts with cash. Everything was in order and the master was much pleased but Nathuramji told him that he would no longer serve on the post, as he (the master) had not trust in him. He was persuaded very much but he did not change his mind. He, however, continued to work for the periodical Jain Mitra. During his stay at Mumbai, Pandit Nathuramji came to know Shri Pannalalji Bakliwal, a great lover of literature. Shri Bakliwal had adopted life-long celibacy and had turned to the service of the people. He was known as Guruji-a great respected man in the local community. He was considered to be the most learned person among the Jains of these days. Nathuramji was deeply affected by his dedication, detachment, character and sympathetic nature. Premiji learnt Bengali from him. Pannalalji was also pleased to see the ability and selflessness of young Premiji and slowly entrusted him all the responsibility of the periodicals "Jain Hitaishi", "Jain Granth Ratnakar" and all of his officework. In the beginning Premiji had the help and co-operation of Shri Chhaganmalji, the cousin of Shri Bakliwal in the work connected with Jain Hitaishi reached the stage of one of the most outstanding periodicals of all India level under the editor-ship of Premiji.
118
