GOWRISHANKAR

VODEYSHANKAR (1805-1892)  , native minister of the state of Bhaunagar in Kathiawar, Bombay, was born on the 2ISt of August 1805, of a family of Nagar Brahmins . He rose from being a revenue officer to be state minister in 1847 . His success in this capacity was such that on the death of the reigning chief, in 1870, he was appointed joint administrator in concert with a British official . The experiment was in every respect successful . Under the simple and economical forms used in native states, improvements suggested by British experience were introduced . The land revenue was based on a cash system, the fiscal and customs systems were remodelled and tree planting was encouraged . The town of Bhaunagar received the great boon of the Gowrishankar Waterworks, on which six lakhs of rupees were spent . The Bhaunagar state also warmly pressed for railway communication with the continent of India, and thus began a movement which has spread a network of railway lines over the peninsula of Kathiawar . The British government re-warded these many services of Gowrishankar with the distinction of C.S.I. in 1877 . He helped to establish the Rajkumar College at Rajkot, for the education of native princes, and also the Rajasthanik Court, which, after settling innumerable disputes between the land-owning classes and the chiefs, has since been abolished . In 1879 Gowrishankar resigned office, and devoted himself to the study of the higher literature of that Vedanta philosophy which through his whole life had been to him a solace and a guide . In 1884 he wrote a work called 'Svarupanusandhan, on the union of the soul with Deity, which led to a letter of warm congratulation from Max Muller, who also published a short biography of him .

In 1887 he put on the robe of the Sanyasi or ascetic, the

fourth stage, according to the Hindu Shastras, in the life of the twice-born man, and in this manner passed the remainder of his life, giving above ten hours each day to Vedantic studies and holy contemplation . He died, revered by all classes, in December 1892 . See Javerital U . Yajnik, Gowrishankar Udayashankar (Bombay, 1889) .