[1] He started his business career at an early age, joining his father in Calcutta and soon came to be known as reputed trader and speculator in opium, silver, spice and other trades from which the Birlas later diversified into trading of jute and other items like cotton during and after the First World War, by which time his younger brother Ghanshyam Das Birla had also joined the business.
[1][2] At one point, Ghanshyam Das Birla suffered heavy losses and decided to sell the mill to the Andrew Yule group.
A devout Hindu, he was also the moving force behind the building of many of the early Birla Mandirs across India, including the first in Delhi, and those in Kolkata and Bhopal.
[13][14] In his old age, he took the leading role to fulfill the unfinished dream of Madan Mohan Malaviya of building Krishna Janmabhoomi Kesava Deo Temple.
He donated a major sum and formed a private trust in 1951 to which the rights of land were later transferred, and temple works were inaugurated in 1965, for which he is remembered by Hindus.