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Mahadevi Varma

Mahadevi Varmabest known as an outstandingHindipoet, and was a freedom fighter, womans activist andeducationist from India. She is widely regarded asthe modernMeera".[1] She was a major poet of theChhayavaad generation, a period of romanticism in Mod-ernHindi poetryranging from 19141938.[2] With pas-sage of time, her limited but outstanding prose has beenrecognised as unique in Hindi Literature. She was aprominent poet in HindiKavi sammelans(Gatherings ofpoets).

She was the Principal, and then the Vice-Chancellor ofPrayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, a womans residential collegein Allahabad. She was awarded Indias highest literaryaward, for lifetime achievement, theSahitya AkademiFellowshipin 1979, followed by theJnanpith Awardin1982.[3] She was the recipient of thePadma Bhushanin1956[4] and thePadma Vibhushanin 1988, Indias thirdand second highest civilian awards respectively.[5]

1 Life

Mahadevi was born inFarukhabadin a kayastha fam-ily of lawyers. She was educated at Jabalpur- MadhyaPradesh. She was the eldest child of Govinda PrasadVarma and Hemaa rani and had two brothers, Jagmohanand Manmohan, and a sister, Shyaama. She got marriedto Dr Swarup Narain Varma in Indore when she was inher childhood. She stayed with her parents while her hus-band studied in Lucknow to complete his education, dur-ing which time, she received her higher education at theAllahabad Universityand passed her B.A.examination in1929andcompleted hermastersdegree-M.A. in Sanskritin 1933.

After the death of her husband in 1966, she moved per-manently toAllahabadand lived there until her death.

Mahadevi was appointed as the first headmistress of Al-lahabad (Prayag) Mahila Vidyapeeth, which was startedwith a view to imparting cultural and literary educationto girls through Hindi medium. Later, she became thechancellor of the institute.

2 Early life

In her childhood biography Mere Bachpan Ke Din (MyChildhood Days), Mahadevi Varma has written that at atime when a girl child was considered a burden upon the

family, she was very fortunate to be born into a liberalfamily. Her grandfather had theambition of makingher ascholar; her mother was fluent inSanskritandHindi, andvery religious. Mahadevi credits her mother for inspiringher to write poems, and to take an interest in literature.

Mahadevi was originally admitted to aConventschool,but upon protests and an unwilling attitude, she took ad-mission in Crosthwaite Girls College in Allahabad. Ac-cording to Mahadevi, she learnt the strength of unity inthe hostel at Crosthwaite, where students of different re-

ligions lived together and the mess was also according tothe religious requirement. Mahadevi started to write po-ems secretly; but upon discovery of her hidden stash ofpoems by her room-mate and senior Subhadra KumariChauhan(known in the school for writing poems), herhidden talent was exposed. Mahadevi and Subhrada nowstarted to write poems together in their free time.

While others used to play outside, me andSubhrada used to sit on a tree, and let ourcreative thoughts flow together...She used towrite inKhariboli, and soon I also started to

write in Khadiboli...this way, we used to writeone or two poems a day... Mahadevi Varma, Mere Bachpan Ke Din

SheandSubhrada also used to send poems to publicationssuch as weekly magazines, and managed to get some oftheir poems published. Both poets also attendedpoetryseminars, where they met eminent Hindi poets, and readout their poems to the audience. This partnership contin-ued till Subhrada graduated from Crosthwaite.

3 Works

Mahadevi is considered to be one of the four major poetsof theChhayavaadischool of the Hindi literature, othersbeingSuryakant Tripathi 'Nirala',Jaishankar PrasadandSumitranandan Pant. She was also a noted painter. Shedrew a number of illustrations for her poetic works likeHindi andYama. Her other works include short storiessuch as Gillu () which talks about her experiencewith a squirrel and it is included in the CBSE 9th classcourse, and 'Neelkanth' which talks about her experience

with a peacock,which is also included as a chapter into thesyllabus of Central Board of Secondary Education for the7th graders. She has also written Gaura which is based

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumitranandan_Panthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaishankar_Prasadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suryakant_Tripathi_%2527Nirala%2527https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhayavaadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavi_sammelanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavi_sammelanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharibolihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhadra_Kumari_Chauhanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhadra_Kumari_Chauhanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farukhabadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Vibhushanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Bhushanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnanpith_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademi_Fellowshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademi_Fellowshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavi_sammelanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_poetryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhayavaadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabaihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi

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on her real life, in this story she wrote about a beautifulcow. Mahadevi Varma is also known for her childhoodmemoir,Mere Bachpan Ke DinandGillu ()", whichwas inducted into the syllabus of IndiasCentral Board ofSecondary Educationfor the 9th grade.

The following are works of Mahadevi Varmas that em-ploy her pets as characters central to that respective work:

Neehar(1930)

Rashmi(1932)

Neeraja(1934)

Sandhyageet(1936)

Deepshikha(1939)

Agnirekha(1990, published after her death)

Compilations from these collections have been publishedunder various titles. Some of them include: (a) Yama(Neehar+ Rashmi+Neeraja+Saandhyageet) (b) Sandhini(c) Neelaambara (d) Aatmika (e) Deepgeet The addi-tional feature in these collections is a new Bhoomikasor introdictory note written in the inimitable style of Ma-hadevi. Stories She has written many notable storieslike (a) Ateet ke Chalchitra (b) Smriti ki Rekhyein (c)Shrinkhala ki Kariyan (d) Gheesa

4 Awards and honours

Mahadevi Varmas creative talents and sharp intellectsoon earned her a prominent place in the Hindi Literaryworld. She is considered among the four pillars of theChaayavad movement. In 1934, she received SekseriyaPuraskarfrom theHindi Sahitya Sammelanfor her work,Niraja. Her poetry collection (Yama, 1936) re-ceived theJnanpith Award, one of the highest Indian lit-erary awards.

She also Honored with Proud Past Alumni in thelist of 42 members, from Allahabad University

Alumni Association, NCR, Ghaziabad (GreaterNoida) Chapter 20072008 registered under soci-ety act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000.[6][7][8]

The Government of India bestowed her with PadmaBhushan, Indias third-highest civilian award. She was thefirst woman to be awarded theSahitya Akademi Fellow-ship, in 1979.[9] In 1988, Indian Government bestowedher withPadma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilianaward.[10]

5 References

[1] Mahadevi Verma: Modern Meera

[2] Mahadevi Varma: The woman who began the era of ro-manticism in Hindi literature.

[3] Jnanpith Laureates Official listings.JnanpithWebsite.

[4] Padma Awards(PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Gov-ernment of India. 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

[5] Padma Vibhshan

[6] She is Proud Past Alumni Allahabad University

[7] " Internet Archive of Proud Past Alumni

[8] "" Internet Archive of Proud Past Alumni

[9] Fellowships Sahitya AkademiOfficial website.

[10] Padma Vibhshan

6 Further reading

Gupta, Indra Indias 50 Most Illustrious WomenISBN 81-88086-19-3

Schomer, Karine (1998).Mahadevi Varma and theChhayavad Age of Modern Hindi Poetry, New Delhi:Oxford University Press,ISBN 0-19-564450-6.

7 External links

Mahadevi Varma at Kavita Kosh(Hindi)

Mahadevi Verma at Indohistory

Mahadevi Varma at Anubhuti

Some poems of Mahadevi Varma (in Devanagariscript)

http://geeta-kavita.com/article.asp?article=list_poems#mahadevihttp://geeta-kavita.com/article.asp?article=list_poems#mahadevihttp://www.anubhuti-hindi.org/gauravgram/mahadevi/index.htmhttp://www.indohistory.com/mahadevi_verma.htmlhttp://www.kavitakosh.org/kk/index.php?title=%25E0%25A4%25AE%25E0%25A4%25B9%25E0%25A4%25BE%25E0%25A4%25A6%25E0%25A5%2587%25E0%25A4%25B5%25E0%25A5%2580_%25E0%25A4%25B5%25E0%25A4%25B0%25E0%25A5%258D%25E0%25A4%25AE%25E0%25A4%25BEhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0195644506https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/8188086193http://india.gov.in/myindia/padmavibhushan_awards_list1.phphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademihttp://www.sahitya-akademi.org/sahitya-akademi/awa2.htmhttp://archive.is/aKXWhttp://archive.is/7ocuihttp://auaa.in/?page_id=31http://india.gov.in/myindia/padmavibhushan_awards_list1.phphttp://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnanpithhttp://jnanpith.net/laureates/index.htmlhttp://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/mahadevi-varma/1/627594.htmlhttp://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/mahadevi-varma/1/627594.htmlhttp://literaryindia.com/Literature/Indian-Authors/mahadevi-verma.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Vibhushanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademi_Fellowshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademi_Fellowshiphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Bhushanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padma_Bhushanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnanpith_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Board_of_Secondary_Educationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Board_of_Secondary_Education

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