Dhanpat Rai Srivastava was born on July 31, 1880 in Lamahi, near the city of Varanasi in India. His father was a post-office clerk. His mother died after a long illness when he was just eight years old. His father remarried a woman with whom he did not have a good relationship.
Dhanpat Rai began studying at a madrasa, or educational institution, near Lamahi, when he was seven years old. There he learned Urdu and Persian. His father died when he was sixteen and he assumed responsibility for the family.
From a young age, Dhanpat Rai was an avid reader. As a teenager, he took a job as a bookseller and learned English at a missionary school. After his father's death, Rai tried to go to...
