Pushpa Ratna Sagar (Nepali:पुष्प रत्न सागर) (bornPushpa Ratna Tuladhar) (29 October 1922 – 11 November 2011) was a Nepalese merchant, grammarian,lexicographer and pioneerpressman.[1] Born Pushpa RatnaTuladhar inAsan 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 traderPushpa Sundar Tuladhar and his wife Dhan Maya.
Sagar received primary education at a neighbourhood school conducted at the home of teacherJagat Lal Master. He was married to Lani DeviBania of Itum Bahal on 12 January 1942. In 1943, he left forLhasa,Tibet[2] to join his ancestral business house Ghorasyar.[3]
While in Lhasa, he was stirred by the activism in Nepal against the suppression ofNepal Bhasa and imprisonment of writers by theRana regime.[4] 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, entitledSubodh Nepal Bhasa Vyakaran, was published in 1952.
In 1951,Thaunkanhe, the first Nepal Bhasa monthly magazine to be published from Nepal, began publication with Sagar as the deputy editor.[5] 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 fromKolkata.
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 inSarnath,India by exiled Nepalese monks and dedicated to promotingTheravada Buddhism.[6]
In 1957, he was secretary of the Kathmandu chapter of theNepalese Chamber of Commerce, Lhasa when it hosted a reception to honour visiting Chinese PremierZhou 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 titleNepal Bhasaya Maulik Sabdakosh.[7]
On 31 October 1994, Nepal Bhasa Parishad decorated Sagar with the title Bhasa Thuwa (Patron of the Language).[8]
He was made a patron of Nepal Lipi Guthi, an organization dedicated to preservingNepalese scripts.[9]
In 2008, chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subash Nemwang presented Sagar with a letter of felicitation to honour his contribution toBuddhism in Nepal at a function organised by Dharmodaya Sabha.[10]