PT. DAULAT RAM

PT. DAULAT RAM
(1692-1772)

The great devotional poet Pt. Daulat Ram was born at Vaswa town in erstwhile Jaipur State. Of Kasliwal gotra he was Khandelwal Jain. His birth name was Begraj. His father Anandram was in a senior service of the ruler of Jaipur and under his instructions lived at Delhi with Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur. He had expired in 1735 while Pt. Daulat Ram was 43 years old. After his father, his elder brother Nirbhaya Ram lived at Delhi with Maharaja Abhay Singh. No details are available of his another brother Bakhtawar Lai.

There are no details available about place of early living and education of Pt. Daulat Ram. Since his father held a senior service it is believed that he received good education in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Hindi.

He had no faith in religion in his childhood. On becoming young he is believed to have been employed by Maharaja Jai Singh before 1720 and sent to Agra, which in those days was the capital of Mughal empire and a prominent city and trade centre of Northern India. It was also a big centre of learning particularly of spiritual style (Saili). After 70 years of the death of Pt- Banarsi Das, the Saili established by him was developing under the guidance of Pt. Bhudhar Das. Attracted towards it, Pt. Daulat Ram became its member and gained importance in course of time. He left a good impression of his genius and intelligence. He started taking Shastra Sabha and on completion of lectures on Mahapuran completed his first prose work Punyashrava Kathakosh in 1720 while living at Agra.

There is no record available of the period of his stay at Agra. It is believed that before establishment of Jaipur in 1727 he had come back to Vaswa and after living there for some time had gone to Jaipur around 1728. Sawai Jai Singh honoured him and sent him to Mathura in 1730 to serve Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur. Impressed by his intelligence, he was appointed Diwan of Prince Madho Singh at Udaipur in 1736 while Rana Jagat Singh II ruled over that state (Udaipur) A year after Maharaja of Jaipur, sent him Siropao at Udaipur to honour his services. Like at Agra, the Jains of Udaipur had also great respect for him where he set up an Adhyatmik Saili. He visited Agarwal Digam- ber Jain Temple in Dhan Mandi and gave religious lecture there daily. He composed Trepan Kriyakosh at Udaipur and thereafter completed Adhyatma Barahkhari by 1741, his biggest poetic composition. In 1748, he completed Jiwandhar Charit, He came to Jaipur by 1750 and settled there on Sawai Madho Singh's becoming its ruler in that year and became his Minister. He is believed to have retired from State service around 1770, during the rule of Maharaja Prithvi Raj Singh, after serving the state for about 50 years. He was a generous and kind hearted person and had great regard for Pt. Todarmal whom he used to visit frequently. Inspired by Pt. Todarmal he wrote 8 big and important books during 1759-1772. After the death of Pt. Todarmal he completed his incomplete Tika on Purusharthasidhupaya in 1770 on the request of Diwan Ratan Chand. Harivansh Puran was his last prose work in 1772 during which year he had expired.

18 literary works of Pt. Daulat Ram, traceable so far, are classified as under :

Original Works : Trepan Kriyakosh, Jiwandhar Charit, Adhyatma Barahkhari, Vivek Vilas, Shrenik Charit, Shripal Charit, Chaubis Dandak, Sidha Pujashtak.

Translations : Punyashrava Kathakosh, Padam Puran, Adi Puran, Purusharthasidhupaya, Harivansh Puran, Parmatma Prakash sar Samuchhaya.

Tavva Tikas : Tatwarth Sutra Tavva Tika, Vasunandi Shravakachar Tavva Tika, and Swami Kartikeyanupreksha Tavva Tika. There have been several other scholars named Daulat Ram. More popular among them was Pt. Daulat Ram of Hathras who had composed Chhaidhala.