Sundarji Betai

Sundarji Gokaldas Betai (10 August 1905 – 16 January 1989) was Gujarati poet, critic and translator from India. Educated for a Masters in Gujarati, he taught Gujarati at SNDT Women's College for years. He was a prolific poet who had published nine poetry collections.

Biography Betai was born on 10 August 1905 in Bet Dwarka. He completed BA in English and Gujarati from University of Bombay in 1928, LLB in 1932 and MA in Gujarati and Sanskrit in 1936. Dwaipayan and Mitravarunau were his pseudonyms. Indradhanu (1939) has 111 poems divided in five sections. Visheshanjali (1952) has some poems influenced by the metres of folk songs while many poems have a sea as the metaphor. Sadgat Chandrasheelane (1959) is a long elegy divided in nine sections written in memory of his late wife in which he recounts his 36-year long married life.

He has translated William Moreton Condry's Thoreau, a biography of Henry David Thoreau, as Mahamanav Thoreau in Gujarati. He has also translated Thoreau's Walden in Gujarati.