Harji Lavji Damani

Harji Lavji Damani, better known by his pen name Shayda (24 October 1892 – 31 May 1962) was a Gujarati language poet, novelist, short-story writer and playwright from Gujarat, India. He is known as Ghazal Samrat, the king of ghazal poetry, as he established the Gujarati ghazal form in Gujarati literature. Damani was born on 24 October 1892 in Pipli, a village near Dhandhuka, Gujarat to Lavjibhai and Santokbahen. His family belonged to the Khoja Shia Ishna Asheri community. He studied until the fourth year. In 1912, one of his poems appeared in print for the first time in Bombay Samachar. Subsequently, he started writing ghazals (traditional songs), novels, short stories and plays, including Kumali Kali, which be both wrote and directed. He was the founding editor of the Gujarati weekly magazine Be Ghadi Moj (first issue, 17 August 1924) which established Gujarati ghazal as an independent genre from Urdu ghazal. It closed its publication in 1953. He also served as a subeditor of Ghazal, a Gujarati poetry magazine. He died on 31 May 1962 in Mumbai. Shayda means 'mad with love' in Urdu.