Childhood
He was born Kedarnath Pandey on 9 April 1893 to a Brahmin family in Azamgarh district, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. His father, Govardhan Pandey, was a religious-minded farmer, from the village Kanaila of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh. His mother, Kulawanti, often stayed with her parents in the village of Kanaila, and this is where Ramodardas was born. He was the eldest of four brothers. He spent part of his childhood in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As both parents died when he was still quite young—his mother died at the age of twenty-eight and his father at the age of forty-five—he was brought up by his grandmother. His earliest memories as recorded by him were of the terrible famine in 1897. At age 9, he ran away from home in order to see the world, but later returned to his homeland.
Ramodardas received formal schooling at a local primary school, though he later studied and mastered numerous languages independently, as well as the art of photography.
Read more about this topic: Rahul Sankrityayan
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