Pushpa Ratna Sagar

File:Subodh book cover.jpg grammar published in 1952.]]

Pushpa Ratna Sagar ({{langx|ne|पुष्प रत्न सागर}}) (born Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar) (29 October 1922 – 11 November 2011) was a Nepalese merchant, grammarian, lexicographer and pioneer pressman.{{cite news|title= Pioneer pressman passes away|newspaper=The Rising Nepal|date= 14 November 2011}} Page 3. Born Pushpa Ratna Tuladhar in Asan Dhalasikwa, Kathmandu, he acquired the nickname Sagar in his childhood during a pilgrimage to Ganga Sagar (Sagar Island) in India. He was the third and youngest son of trader Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar and his wife Dhan Maya.

Early life

Sagar received primary education at a neighbourhood school conducted at the home of teacher Jagat Lal Master. He was married to Lani Devi Bania of Itum Bahal on 12 January 1942. In 1943, he left for Lhasa, Tibet{{cite news|last=Tuladhar|first=Kamal Ratna|title= A man of letters|url=http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2009/03/22/expression/a-man-of-letters/185728.html|access-date=8 December 2011|newspaper=The Kathmandu Post|date= 22 March 2009}} to join his ancestral business house Ghorasyar.{{cite web | last =Tamrakar| first =Purna Kaji| url = https://www.scribd.com/doc/71576652/19/My-Incomparable-Friend-Kesar-Lall-Shrestha| title =My Incomparable Friend: Kesar Lall Shrestha| year=2004| access-date = 12 December 2011}} Page 81.

Career

While in Lhasa, he was stirred by the activism in Nepal against the suppression of Nepal Bhasa and imprisonment of writers by the Rana regime.{{cite news|last=Hutt|first=Michael|title=Diversity and Change in the Languages|url=http://www.thlib.org/static/reprints/contributions/CNAS_14_01_01.pdf|access-date=9 December 2011|newspaper=CNAS Journal|publisher=Tribhuvan University |date=December 1986}} Page 10. He thought of doing something for his mother tongue, and started writing a grammar of the language that would be useful to students. In 1949, he returned to Kathmandu where he completed the manuscript. The grammar, entitled Subodh Nepal Bhasa Vyakaran, was published in 1952.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

In 1951, Thaunkanhe, the first Nepal Bhasa monthly magazine to be published from Nepal, began publication with Sagar as the deputy editor.{{cite web | last =Tamrakar| first =Purna Kaji| url = https://www.scribd.com/doc/71576652/19/My-Incomparable-Friend-Kesar-Lall-Shrestha| title =My Incomparable Friend: Kesar Lall Shrestha| year=2004| access-date = 12 December 2011}} Page 81. In a bid to promote publishing in Nepal Bhasa, Sagar formed a partnership with two like-minded former Tibetan traders, Purna Kaji Tamrakar and Ratna Man Singh Tuladhar, and in 1952 established Nepal Press at his home at 11/122 Asan Tyouda Tol, Kathmandu. Their equipment consisted of second-hand Vicobold letterpress machines imported from Kolkata.{{fact|date=April 2025}}

Sagar was also active in a number of associations. He was a member of Dharmodaya Sabha (Society for the Rise of the Teaching), a Buddhist organization founded in 1944 in Sarnath, India by exiled Nepalese monks and dedicated to promoting Theravada Buddhism.{{cite web | last =Sthavir| first =Dharmalok| url = http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/regmi/pdf/regmi_09.doc| title =A Journey to Great China| work = Regmi Research Series| publisher = Regmi Research| date=1 December 1977| access-date = 9 December 2011}}

In 1957, he was secretary of the Kathmandu chapter of the Nepalese Chamber of Commerce, Lhasa when it hosted a reception to honour visiting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

In 1960, Sagar set up Nepal Printing Press and continued his service to Nepal Bhasa. He compiled a dictionary of original words with meanings in Nepal Bhasa, Nepali and English, and in 1998, published it under the title Nepal Bhasaya Maulik Sabdakosh.[https://books.google.com/books?id=diaPNwAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Pushparatna+S%C4%81gara%22&hl=en Nepalabhāshāyā maulika śabdakośa (Thaukanhe Prakāśana Vibhāga, 1998)]

Honors

On 31 October 1994, Nepal Bhasa Parishad decorated Sagar with the title Bhasa Thuwa (Patron of the Language).{{cite news|title= Nepal Bhasa Puraskar|newspaper=Kantipur|date= 1 November 1994}} Page 1.

He was made a patron of Nepal Lipi Guthi, an organization dedicated to preserving Nepalese scripts.{{cite web|url=http://guthi.net/nepallipiguthi/#PATRONS%20OF%20THE%20GUTHI|title=Patrons of the Guthi|publisher=Nepal Lipi Guthi|access-date=11 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111014012824/http://www.guthi.net/nepallipiguthi/#PATRONS%20OF%20THE%20GUTHI|archive-date=14 October 2011}}

In 2008, chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subash Nemwang presented Sagar with a letter of felicitation to honour his contribution to Buddhism in Nepal at a function organised by Dharmodaya Sabha.{{cite news|title=Recent News|url=http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/rising.detail.php?article_id=17943&cat_id=4|access-date=8 December 2011|newspaper=The Rising Nepal|year=2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407025745/http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/rising.detail.php?article_id=17943&cat_id=4|archive-date=7 April 2012}}