Alexander Kinloch Forbes (Gujarati

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

: એલેક્ઝાન્ડર કિન્લોક ફૉર્બસ) (1821–1865) was a scholar of the Gujarati language

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

 and a colonial administrator in British India. In 1848 he started the Gujarat Vernacular Society in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

, which contributed to a literary renaissance in Gujarati

Gujarati language

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

. His work Ras Mala, published in two volumes in 1856, documented the history and folk literature of Gujarat. The Farbas Gujarati Sabha, a modern learned body devoted to study of the Gujarati language, is named after him.

Selected works

• Ras Mala : Hindoo Annals of the Province of Goozerat in Western India. 2 volumes; first published 1856; reprinted 1997.