Narayan Murlidhar Gupte

Narayan Murlidhar Gupte, also known as Kavi Bee, is a poet. He was born on 1 June 1872 in district Buldhana at Malkapur. Originally he was from Raigad District (old name Kulaba) from the village Vashi. He was "kulkarni" (revenue collector) of Vashi, Pen and other five to six villages.
Poet Bee's father late Murlidharpant left his native place Vashi in around 1851.From there he came to the province of Varadh. He was a government servant at the beginning. Then he became a lawyer and started practicing law. Name of his wife was Rajubai, Alice Laxmibai. They had five sons and three daughters. Among them poet Bee was the eldest one. Poet Bee'sfather was staying in Yavatmal and Vani for practicing law. So poet Bee's education was carried in Yavatmal and Amravati. Unfortunately Murlidharpant, poet Bee'sfather expired unexpectedly when poet Bee was learning in the school. He had a massive attack of paralysis. This was a turning point in poet Bee'slife. As if, aabhalach kosalle. He, being the eldest son, had to leave school and take up the job as a clerk in the government office.
He got married at a very small age. His first wife was from Vani and her father's name was Martandrao Pradhan. She died immediately after her marriage. He married the daughter of Govind Raojee Sule from Yevatmal. Her name was Laxmibai. Poet Bee had three daughters and one son by name Dattatraya. Dattatraya lived in Mumbai and was serving in a mill as a clerk. He also used to write poems. Mrs. Laxmibai, poet Bee's wife, died on 11/04/1934 at Akola. She had an attack of paralysis.
He had to move from one place to another during his service. So he had to stay at Washim, Murtijapur, Akola etc. But he stayed at Akola, comparatively for a long time. He had to take full responsibility of his brothers and sisters from his childhood. Their education, weddings everything he had to do. His youngest brother Gajanan walked on the path of spirituality and became a great Nathpanthi Sadguru as Gajanan Maharaj. His Samadhi is at Nasik at the shore of Ganges. Thousands of disciples gather there and celebrate many spiritual functions. Gajanan Maharaj left His body on 28/09/1946.
Poet Bee started writing poems from the age of 18-19. His first poem was ‘ PRANAYPATRIKA’. It was published in 1981 in the issue of’ KARMANUK ‘ of late Shri Haribhau Aapte. He wrote prose also for some time in some news papers. Connoisseurs were attracted towards him when his famous poem ‘VEDGANE’ was published in the issue of ‘Masik Manoranjan’ in 1911. This poem was published under the name of his pet name ‘Bee’. This pet name was suggested by one of his friends, late Mr. Shankar Vitthal Dixit. Since poet Bee had no particular choice about any name, he chose that name. Contemporary poet Rev. Tilak liked this poem so much that he wrote a poem by name ‘To Bee’ in the next issue. Most of his poems were published in ‘Manoranjan’, a very renowned magazine of that time. His book of poetry was published in 1934 by the name ‘Phulanchi Onjal’.
Poet Bee was very pure by character. He was a great spiritualist, but he was not an orthodox. He was always away from publicity. He was a scholar of English and Sanskrit literature along with Marathi.
He died naturally on 30/09/1947 at Chindwad at the residence of his son in law Khanderao Gopal Pradhan.