page_title: Jaybhikhkhu
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Jaybhikhkhu / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Gujarati writer Jaybhikhkhu (left) and Dhirubhai Thaker (right)
context_page_description: Balabhai Virchand Desai, better known by his pen name Jaybhikhkhu, was a Gujarati novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and biographer from Gujarat, India. He is known for his historical novels.
context_section_description: Jaybhikhkhu was born on 26 June 1908 at Vinchhiya, a village in Saurashtra to Virchand Khemchandbhai Desai and Parvatibahen. His family belonged to Sayla. His father had served as an administrator of the Varsoda State and other principalities. His mother died in Wadhwan when he was four so he spent his childhood in his maternal uncle's home.
  He received his primary education in Botad and in Varsoda near Vijapur. He received secondary education till level 3 in English medium from Tutorial Highschool, Ahmedabad. He left school and joined Shri Veertatva Prakashak Mandal in Vile Parle, Bombay founded by Vijaydharma Suri. When this institute moved, he moved to Kashi, Agra and at last to Gurukul at Shivapuri in Gwalior state. He studied Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati and English literature as well as Jain philosophy and poetics during these eight-nine years. He received Nyayatirtha from Culcutta Sanskrit Association and Tarkabhushan from Shivpuri Gurukul.
  He was influenced by religious environment in his family, his education in Jain philosophy and poetics. He was impressed by Govardhanram Tripathi's Saraswatichandra. He had decided to follow four rules in his life: never do a job, not take any property from his father, not give his son any property and earn living through writing.
  He died on 24 December 1969 in Ahmedabad.
caption: Jaybhikhkhu with Dhirubhai Thaker (right), around 1948
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