Munshi Premchand: India celebrates 136th Birth Anniversary of the Great Saint-Poet, Reformer and Philosopher

• Premchand was born as Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava in a village Lamahi near Varanasi on July 31, 1880
• Premchand had first adopted a pseudo name 'Nawab Rai' and wrote his first novel, 'Asrar e Ma'abid'
• 'Mangalsutra' was the novel, which never completed as he became terribly ill during his last years

"Beauty doesn't need ornaments. Softness can't bear the weight of ornaments" – a quote by Munshi Premchand, for Munshi Premchand on his birth anniversary. He doesn't need any introduction, as his works and words have always found a way to the deepest inner spaces in people's hearts.

NewsGram remembers Premchand on his 136th Birth Anniversary and here are few lines about him that will certainly bring you closer to the luminary and know him better as a person, the one who enlightened India and the world with his extraordinary ideas.

Premchand was one of the most notable novelists of Hindi literature. The aura of Hindi literature would not have been so sparkling without him. His softness was the part which helped him to relate to the people and the situations.

Here are some facts about Munshi Premchand-

• Premchand was born as Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava in a village Lamahi near Varanasi on 31^st July 1880. He was known for his modern Hindustani literature and was also conferred as Upanyas Samrat (king of novels).

• Premchand's mother died when he was just 7 and father was soon remarried. He did not have a good relationship with his stepmother. Premchand became gloomy after his mother's demise and found comfort in reading. Since then he had become an avid reader.

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• He married at an age of 15, but the marriage failed. Later he married a child widow, Shivarani Devi, in 1906. This step was revolutionary at that time and faced lots of criticism.

• After his father's demise, he became responsible for his step-mother and step-siblings. He had to discontinue his studies to earn for the family.

• His first job was a tuition teacher at an age of 15 to a lawyer's child and was given only Rs. 5 per month. It was only in 1900 he was offered a job as a teacher in Bahraich at District Government school. During this time, he started writing novels.

• Premchand had faced poverty throughout his life. There was a time when he took a loan of two-and-a-half rupees to buy new clothes and it took him 3 years for the repayment of the loan.

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• Premchand had first adopted a pseudo name 'Nawab Rai' and wrote his first novel, 'Asrar e Ma'abid', which deals with the corruptions among the priests and sexual exploitation of poor women.

• In 1921, when Gandhiji asked the people to leave their jobs, Munshi Premchand left his job despite the financial crisis and responsibility of his wife and children.

• After leaving his job, he came back to Varanasi and started his own printing press, named 'Saraswati' in 1923. Due to a financial crisis in 1934, he worked as a scriptwriter in Ajanta Cinetone production house and had written the script of the film-'Mazdoor.

• His most famous novel 'Godaan' was among his last works. The novel was later translated into English and made into a Hindi film in 1963. 'Mangalsutra' was the novel, which never completed as he became terribly ill during his last years. Unfortunately, he breathed his last on 8 October, 1936.

– by Aparna Gupta of NewsGram. Twitter @writetoaparna99

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