Sakharam Arjun (sometimes Sakharam Arjun Ravut in official documents [1] but he did not use the caste-linked surname in publications) (1839-16 April 1885) was a physician and social activist in Bombay. An expert on Indian medicinal plants, he was one of the two Indian founding members of the Bombay Natural History Society. [2] [3] He became the step-father of the pioneering woman physician Rukhmabai (1864-1955) after he married her widowed mother Jayantibai. He also wrote books in Marathi.
Arjun was born in Mumbai and lost both his parents by 1850. [4] Arjun studied at Elphinstone Institution and joined Grant Medical College as a Stipendiary Student in 1858. His tutor was Narayan Daji, brother of Bhau Daji. Arjun received a Licentiate of Medicine from the Bombay University in 1863. [5] He joined to teach medical botany and was made an assistant, the first Indian in the position, to William Guyer Hunter. He worked at the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital and was for sometime in charge of the ward for incurables. [6] He conducted experiments on the therapeutic value of oils like chaulmoogra and cashew nut in the treatment of leprosy. He was later appointed Assistant Surgeon. Sakharam was interested in public education on health and published Vaidyatatva (1869), Garbhavidya va Prasutikaran (1873), Vivahavidnyan (1877) among others. He also subscribed to The Theosophist writing a note on Physiology of Marriage in 1880.(p. 186) Sakharam Arjun married Jayantibai, the widow of Janardhan Pandurang, and supported his step-daughter Rukhmabai who was married as a child and refused to go to live with her husband. This led to a landmark court case and Rukhmabai later went to study medicine in London (with the assistance of others like Edith Pechey Phipson) to become one of the first Indian women doctors. In 1883, Sakharam Arjun was one of two Indian founding members (the other being Atmaram Pandurang) of the Bombay Natural History Society. [7] Arjun had been one of the presidents of the Bombay Medical Union. [8] Sakharam Arjun died before the Rakhmabai case came to an end. [9] He died on 16 April 1885 leaving Jayantibai (died 10 January 1904) and three sons from his first marriage, Vasantrao, Yeshwantrao and Raghunathrao. [10]
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, endeared as Lokmanya, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence activist. He was one third of the Lal Bal Pal triumvirate. The British colonial authorities called him "The father of the Indian unrest". He was also conferred with the title of "Lokmanya", which means "accepted by the people as their leader". Mahatma Gandhi called him "The Maker of Modern India".
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publishes the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Many prominent naturalists, including the ornithologists Sálim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley, have been associated with it.
The Grant Government Medical College is a public medical college located in Mumbai, India. It is affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Founded in 1845, it is one of the oldest medical colleges in South Asia. Its clinical affiliate is Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, a conglomerate of four hospitals in South Mumbai including Sir J.J. Hospital, St George Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital and Cama and Albless Hospital.
Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, commonly known as the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, was an organisation in India that advocated for a separate Marathi-speaking state in Western India and Central India from 1956 to 1960.
Pandurang Vaman Kane was an Indian academic, historian, lawyer, Indologist, and Sanskrit scholar. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1963.
Behramji Merwanji Malabari was an Indian poet, publicist, author, and social reformer best known for his ardent advocacy for the protection of the rights of women and for his activities against child marriage.
Ramachandra Vitthal Lad (1822–1874), commonly known as Dr. Bhau Daji Lad was an Indian physician, Sanskrit scholar, and an antiquarian. He served as the Sheriff of Bombay for two terms from 1869 to 1871. For his notable contribution in the making of modern Mumbai many roads, areas and even the museums are given his name in honour.
Kosala, sometimes spelled Kosla, is a Marathi novel by Indian writer Bhalchandra Nemade, published in 1963. Regarded as Nemade's magnum opus, and accepted as a modern classic of Marathi literature, the novel uses the autobiographical form to narrate the journey of a young man, Pandurang Sangvikar, and his friends through his college years.
Jagannath ShankarshethMurkute popularly known as Nana Shankarsheth was an Indian Philanthropist and educationalist. He was born in the wealthy Murkute family in Murbad,Thane. So high was his credit that Arabs, Afghans and other foreign merchants chose to place their treasures in his custody rather than with banks. He soon acquired a large fortune, much of which he donated to the public. He was one of few founding members of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway along with Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and David Sasson.
Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer.
The Age of Consent Act, 1891, also known as Act X of 1891, was a legislation enacted in British India on 19 March 1891 which raised the age of consent for sexual intercourse for all girls, married or unmarried, from ten to twelve years in all jurisdictions, its violation subject to criminal prosecution as rape. The act was an amendment of the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 375, 1882,, and was introduced as a bill on 9 January 1891 by Sir Andrew Scoble in the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India in Calcutta. It was debated the same day and opposed by council member Sir Romesh Chunder Mitter on the grounds that it interfered with orthodox Hindu code, but supported by council member Rao Bahadur Krishnaji Lakshman Nulkar and by the President of the council, the Governor-General and Viceroy Lord Lansdowne.
Anant Laxman Kanhere was an Indian independence fighter. On 21 December 1909, he shot Arthur Mason Tippetts Jackson, who was the district collector of Nashik in British India. The murder was an important event in the history of Nashik and the Indian revolutionary movement in Maharashtra.
Panchkalshi is a Hindu community. They are one of the original native communities of Bombay (Mumbai) metropolitan area in the Konkan division of India. Since the 19th century the community has called itself Somvanshi Kshatriya Pathare (SKP).
Daji Bhatawadekar, was an Indian theatre personality and film and television actor. He was credited with the revival of Sanskrit and Marathi theatre in India. A winner of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1965, he was honoured by the Government of India in 1967, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for his contributions to the society.
Rukhmabai was an Indian physician and feminist. She is best known for being one of the first practicing women doctors in colonial India as well as being involved in a landmark legal case involving her marriage as a child bride between 1884 and 1888. The case raised significant public debate across several topics, which most prominently included law vs tradition, social reform vs conservatism and feminism in both British-ruled India and England. This ultimately contributed to the Age of Consent Act in 1891.
Jayakrishna Indraji was an Indian botanist and ethno-botanist from the Princely state of Porbander who wrote the first botanical treatise following Hooker's classification in an Indian regional language (Gujarati) - Vanaspati Shastra (1910). He also wrote and illustrated the book Plants of Cutch and their utility (1926) and contributed to the works of Rustomjee Khory where he is not acknowledged and to the works of K.R. Kirtikar, an army doctor and botanist in Bombay. He was employed by the King of Porbander State in Kutch as a Curator of Forests and Gardens from 1886 during which time he was involved in the introduction and planting of many species of plants of economic and medicinal value.
Atmaram Pandurang or Atmaram Pandurang Turkhadekar was an Indian physician and social reformer who founded the Prarthana Samaj and was one of the two Indian co-founders of the Bombay Natural History Society. A graduate of Grant Medical College, he was a brother of Dadoba Pandurang, a scholar of Sanskrit and Marathi. Atmaram Pandurang served briefly as sheriff of Bombay in 1879.
Lieutenant-Colonel Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar FLS IMS was an army surgeon in British India and an amateur botanist. An early Indian member of the Bombay Natural History Society he had a special interest in medicinal plants, he published many papers on botany and a major work on Indian medicinal plants was posthumously published by his colleague Major B.D. Basu. He illustrated many of the plates in the book. He also wrote many books on Medical sciences in English and Marathi. Besides being a surgeon and botanist, he wrote Marathi poetry and held strong conservative Hindu views.
José Camillo Lisboa was a Portuguese-Indian physician and botanist of Goan origin. He was among the first Portuguese Indian physicians and graduated from the inaugural class of the Grant Medical College in Bombay. After graduating in 1851, he worked as a doctor at the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital in Bombay. Along with his wife Julia Rodrigues Lisboa, he studied the grasses of western India and published a special volume on the useful plants of the region as part of the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency in 1886.
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