Bholabhai Patel

Bholabhai Patel (pronounced ) was an Indian Gujarati author. He taught numerous languages at Gujarat University and did comparative studies of literature in different languages. He translated extensively and wrote essays and travelogues. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2008. Patel was born on 7 August 1934, in Soja village near Gandhinagar, Gujarat. He completed S.S.C. in 1952. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Sanskrit, Hindi and Indian culture from Banaras Hindu University in 1957. He also studied at the Gujarat University, and completed his master's degree in Hindi in 1960, a Bachelors in English in 1968, a Masters in English and Science of Language in 1970. From 1974, he started working on his PhD thesis on Sachchidananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya', a modernist Hindi writer, and completed it in 1977. The thesis was later published as Agyeya: Ek Adhyayan in Hindi. During his studies in Gujarathi University, Gujarathi writer Umashankar Joshi was his Gujarati lecturer. Joshi influenced literary taste and critical discrimination. He also completed a diploma in German in 1971 and linguistics in 1974. Patel obtained a fellowship from the Visva-Bharati University where he did a comparative study of Indian literature.