Dahyabhai Dholsaji Jhaveri was a dramatist and a prominent personality of early Gujarati theatre. He was born in 1867. After Vaghaji Asharam Oza, he was the second teacher by profession to drift into theatre. As a matter of fact both of them belongs to the proprietor-playwright phase of Gujarati stage history during 1878-98. Jhaveri`s involvement in theatre began in 1888 accidentally, when he asked for a third encore of a song, the singer-actor challenged him that he would realize the difficulty only if he himself managed a troupe. The next year he became a partner in a company that he christened the Desi Natak Samaj. In those days Ahmedabad had no permanent theatres. Performances took place in temporary structures and enclosures using cloth and wood, borrowing costly costumes from rich patrons` wardrobes. A fire destroyed everything once, forcing Dahyabhai to sell even his wife`s gold jewellery. His affluent father disinherited him for this, so he changed his surname to Dalai. Dahyabhai Dholsaji expired in the year 1902.
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