________________
that happy age, poverty was heir to. And yet, when he died at the age of 67, he could look behind to a most energetic and remarkable career, having attained, long while ago, a considerable fortune, a leading place among the literati of Gujarât, a unique position as "Diwan-maker" in the less placid world of Native States' politics, and a name for organised benevolence, public as well as private.
Manassukharam had migrated to Bombay at an early age and had lived most of his life at Chinabag, where his home had gradually become a rallying-place of veteran Diwans and budding politicians, of men of light and learning who had made, or were about to make, their mark, of Pandits Shastries and Sa uyâsis well-versed in Vedant and in subjects of kindred interest, as well as of many a well-known figure of the public life and of the merchantile world of the city of Bombay. The kindly hospitality of Dahilakshmi, more familiarly known as Dahibâ (Bâ in Gujarati meaning mother), who was a model frouse-wife and universally loved for the amiableness of her disposition, must have added, as one can well imagine, only another charm to the home already so very distinguished.
Born, in 1867, of such parents and brought up thereafter in such a home, there was little wonder that young Tapasukba. ram should have developed a certain simplicity of manners, a shrewdness of mind and a love of learning, which only grew with years. After a successful career at the Elphinstone High School of Bombay, he joined the Elphinstone College which in those years could attract the best of the student world. Here Tapasukharam began to show a marked devotion to the study of Sanskrit literature and, having won in 1886 the Varjivandas Madhavdas Sanskrit Scholarship at the University Intermediate Examination, may be rightly said to have laid the foundation of that love of Sauskrit lore which distinguished him all through. out his later life.
In 1888 he took the B.A. degree of the University of Bombay, and, though he read for the Master's degree for some time, it was evident that he did not love examinations half as much as be loved learning itself. There is little doubt that while this love of Sanskrit learning must have been mainly fostered by his college studies and his college-teachers, among
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
