15. Rev. Baba Padmanjee, first Marathi novelist, missionary
Rev. Baba Padmanji (Padamanjee) well known as the first novelist in Marathi literature. The novel 'Yamunaparyatan' written by him in 1857 is recognised as the first novel in Marathi language. The novel highlighted the problems faced by widows in the 19th century and advocated remarriages for them. Padmanjee wrote about 150 Marathi books including collection of essays, autobiography, and dictionaries. A missionary to the core, Padmanjee was a social worker as well. He exposed and criticised many evil customs in the society of his time, through his literature.
Baba Padmanjee was born in Belgaum in Karnataka in May 1831. His full name was Baba Padmanjee Mulay. However, as per the custom prevailing then, he did not use his surname. He belonged to the 'Kansar' (metal vessel makers) caste. His father Padmanjee Manikjee who was a sub assistant surveyor and a builder in South Konkan was posted to Belgaum. Padmanjee studied at the The London Mission School in Belgaum. He later joined Elphinston School of Mumbai in 1847.
Merely a year later, he married as per Hindu rights and quit the school. Due to his father's posting, he stayed in Eden in 1848. On his return, he joined Free Church School at Kalbadevi in Mumbai in 1849. There was a teacher, Narayanshastri Sheshadri, who was originally a Chitpawan Brahmin but got converted to Christianity.
During this period, Baba Padmanjee's views about customs in Hindu society and casteism underwent change. He became a member of the Paramhans group, a reformist organisation functioning secretly. The objective of Paramhans group was to bring about reforms in Hindu society by abolishing casteism, eschewing idolatry, and propagating remarriages for widows. However, considering the strong opposition of the orthodox people to these reforms, the group met and held discussion with great secrecy. Later, one of the members of the group betrayed the group and disclosed the list of members in public. The release of the list created a great sensation and turmoil in society. There was a rumour that these members had an inclination towards Christianity and all of them would sooner or later get converted to Christianity.
Learning of this development, Baba Padmanjee's father immediately summoned Baba to his home at Udatare near Satara. His relatives persuaded Baba not to embrace Christianity. Under tremendous emotional pressure, Baba took a vow that he would not accept Christianity at least during the lifetime of his father. With this assurance, Baba was allowed to return to Mumbai, two months later.
Baba Padmanjee embraced Christianity in September 1854 at Belgaum. He was 23 years old then. He has explained the reasons for his conversion in an article published in Christian Marathi periodical 'Dnyanodaya'. The news of his conversion was published in many other Marathi periodicals and caused a great sensation in society. In the Marathi periodical 'Dnyanaprakash', following comment were published –
"Baba Padmanjee Kansar of Mumbai embraced Christianity on the 20th of the last month at Belgaum. This news has been published in several newspapers. One of our friends has received a personal letter, which reveals that, this person (Baba) also tried to take his wife along. But she refused. Baba Padmanjee has learnt English. His inclination towards Christianity has been there for a very long time. He has authored books in Marathi on subjects like women's' education, anti-idolatry and essays on various subjects."
In another periodical 'Vartamandipeeka,' the following news was published with a satirical comment - "There was news everywhere, which we according to a reliable source confirm to be true. We cannot call him 'Rajashri' but Baba Padmanjee could be called as 'Mister', who at Belgaum embraced Christianity by getting baptism from Rev. Taylor. His knowledge of English is good. Let Baba get salvation at least in Jesus' holy name. Hopefully, he does not pick up a new religion every day like Baliram.''
After embracing Christianity, Padmanjee persuaded his wife to embrace Christianity and to stay with him. However, having failed in his endeavor, he divorced his wife in1858 and married Serabai according to Christian rights in 1860. Twelve years later, when she died, he married her sister Hannabai. The second Christian wife also died in 1879 and he married for the third time in 1881. This wife died in 1890.
After conversion, Baba lived in Pune for nearly 16 years. He was a teacher in Free Church School. On April 7,1867, he was ordained a pastor of the Free Church Mission. Having worked as pastor for about five years, Baba devoted himself to writing fulltime. He ran many periodicals. In 1878, Padmanjee accepted editorship of the Bible and Tract Society in Mumbai. During this period, Baba wrote a lot. As the editor at the Bible Society, his responsibility was to correct Marathi translations of Bible and also proof read the matter. He was also a member of the translation committee of the Bible Society.
Baba Padmanjee appears to have been quite popular in the Christian community. Special functions were organised to celebrate the 40 and 50 years of his conversion and these functions found mention in newspapers of those time.
Rev. Baba Padmanjee enriched Marathi literature as he wrote for 50 years, from 1852 to 1906. He earned a prominent place for himself in Marathi literature due to the large number of essays, dictionaries, thesaurus, biographies and autobiography written by him. Poet Narayan Vaman Tilak acknowledged him as the father of Marathi Christian literature and research scholar Rev. Bhaskarrao Ujagare has described him the 'Bhishmacharya (pioneer) of Christian Literature'.
Baba was a prolific writer. Some of his works became extremely popular. His autobiography 'Arunoday' has been translated into many languages. Besides, he ran periodicals like 'Udayprabha', Satyadipika (Dhakati), 'Satyadipika (Thorli), 'Satyawadi', 'Kutumbmitra', and 'Aikyadarshak'. He wrote in different forms of literature in these periodicals for 30-35 years and addressed several social problems.
Baba Padmanjee and Pandita Ramabai, another veteran missionary and social reformer from Maharashtra, were contemporaries. Prior to their conversion, both were scholars of Hinduism and therefore, their conversion to Christianity caused a sensation in society. Later, both these scholars devoted themselves to missionary work. However, the paths of these two veterans were totally different. Pandita Ramabai on becoming Christian took a vow of social service and dedicated herself for welfare of child widows, orphan children and their education. For several years before and after her conversion, she was constantly in the limelight and had to face severe criticism of the orthodox sections of society. This was the same fate meted out to other social reformers like Mahatma Jotiba Phule, his wife Savitribai, and also Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. Ramabai faced the criticism bravely and refused to abandon the path she had chosen. Baba Padmanjee too was a social reformer to the core, but his main arena was literature. He had a strong difference of opinion with Pandita Ramabai on certain issues. He too had severely criticised her in the 'Dnyanoday', a Marathi periodical published by the Christian missionaries.
Baba Padmanjee had very cordial relations with Mahatma Phule, one of the pioneers of social reforms in Maharashtra. Padmanjee used to write many articles signed as B.P. He wrote a preface to 'Brahmanache Kasab' (Skill of the Brahmins) authored by Mahatma Phule and signed it as B.P. Baba had also done proofreading of ' Shivajicha Powada' (A song in praise of Shivaji Maharaj) written by Mahatma Phule. The life and works of Mahatma Phule inspired Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar to fight the evil custom of untouchability.
When Mahatma Phule launched his work for the upliftment of neglected sections of society like child widows, women, and other downtrodden sections, he had to face tremendous opposition. Padmanjee always stood by him as a friend and writer. Senior researcher Y. D. Phadke in his book 'Visavya Shatakatil Maharashtra' (Maharashtra in the 20th century- Volume - I) has noted that, missionaries like Baba Padmanjee, through his periodicals 'Satyadipika', and ' Dnyanodaya', always stood by Phule.
Padmanjee’s literary works in Marathi were regularly published with several editions to follow. Of course, his advertising acumen and his marketing strategies for reaching out to the readers proved very useful.
Padmanjee retired at the age of 71 in 1902 after working for 25 years as editor of the Bible and Tract society. For the remaining years of his life, he got pension from this institution. This great scholar and a social leader passed away on August 29, 1906 in Mumbai at the age of 75. He was interred at the Shivadi graveyard in Mumbai. A plaque in his memory was erected at the cemetery on the occasion of his 100th death anniversary in 2006.
Dr Keshav Sitaram Karadkar, a biographer of Baba Padmanjee, has lauded the literary and social values of the Marathi novel, 'Yamunaparyatan' written by Padmanjee. The book deals with the predicament of widows in the 19th century. The state of widows and their remarriages was a flashpoint in the 19th century. This novel had a 27-page Sanskrit preface written by a veteran social reformer Dadoba Pandurang. The author along with the novel also published the Marathi summary of this preface, consisting of 18 pages. In his preface, Dadoba Pandurang emphasised remarriage of child widows. The subtitle of the novel was 'Hindusthani Vidhavanchya Sthitiche Nirupan' (The exposition of state of Indian widows).
Yamuna, the protagonist of the novel 'Yamunaparyatan', embraces Christianity. This seems to have put off many literary critics and scholars who alleged that Baba Padmanjee had written the novel only to propagate Christianity. As a result the novel was denied it’s due literary value and rightful place as the first novel in Marathi language. Some of these critics went to the extent of denying it the status of first novel in Marathi language due to its 'pro-Christianity' angle. The recognition and honour of being the first Marathi novelist eluded Baba Padmanjee for a long time. It was left to his biographer, Karadkar, to conclusively prove the literary value of this novel and to restore Padmanjee's honour as the first Marathi novelist after his death.
'Yamunaparyatan', which brought an important social issue of the nineteenth century on the anvil, drew a great response during Baba's lifetime itself. To facilitate these literary works reach maximum readers, Padmanjee adopted various marketing techniques like pre-publication discounts and advertisement of his literary works. Consequently, during his lifetime, three editions of this novel were sold out. Notwithstanding the comments about the literary and other values of the novel, there was a great applause from the readers.
In the second edition of the novel, Padmanjee published a list of those who purchased copies of the novel. The list comprised of veterans like Dadoba Pandurang, Jagannath Shankarsheth, Lokahitwadi Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Mahatma Jotiba Phule, Sheikh Dawood Gulam Mohammad, educationist Rev. John Wilson and Rev. Narayanshastri Sheshadri, Marathi dictionary composer James T. Molsworth, and others. Baba Padamanjee's novel was selected for studies at University level and later it became a subject for Ph. D. thesis.
Baba Padmanjee published a thesaurus titled 'Shabdaratnawali' in 1860. This was the first thesaurus in Marathi. It was based on 'Roget’s Thesaurus', a dictionary of parallel words written by senior English dictionary composer Peter Mark. The first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus was published in 1852. Rev Padmanjee published 'Shabdaratnawali' eight years later.
Padmanjee published 'A Comprehensive Dictionary- English and Marathi' in 1860. The second and third editions of the dictionary with more than 20,000 words were published in 1870 and 1889, respectively.
'A compendium of Molesworth Marathi and English Dictionary' was yet another dictionary brought out by Baba. The first edition of this dictionary was published in 1863. The revised editions were published in 1875, 1882, and 1890. These editions indicate the response from the readers.
Dr. Bhimrao Kulkarni, in his preface to the Marathi book 'Baba Padmanjee: Kal Wa Kartutwa' writes - " Ever since his childhood the power of religion had captured Padamanjee's mind and when still young he converted to Christianity. Through his devotion to Jesus, he wrote a commentary on the New Testament. He carried out a comparative study of Christianity and Hinduism. He published many periodicals, wrote booklets and ran schools. He was extremely dedicated to writing and printing about European Christian missionaries. He enclosed bibliographies even for small booklets for the convenience of readers. He resorted to attractive advertisements to communicate to readers. He ensured that his books reached readers by offering pre-publication discounts. His role appears to be mainly of an author of an encyclopedia, when one studies his compilation of essays, commentary on Bible and clarifying ideology of Hinduism."
References:
1. 'Baba Padmanjee: Kal Wa Kartutwa' - Dr. Keshav Sitaram Karadkar, Maharashtra Rajya Sanskruti Mandal, Mumbai 400 032. (1979).
2. 'Yamunaparyatan Athawa Hindusthanatil Vidhawanchya Sthitiche Nirupan' - (Marathi) Baba Padmanjee, Snehwardhan Prakashan, Publishers - L. V. Tawre, 4, Sharda, Pashan Road, Opp Abhimanshree Society, Pune 411 008 (Fifth edition 1994).
3. 'Visavya Shatakatil Maharashtra (1901-1914)' (Marathi) First volume - Yashawant Dinkar Phadke, Publisher - Saswad Ashram Wishwast Mandal, Dist: Pune, Distributors - Shrividya Prakashan, 250, Shaniwar Peth , Pune- 411 030 (1989).
