Gaurishankar Govardhandas Joshi, better known by his pen name Dhumaketu, (18921965)

was a prolific writer, who is considered one of the pioneers of the Gujarati short story. He
published twenty-four collections of short stories, as well as thirty-two novels on social and
historical subjects, and plays and travelogues. His writing is characterized by a dramatic
style, romanticism and powerful depiction of human emotions.
Gaurishankar Goverdhanram Joshi was the third son of Goverdhanram Joshi. He was born on
12 December 1892 at Virpur, a place near Rajkot and Gondal in Gujarat State. Gaurishankar
served at Virpur School drawing a salary of four per month. During this period he was asked to
read biographies, historical novels etc. before Khatijabibi, who was the head master's wife. This
habit made Guarishankar to take deep interest in literature.

In 1908, he went to Bilkha a place close to Junagadh. He married Kashiben, the daughter of
Gaurishankar Bhatt. There was Nathuram Sharma's Ashram in Bilkha. It had a library with a
large collection of books. He took full advantage of it and graduated with Sanskrit and English in
1920. He served as a clerk at Gondal in railway for a year. In 1923, he left the government job
and went to Ahmedabad and started teaching at the private school run by Ambalal
Sarabhai (Father of Vikram Sarabhai). During this period his literary activities blossomed. His
pen name 'DHUMKETU' (Nome de plume) became well known in Gujarati literature. He
wrote 492 short stories. A collection of his short stories with the title 'TANKHA' was published in
1926. These four volumes of 'TANKHA' were a mile-stone in Gujarati literature. Dhumketu was a
pioneer in short stories. His literary work inspired a new generation of writers. His writing is
characterized by a poetic style, romanticism and powerful depiction of human emotions.
Along with short stories, he wrote novels, drama, stories and books for old people and children.
In all, he published more than 250 books in the various fields.
In 1935, he was awarded Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, the highest award in Gujarati literature,
which he refused to accept. He received Narmad Suvarna Chandrak for literary activities. He
served as an adviser to the Sahitya Academy, Delhi for Gujarati in 1957. He won the rare honour
to represent India in a book published in the USA with the title 'Stories From Many Lands'. This
was a collection of the best stories from sixty countries. His story 'The Letter' (Post Office) found
a place in it. Sahitya Academy, Delhi published this story in 'Contemporary Indian Short Stories'
and Penguin Books published in 'The Best Loved Indian Stories of The Century' (vol. II).









On 25th January 1932,Bholanath Jha Dhumketu was born in an elite family of village Koilakh; then this
village was the part of Raj Darbhanga. His forefathers were the resident of Ujjan village, but due to a matrimonial
tie in the family of eminent scholar Umapati Upadhayaya, they were inhabited in Koilakh.Being born in an
influential family, he got comfortable upbringing, but never distracted through the feudal manners. Although that
phase of his village life provided him chances to enter in the arena of letters and traditional knowledge.
Due to feudal leaning of his family he used to have chances to visit and spent times at various Zamindari of
Mithilanchal, but all such experiences could not altered his revolutionary and defying attitude towards the spoiling
feudal order.
Indeed, he was a man of uncompromising nature.he kept it throughout his life. His transformation from
Bholanath Jha to Dhumketu was an initiation of his revolutionary journey and his consistent switching in his
material life. That even later caused for his pauper material condition and premature death, which remained the
ultimate revelation of his struggle. Despite his nurtured family belongings, he was not a man of destiny. When he
reached the age of institutional learning, he could not get proper backing from his conflict ridden family.
He earned his education through hard means .He got first class in his Matriculation exam in 1949, in 1951 he
earned second class in his intermediate exam from Madhubani; this falling academic performance was caused by
his active involvement in progressive activism and extremely resonant association with local communist leaders.
He further proceeded to prestigious Patna University for pursuing his higher studies, where he qualified B.A
(1953) and M.A (1955) in Economics. After completion of his studies, he started working in Aryavarta press in
Patna where he kept working from 1955 to 1957.But he found the stint unsatisfactory because it was not
justifiable to his intellect.
So, finally he got away from his short tenure in Journalism and moved to a new voyage in academics. He joined
R.R Campus (Janakpur, Nepal) as a lecturer of Economics in 1957, and kept working for a considerable phase,
which ended in only in 1973. Meanwhile he got struck through a major blow with the untimely demise of his wife
in 1965; in 1968 he remarried.
Like Rajkamal Chaudhary, he was also a man of contradiction, which is evident from his family life and creative
productions where a lot of gap could be found between his revolutionary belief and its pragmatic action.
Though he spent a remarkable time of his academic working life in Nepal, but after the break of his stint in
Janakpur (Nepal) due to his resistance against the discriminatory Panchayati System introduced in Nepal; he
moved to his native place in Madhubani where he did two remarkable work by founding the two colleges in
nearby areas, despite this he remained unmindful for a stable career.
In 1980, he moved again to Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu, Nepal) as an Associate Professor of Economics
where he continued working till 1984 .He again got back to his home in 1984 because of personnel reasons,
afterwards kept himself aloof from any institutional profile until 1997, when he again joined Tribhuvan University
as Professor Emeritus where he keep working until close to his death on 6th August year 2000.
Once he quoted saying of famous philosopher T.S Elliot about the lifeWhere is the life, we are lost in living,
absolutely he refrained himself from absorbing in narrow aims of pleasure instead he lived in universal frame and
remained a universal seekers for understanding the true meaning of life. Undoubtedly he was an alluring
adventurist.
Literary J ourney: -
Dhumketu was a gifted story teller; he was endowed with the great lingual skills with his wide range of studies in
different languages including the world classics and humanities, which immensely contributed the development of
Maithili language. Since initiation, he was oriented towards prose. His first published story in Maithili was
Didi(sister,1952),which got high acclaim in literary circles that further encouraged him for more literary
productions. Though he was inclined towards the prose but later he had also found taste to pen some great
poetry in Maithili like Dak Peen (Postmen, 1956) and Ek Ber Pher Rajdhani Main(Once again in the capital,
1977); which deserves better attention.
Dhumketu had enormous impact of Freudian Psychology like his contemporary great writer Rajkamal Chaudhary;
they had many similarities in their ideology. Both defied the orthodox patterns of Maithil society and tried to
penetrate in very complex corner of human mind.
Dhumketu believed story as a struggle between ID and EGO, so inner conflicts of mind canopied every theme of
his literary stuffs. Once he wrote that I have no commitment to languages or literature only I am committed for
peoples; who are real cause of my creative engagement. He remained a peoples oriented writer throughout his
life.
He has written two memoirs in fond memory of his contemporary Rajkamal Chaudhary. First,Vishwasht
Avishwashniya (Confident Incredulous) and second, Suryapatan (Sunset).-both were published in Mithila Mihir
just after the premature demise of his contemporary friend. Even his two obscure articles posses all the qualities
to be called a master craft.
It was quite unfortunate for a great writer like him to see only one published collection of stories (Agurban, 1980)
in his life time, even though he masterly written more than forty stories, two novels and dozens of poems besides
some memoir, travelogues and articles .One among his novel Sannipat serially published in an obscure
magazine,Bharti Mandan, and his second novel Mor Par (On Turning, year2000) could be published only after
his death.
Two more works of him was published posthumously Udyast (collection of stories2002-03) and second one was
Nav Kavitak Navinta (Novelity of New Poems); though it could be a matter of solace for him but definitely he
deserved more credit for his lifelong contribution in literature.
For proper evaluation of his Maithili stories, we will have to back for a while to see his work in a new light.
Because like Baidyanath Mishra Yatri (Nagarjun, popularly known in Hindi literary world) and Rajkamal
Chaudhary, he had also shown immense effort to cultivate the old orthodox plot of Maithili Society. His every
work has binding with the lower strata of society and their daily struggle for existence besides this he also
exposed the pseudo moral constraint of authoritative class.
His three stories, Manukhak Devta (Mens God), Kulta (Characterless) and Bihairi (Storms) are genuinely
deserves to be ties with Yatris Paro (A short novel) and Rajkamal Chaudharys Sugna Sagun Bichare.
A very minute depiction of relationships which is often crossed the socially approved threshold are unique
characteristics of these stories. Dhumketu made utmost efforts to unleash the ugly orthodox norms of Maithil
society, sometime even he sounded overtly too much vocal and impatient about the existing deformities.
Two other less known story Hamara Aaur (We People)and Shivir (Camp) present a very candid delineation
of deteriorating morale.
There is a wide range of diversity in his creative plot, which being unleashed from reading his some more stories.
Like, Dansh presents a very complex relationship in a long span of time frame from Childhood to Young hood
within a set of desire between its male and female protagonist.
Sanbandh Bodh and Manukhak Devta presents two very different and unusual attitudes towards
relationship; Sambandh Bodh visualises lost relationship to an extreme level. On the other endManukhak
Devta (Mens God) narrates an awkward relationship between a maritally disturbed daughter and an aged
widower father.
The story constructed around the very close social fabrics but demonstrate very hard and unpleasant transaction
of conditions; this is an extremely serious work of Dhumketu, by which he tried to assault on the discriminatory
matrimonial structure of Mithila. Its ended with many question marks on social institutions. His, another story
Pita focused a very alluring relationship between father and son, in which father ethically superseded and
formatted a fine balance in family order.
In my views three of his stories deserve lot of accolades for its relentless sensible pursuits of throughout the
theme. First, Bauasin (Daughter in law) shows an acute picture of falling feudal structure in which its lone
survivor represents a metaphor of its demise. Second Vightan (Separation)lucidly visualises the child
psychology and its articulation on religious occasions, which ended with the honest confessions from its every
prime characters.
Third,Udyast establishes a micro observation of disabled and downtrodden peoples life, which are generally
overlooked from social inclusion. Indeed, Dhumketu proved his commitment towards peoples aspirations, which
assisted him to broaden his horizons and set out his desired creative world.
Dhumketu, reached to the zenith of his creativity by writing most comprehensive and detailed novel in Maithili
language Mor Par (On Turning, year 2000) which is based on time frame between 1945-1970, though also
consists some pictures of 1942 movements as well.
The novel emerges from the transformational phase of independence and in later course with the development of
happenings; it raises questions on relevance of Indian Independence. Like all the previous works, Dhumketu
reset the landscape of falling feudal order in which he analyzed the post independent rural India through creating
a family construct inside.
The protagonists Sadashiv Jha (Sada Bhai)and Guna, illustrates a complex set of relationship between them.
Guna being the cousin, daughter of Daijee and widow of fellow comrade Dukhran; impulses Sada Bhai to share
in her misfortune and tries best for her emancipation, but as the novel ended with the suicide of Guna, his efforts
turn into void. Before such outcome, Dhumketu very carefully dealt the class separation rather relying on cast or
religious parameter in Zamindari of Lal Bachha and his successor Bhaiya Jee.
Yashodar, father of sada presents typical position of a close confident under the limit of relationship, a class
divides frequently occurs during entire novel. On the other hand, second mother of Sadasiv represents unique
woman character of Maithili society, because of her ethical and affectionate character and with no worldly
lust.
Dhoomketu also successfully had shown the contradictory characters of revolutionary by comparing Suri Bhai
and Dukhran. Breakthrough of opportunities and defeat of sacrifice superbly produced by comparing these two
phase of communist movement. Indeed, his novel Mor Paris a masterpiece in Maithili language, which
authoritatively characterised the subtle incidents of contemporary Maithili society in a very responsive manners.
" No doubts he heightened the limit of literature in judging the social and individual ills. Dhumketu, like his name
secured his position in Maithili literature and awoken the mass people for their upliftment from impractical social
and moral constraints. He dreamt for a tolerant and egalitarian society, for which he remained incessantly aspired
throughout his life. A man can only perform his duty; it is up to successive generation how they rate the works
done in backliterary contribution of Dhumketu deserves a fresh look from literary commoners and luminaries! "