1. Manilal Dwivedi was an influential figure in 19th-century Gujarati literature, and was one of several Gujarati writers and educators involved in the debate over social reforms, focusing on issues such as the status of women, child marriage, and the question of whether widows could remarry.
Manilal Dwivedi held Eastern civilisation in high esteem, and resisted the influence of Western civilisation, a position which drew him into conflicts with other social reformers of a less conservative outlook.
Manilal Dwivedi was invited to present a paper at the first Parliament of World Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, but financial considerations made his participation there impossible.
Manilal Dwivedi's beliefs led him to search for perfection and love in his friendships with men and women, though he was often disappointed by his experiences.
Manilal Dwivedi married at the age of thirteen and had two children, but his wife left him in 1890.
Manilal Dwivedi suffered from frequent bouts of serious illnesses throughout his life and died prematurely at 40.
Manilal Dwivedi elaborated upon Narmad's line of thinking through his writings in the monthlies Priyamvada and Sudarshan, which he edited from 1885 until his death.
Manilal Nabhubhai Dwivedi was born on 26September 1858 at Nadiad, Gujarat, to a Sathodara Nagar family.
Manilal Dwivedi showed good progress at secondary school; he was ranked first in the annual examination of the second standard and won a prize.
Manilal Dwivedi's teacher promoted him to the fourth standard, but Manilal was unhappy with the promotion and requested to be returned to the third standard.
Manilal Dwivedi was not proficient in Sanskrit and geometry, and failed Sanskrit in his matriculation examination in 1875.
Manilal Dwivedi joined Elphinstone College in 1877 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history and politics in 1880.
Manilal Dwivedi returned to Nadiad, and in July 1880, became an assistant teacher at the government high school.
Manilal Dwivedi joined Samaldas College in Bhavnagar as a professor of Sanskrit in 1885 but retired in 1889 due to health problems.
Manilal Dwivedi was a delegate from Nadiad to the Indian National Congress's Bombay convention in 1889.
Manilal Dwivedi retained both positions until 1892, and was chairman of the Nadiad Municipality school committee from 1891 to 1893.
Dhirubhai Thaker, a biographer of Manilal Dwivedi, noted that Manilal Dwivedi had an impressive personality and was tall and handsome in appearance.
Manilal Dwivedi habitually wore a long coat, a brahmin-style dhoti, a red turban and a long loose scarf hanging over his shoulders.
In 1871 or 1872 Manilal Dwivedi married Mahalaxmi; he was then thirteen years old and she was four.
Manilal Dwivedi gave birth to two sons, one in 1882 and the other in 1887; but the marriage was unhappy and she frequently returned to her parents' house, leaving Manilal permanently in 1890.
Manilal Dwivedi was obsessed with the idea of a perfect loving relationship, and was demanding of his friends, expecting them to treat the friendship as more important than their other relationships.
Manilal Dwivedi composed poetry for her, but gave up the relationship and left for Bhavnagar when he discovered he was not her only lover.
Manilal Dwivedi refused to see her in person and she died of tuberculosis in January 1886.
In 1891, Manilal Dwivedi began an affair with Ramlakshmi, the wife of his pupil Chhotu, which lasted two-and-a-half years.
Manilal Dwivedi had a brief affair with Chhotu's mistress, Ladi.
Manilal Dwivedi put up with this painful condition for well over a year, and eventually gained a measure of relief.
Manilal Dwivedi was treated over the following two years in Bombay and then Nadiad, and experienced a slight alleviation of his symptoms by 1888, after a successful operation for a plate implant.
Manilal Dwivedi's confidence returned to the point that by January 1889, he felt sure a complete cure was possible, and indeed, by June, he experienced a notable improvement in both his general health and his speaking ability.
Manilal Dwivedi died on the morning of 1October 1898 while writing at his home in Nadiad.
Manilal Dwivedi was an adherent of Advaitism, a Hindu philosophical school that considers only Brahman to be ultimately real.
Manilal Dwivedi believed that the self and God are not different in any way, and he argued that the Bhagavad Gita teaches this point of view rather than being a philosophical precursor of Advaitism.
Manilal Dwivedi believed that withdrawal from the world, as a religious practice, was wrong, and that instead one should fulfil one's duties, and sacrifice oneself for love of the world.
Manilal Dwivedi's beliefs were the basis of his ethics and of his approach to the social reform questions of the day.
Manilal Dwivedi was associated with the orthodox reaction to this movement, known as revivalists, who believed in "reforms along national lines".
Manilal Dwivedi argued that although the caste system was harmful, abolishing it without changing the underlying social attitudes would fail, as social discrimination would continue in a different form.
Manilal Dwivedi believed that marriage between Hindus was a religious, rather than worldly act, and hence the government had no standing to determine what was right.
Malabari tried to persuade Manilal Dwivedi to give up his opposition to this; Manilal Dwivedi refused.
Manilal Dwivedi's husband filed suit to force her to live with him, and the Bombay High Court found in his favour; Manilal wrote articles attacking the reformist position, which further estranged him from the modernists.
Manilal Dwivedi criticised the Prarthana Samaj for importing the concept of God as a transcendental creator from Christianity, which, according to him, was "the fifth edition of Aryadharma ".
Manilal Dwivedi took a keen interest in mesmerism and occultism.
Manilal Dwivedi came into contact with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, the first President of the Theosophical Society, and became a member in 1882, writing a series of articles on theosophy.
Manilal Dwivedi was the secretary of Buddhi Vardhak Sabha, a group of Bombay intellectuals interested in social reform issues that had been founded in 1850 but which had become inactive.
Manilal Dwivedi relaunched it at the suggestion of his friend Mansukhram Suryaram Tripathi and the group's activities brought him in contact with Narmad, who later saw Manilal Dwivedi as his successor in the field of social reform.
Manilal Dwivedi's writing career began in 1876 with the poem Shiksha Shatak and continued until his death.
Manilal Dwivedi contributed to almost all popular forms and published poems, plays, essays, an adaptation of an English novel, book reviews, literary criticism, research, edited works, translations, and compilations.
Manilal Dwivedi wrote another play, Nrusinhavatar, at the request of the Mumbai Gujarati Natak Company.
Manilal Dwivedi adapted Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Zanoni into Gujarati as Gulabsinh.
Manilal Dwivedi made Vedantic philosophy popular among the Gujarati community, examining the main features of Indian philosophy and of Hinduism.
Manilal Dwivedi imparted to Gujarati readers an awareness of the foundation of their religion and culture.
Manilal Dwivedi argued in his writings that the native culture of India was superior to that of the West.
Manilal Dwivedi was recognised both in India and in abroad as a staunch proponent of ancient Hindu traditions and as a learned Indian philosopher.
Shortly after its publication, Manilal Dwivedi received a letter inviting him to speak in the 7th Oriental Congress in Vienna, which was to be held in December 1886.
Manilal Dwivedi wrote two articles for later Oriental Congresses: the first on The Purans, which was written for the 8th Oriental Congress held in Stockholm in 1889; and another on Jain philosophy for the 9th Oriental Congress held in London in 1892.
Manilal Dwivedi was awarded a certificate of merit for the second article.
Manilal Dwivedi wrote two books intended as a response to the Westernised reformist movement of his age.
Manilal Dwivedi was invited to present a paper at the first Parliament of World Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, but he could not afford to go.
Manilal Dwivedi published an anthology of the aphorisms of Vedanta under the title The Imitation of Shankara, with simultaneous publication in Gujarati as Panchashati.
In 1884, Manilal Dwivedi published Nari Pratishtha in eight installments in the weekly periodical Gujarati.
Manilal Dwivedi believed that "a couple joined in love is undivided by death", so he considered widow remarriage a sin.
Manilal Dwivedi was opposed to teaching women English, and he believed that women's menstruation meant that they should not work outside the home.
In 1885, Manilal Dwivedi founded and edited a magazine called Priyamvada to discuss the problems faced by Indian womanhood.
Manilal Dwivedi elaborated upon Narmad's line of thinking through his writings in these magazines which he edited until his death.
Manilal Dwivedi translated the Sanskrit plays Malatimadhava and Uttararamacarita by Bhavabhuti into Gujarati.
Manilal Dwivedi translated Samuel Smiles's Character into Gujarati as Charitra, and Samuel Neil's Culture and Self-Culture as Shikhsna ane Svashikshan.
Manilal Dwivedi translated the Bhagavad Gita with commentary into Gujarati.
Manilal Dwivedi prepared with translation and notes the English editions of Patanjali's Yogadarshan and Mandukya Upanishad for the Theosophical Societies of India and America respectively.
Manilal Dwivedi's vision combined an ardent advocacy of Aryan philosophy with a Hindu worldview.
Manilal Dwivedi endeavoured to publicise his opinions to counteract what he saw as the blind enthusiasm of his fellow Indians for Western culture.
Manilal Dwivedi thought that the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, despite its complexity, contained important values which could inspire people to lead practical lives while remaining faithful to its ideals.