At the time of Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth's birth in 1929 in Surat, the city was nominally under a Mughal Nawab but effectively administered by the colonial government of the Bombay Presidency. Mahipatram belonged to the Vadnagara Nagar Grihastha Brahmin community well-known for its millennial association with the upper administrative functions of governments. He was sent to the new Government English School in Surat where his social opinions were influenced by the British teachers he came to know. The visit to England in 1860/61 to learn about teaching methods in schools was sponsored by the Bombay Department of Education. For this act of leaving the shores of Gujarat, he was socially ostracized by his community. Yet, he tirelessly devoted his life to the cause of social reform, particularly in co-founding and working with institutions to shelter orphans and old people, encouraging widow remarriage, and preventing the customary child remarriages. He wrote several works in Gujarati and was twice awarded titles by the government for the leading role he played in guiding social organizations. Ashish J. Mehta, the translator of this work, is a great-great grandson of the author.