Bal Shastri Jambhekar is known as the Father of Marathi journalism. He started the first newspaper in Anglo – Marathi named ‘Darpan’ (Mirror). It was first published on 6th January 1832. Hence 6th January is celebrated as Patrakar Din (Journalism Day). There is no confirmation about his birth date and it is assumed as 6th January in the year 1812.
Bal Shastri Jambhekar was born in 1812 in the village of Pombhurle in Devgad taluka, Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra.
He had a major contribution in various fields such as Education, literature, science, journalism, social reform and political progress. All was done within about 15 years of life and he was acclaimed as “far advance of his countrymen.”
Role as a Journalist & Writer
The main purpose of starting the newspaper was to spread the message of patriotism and social awareness.
- The newspaper ‘Darpan’ was published for about eight years. Then he started a monthly, ‘Digdarshan’ (direction) in 1840 which included various subjects such as science, history and geography.
- He took a prominent part in the activities of learned bodies of the Bombay Geographical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society Bombay branch.
- He was the first person to publish research papers in the quarterly journal of the Asiatic Society.
- Further, he established the Bombay native general library’ in 1845 for the common people.
- His other contributions include written books on Neetikatha, Encyclopedia History of England, English Grammar, History of India, and Mathematics based on Zero.
- In 1845, he brought out the first print version of one of the sacred books in Marathi – ‘Dnyaneshwari’.
Other achievements:
Balshastri accomplished a versatile effort of extraordinary dimensions:
- During 1842-46, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Bombay branch of the Geographical Society, London.
- He held the position of the Secretary of the Native Education Society.
- He was appointed as the Justice of Peace (JP) in 1840 and appointed as the Head of this Colaba weather observatory in 1842. Inspite of the top positions occupied by the Britishers, it was a great honour at such a high designation. It was due to his deep knowledge of administration and the scientific field.
- He was appointed as an assistant professor in Hindi at the newly established Elphinstone College and later promoted to the post of Professor. His students were Dadabhai Navroji and Bhau Daji Lad.
Master in various subjects and languages
Bal Shastri Jambhekar had mastered several subjects like physics, chemistry, astronomy, botany, geology, geography, history, mathematics, psychology. Moreover, he had also grasped nearly one dozen languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, English, Greek, Latin, French and Persian.
Social reformer
He worked for women’s education, promotion of widow marriages, abolition of ‘Sati’ custom and enlightening the people against superstition.
He died at the age of 34 years on 18th March 1946.