: गोविंद बल्लाळ देवल) (1855 - 1916) was a Marathi

Marathi people

The Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...

 playwright from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India.

Deval was born in 1855 in a village in the Kokan region of Maharashtra, but he spent his childhood in Haripur near Sangli

Sangli

Sangli is a city in the state of Maharashtra of India. Sangli is known as the Turmeric city for its vast production of Turmeric. Sangli is situated on the banks of river Krishna and is the largest market place for Turmeric in Asia and houses many sugar factories, which it is also noted for...

. He attended a high school in Belgaum

Belgaum

Belgaum is a city and a municipal corporation in Belgaum district in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the fourth largest city of the state of Karnataka, the first three being Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad....

, where he came in contact with, and was influenced by, playwright/actor Balwant Pandurang Kirloskar

Annasaheb Kirloskar

Balwant Pandurang Kirloskar , popularly known as Annasaheb Kirloskar, was a Marathi playwright from Maharashtra, India.Kirloskar was born on March 31, 1843 in Gurlhosur in Belgaum district....

, who worked as a teacher in that school.

After a late high school graduation in 1879 at age 24, Deval worked for a few years as a teacher in the same school, moved to Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

 to finish in 1894 a college course in Agriculture, and worked for a short while as a botany school teacher. An elder brother of Deval was a musician, while another brother was an accomplished actor in Ichalkaranjikar Natak Mandali.

Career

While Deval was in high school in Belgaum, he joined Kirloskar's Kirloskar Natak Mandali as an actor after its inception around 1875 and soon became an associate play director there. He even composed the lyrics and music of many of the 198 songs in Kirloskar's play Shakuntal (शाकुंतल), the first half of which was presented to the public in 1880. (Kirloskar presented the complete play the next year.)

After Kirloskar's death in 1885, Deval continued to work for a few years at Kirloskar Natak Mandali as a playwright, an actor, and a play director. After his move to Pune in 1894, he founded Aryoddharak Natak Mandali; and in 1913, three years before his death, he joined Bal Gandharva

Bal Gandharva

Narayan Shripad Rajhans , better known as Bal Gandharva was one of the greatest Marathi singers and stage actors. He was famous for his roles of female characters in Marathi plays, since women were not allowed to act on stage during his time....

's newly established Gandharva Natak Mandali.

Deval's disciples in acting included Bhaurao Kolhatkar, Nanasaheb Joglekar, Ganesh Bodas aka Ganpatrao, Kashinathpant Parchure, and Bal Gandharva, all of whom turned out to be well-known actors in Maharashtra in the early part of the 20th century.

Plays

During 1886-1916, Deval wrote and presented to the public seven plays:

• Durga (दुर्गा) (1886) (An adapted version of Thomas Southerne
  Thomas Southerne
  Thomas Southerne , Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. Two years later he was entered at the Middle Temple, London....
  
  's The Fatal Marriage (or Isabella))

• Mruchchhakatik (मृच्छकटिक) (1887) (An adapted version of Shudrak's Sanskrit
  Sanskrit
  Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
  
   play with the same name)

• Vikramorwashiya (विक्रमोर्वशीय) (1889) (An adapted of Kalidas's play with the same name)

• Jhunjarrao (झुंझारराव) (1890) (An adapted version of Shakespeare's Othello
  Othello
  The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
  
  )

• Shapa Sambhram (शापसंभ्रम) (1893) (An adapted version of Banabhatta
  Banabhatta
  Bāṇabhaṭṭa , also known as Bāṇa, was a Sanskrit scholar and poet of India. He was the Asthana Kavi in the court of King Harshavardhana, who reigned in the years c. 606–647 CE in north India...
  
  's Kadambari
  Kadambari
  Kādambari is a romantic novel in Sanskrit. It was substantially composed by Bānabhatta in the first half of the 7th century, who did not survive to see it through completion. The novel was completed by Banabhatta's son Bhushanabhatta, according to the plan laid out by his late father...
  
  )

• Sharada (शारदा) (1899)

• Samshay Kallol (संशयकल्लोळ) (1916) (Based partly on Molière
  Molière
  Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
  
  's Sganarelle. This play had been presented to the public by Gandharva Natak Mandali after Deval's death earlier in 1916.)

Sharada

With his play Sharada (शारदा), Deal pioneered in Marathi language plays with social themes. Before Sharada, Marathi plays involved religious or mythological themes.

His Sharda provided a sharp and effective criticism of the custom prevalent in Indian societies in his times of arranging marriages of young girls with adult widowers.

When in 1929, the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

administration banned the custom, the legislation concerning the Age of Consent came to be commonly known as the Sharada Act.