Kavi Kant

Manishankar Ratnji Bhatt, popularly known as Kavi Kant was a Gujarati poet, playwright and essayist. He is an innovator of Khandkavya, a typical Gujarati poetic form and narration of one episode. His book Purvalap is a landmark in Gujarati poetry.

Life Kavi Kant was born in Prashnora Brahman Family on 20 November 1867 in Chavand, a village in Amreli Prant of Baroda state, to Motibahen and Ratnaji Bhatt. His family's influence left him with a deep interest in both education and philosophy. He was a student of both Hindu and Biblical philosophy. He took his primary education at Mangrol, Morbi and Rajkot. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1888 from Bombay University with Logic and Moral philosophy subjects. He served as a teacher at Surat in 1889. From 1890 to 1898, he served as Professor and then Vice principal at Kalabhavan, Vadodara. He was on tour to Kashmir in 1923. While returning to Lahore from Rawalpindi in train, he died en route on 16 June 1923.

Literary work

He wrote one poetry book called Purvalap (1923) that was released on the day he died. He invented a form of poetry called "Khand-Kavya", one type of Narrative poetry, in Gujarati. He also wrote the plays Salimshah Athva Ashrumati, Roman-Swarajya, Dukhi Sansar and Guru Govindsinh between 1908 and 1914.