Calcutta, March 28: Sarala Birla, wife of Birla group patriarch Basant Kumar Birla, breathed her last this morning at the family's Delhi residence. She was 91 and survived by husband B.K. Birla, daughters Jayshree Mohta and Manjushree Khaitan and grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Born at Kuchhaman in Rajasthan on November 23, 1924, to Brijlal Biyani, a freedom fighter, and Savitri Devi Biyani, Sarala Birla had an extraordinary upbringing.

She studied in a government school, which was rare for a Marwari girl of her time, and went on to study at the prestigious Fergusson College in Pune before getting engaged to BK, son of legendary Ghanashyam Das Birla. The engagement was solemnised by none other than Mahatma Gandhi, who was accompanied by Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jamnalal Bajaj who brought the two together.

'An accomplished academic, an extremely supportive wife, a doting mother, a philanthropist and pragmatist, Sarala Birla was a human being of a rare quality,' the BK Birla group said in a statement.

Sarala Birla's focus was on education. Along with her husband, she laid the foundations of around 45 educational institutions such as the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, the Ashok Hall Group of Schools, Mahadevi Birla World Academy, GD Birla Centre for Education and BK Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology.

She was a generous patron of art and culture and had a penchant for learning new languages. A French teacher would come twice a week to teach her French songs and brush up her knowledge of French even at this age.

Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Group, in a condolence message said: 'In Sarala Birla, we lost a living legend of Calcutta.'