His real name was Dhanpat Rai but he is better known by his pen name Munshi Premchand. He has been read and studied both in India and abroad as one of the greatest writers of the century. Premchand's literary career started as a freelancer in Urdu. In his initial short stories he has depicted the patriotic upsurge that was sweeping the country in the first decade of the 19th century. In 1914, Premchand started writing in Hindi. Premchand was the first Hindi author to introduce realism in his writings. He pioneered the new art form of fiction with a social purpose. He wrote of the life around him and made his readers aware of the problems of the urban middle-class and the country's villages. Besides being a great novelist, Premchand was also a social reformer and thinker. Pratigya is the story about a young idealist who takes on himself the task of social upliftment and progress. It gives a vivid description of the society during that era and the obstructions that were faced by the few who believed in a new and better country by the removal of social evils prevalent during those times.