Mansukhram Tripathi

Mansukhram Suryaram Tripathi (; 1840–1907) was a Gujarati essayist, biographer, and thinker from British India. He led a conservative school of Gujarati writers who advocated avoiding the use of foreign words in writing and speaking, and promoted the use of Sanskrit or Sanskritised words. He was a cousin of the Gujarati writer Govardhanram Tripathi.

Biography Tripathi was born into a Vadnagara Nagar Brahmin family on 23 May 1840 in Nadiad in the British Indian state of Gujarat to his father, Suryaram, and mother, Umedkunwar. His father died when he was eight. He received his secondary and college education in Kheda and Ahmedabad. In 1861, he joined Elphinstone College, but left due to an eye-problem.

Tripathi was associated with several literary associations in Gujarat. He was one of the founder members of Farbus Gujarati Sabha and was a member of Buddhi Vardhak Sabha. In 1870, he founded Dharma Sabha in Ahmedabad and became editor of its organ Dharmaprakash. He founded the Dahilakshmi Library in Nadiad in memory of his wife Dahilakshmi.

In collaboration with Ranchhodbhai Udayram Dave, he wrote Shakespeare Katha Samaj, which presents abridged versions of Shakespeare's plays. He was one of the earliest and strongest proponents of a highly Sanskritized Gujarati language. He insisted on removing all words of Persian, Arabic or English origin from Gujarati and replacing them with Sanskrit words. As a result of this Ramanbhai Neelkanth, a liberal intellectual and a proponent of Western culture, targeted him in his novel Bhadrambhadra in which the protagonist insists on using highly Sanskritized language.