He was the first to start journalism in Marathi with the first newspaper in this language named Darpan in the early days of British Rule in India.
He was born in a karhade Brahmin family[1] on 1812 in the village of Pombhurle in Devgad taluka (Sindhudurga) in Konkan region of Maharashtra state.
Talented and intelligent since childhood, Jambhekar became a great scholar and researcher in many subjects on adulthood.
Balshastri Jambhekar had grasped correctly the importance and power of the print media in the coming times during British Rule in India.
He was sure that if the British were to be overthrown and freedom was to be attained, then it was essential to awaken the masses and the print media was the most useful tool to that end.
Newspaper was a new idea in India at that time hence there were very few subscribers in the beginning but slowly people appreciated it and agreed with the thoughts expressed in it.
He was one of those social activists who made continuous effort in generating useful and healthy consciousness amongst the common masses and attempted to educate the uneducated.
His never-dying talent and endeavour left a stamp over not only the Maharashtrian public, but across India, as a distinguished social reformer and journalist.
Intellectual giants like Dadabhai Navroji and Bhau Daji Lad drew inspiration through these institutions.
Dadabhai Naoroji, Atmaram Pandurang and many other prominent scholars, future activists were Bal Shastri's pupils at the Elphinstone College.
Ranade ( in whose place he had been appointed as justice at Bombay High Court) noted that in terms of intellectual stature Balshastri Jambhekar was perhaps the only one who could have matched up to the intellectual level of Justice Ranade who he said was one of the foremost of Indian university graduates.