Dalpatram was a Sanskrit scholar and poet. Dalpatram taught Gujarati language to Alexander Kinloch Forbes, a British colonial administrator to Ahmedabad. Gujarati was considered at the bottom of language hierarchy during those times, so he preferred to write his poems in Brajbhasha instead of Gujarati, his mothertongue. Forbes encouraged him to write in Gujarati. Forbes and Dalpatram became close friends, and he inspired Dalpatram to write Laxmi Natak published in 1849, the first modern play in Gujarati, based on Greek drama Plutus.