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Mahadevi Varma
Indian writer and poet (1907–1987) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mahadevi Varma (26 March 1907 – 11 September 1987) was an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist and short-story writer. A prominent figure of Hindi literature, Varma is considered one of the four major pillars[a] of the Chhayawadi era in Hindi literature.[1]
Varma published eight collections of poetry between 1930 and 1988, as well as several books containing her essays, speeches and other prose work. Varma's work depicts her experiences before and after Indian independence, as well as her own work as a social reformer, primarily in the cause of women's liberation.
She has also been addressed as the modern Meera.[2] Poet Nirala once called her "Saraswati in the vast temple of Hindi Literature".[b][3] These works, especially her anthology Deepshikha,[4] greatly influenced both readers and critics.[5]
She developed a soft vocabulary in the Hindi poetry of Khadi Boli, which previously was considered possible only in Braj Bhasha. She was also well-versed in music, and her songs were characterized by a tone that conveyed sharp expressions in a nuanced and euphemistic style.[6] She started her career as a teacher and went on to become the principal of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth. Varma chose to live an ascetic life,[7][8] despite being married. She was also a painter and translator. She received all the major awards in Hindi literature. As the most celebrated female writer of the last century, she remains highly revered.[9] Her birth centenary was celebrated in 2007. Later, Google also celebrated this day through its Google Doodle.[10]
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Life and education
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Early life
Varma was born on 26 March 1907[11] in a Hindu Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha[12][13][14][15][16] family of Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.[17] Her father, Govind Prasad Varma, was a college professor in Bhagalpur. Her mother's name was Hem Rani Devi; she was a vegetarian and a passionate, religious woman with a keen interest in music.[11] Her mother spent hours reciting Ramayana, Gita and Vinay Patrika. In contrast, her father was a scholar, music lover, atheist, hunting enthusiast, and cheerful person. Sumitranandan Pant and Suryakant Tripathi Nirala were close friends of Mahadevi Varma.[18] It is said that for 40 years Varma tied Rakhi to Nirala.[19]
Education
Varma was originally admitted to a Convent school, but upon protests and an unwilling attitude, she was admitted to Crosthwaite Girls College in Prayagraj (then Allahabad).[7] According to Varma, she learned the strength of unity while staying in the hostel at Crosthwaite. Students of different religions lived together there. Varma started to write poems secretly, but upon discovery of her hidden stash of poems by her roommate and senior Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (known in the school for writing poems), her hidden talent was exposed.[20]
While others used to play outside, me and Subhadra used to sit on a tree and let our creative thoughts flow together...She used to write in Khariboli, and soon I also started to write in Khariboli...this way, we used to write one or two poems a day...
— Mahadevi Verma, Smrti Chitra (Memory Sketch) English Translation[21]
She and Subhadra would also send poems to various publications, including weekly magazines, and managed to get some of their poems published. Both the budding poets also attended poetry seminars, where they met eminent Hindi poets and read their poems to the audience. This partnership continued until Subhadra graduated from Crosthwaite.[22]
In her childhood biography, Mere Bachpan Ke Din (My Childhood Days),[23] Varma wrote that she was very fortunate to be born into a liberal family at a time when girl children were considered family burdens. Her grandfather reportedly had the ambition of making her a scholar; although he insisted that she comply with tradition and marry at the age of nine.[24] Her mother was fluent both in Sanskrit and Hindi and was firmly devoted to religion. Mahadevi credits her mother for inspiring her to write poems and take an interest in literature.[25]
Having been wed as a child, Mahadevi was expected to live with her husband after her graduation in 1929, but she refused[26] because she found his hunting and meat-eating offensive.[27] Her remorseful father offered to convert along with her if she wanted to divorce and remarry (as Hindus could not legally divorce at the time), but she refused, saying she wanted to remain single.[28] She even unsuccessfully tried to convince her husband to remarry.[24] Later, she reportedly considered becoming a Buddhist nun but eventually chose not to, even though she studied Buddhist Pali and Prakrit texts as part of her master's degree.[24]
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Professional career
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Literary
Nihar (IPA: Nīhār) was her debut collection of poems. She composed Nihar,[29] Rashmi,[30] and Neerja[31] in the years 1930, 1932, and 1933 respectively. In 1935, a collection of her poems titled Sandhyageet[32] was published. In 1939, four poetic collections were published with their respective artworks under the title Yāmā.[33] Apart from these, she has also written 18 novels and short stories, with Mera Parivar (My Family), Smriti ki Rekhaye (Lines of Memory), Patha ke Sathi (Path's Companions), Srinkhala ke Kariye (Series of Links) and Atit ke Chalachrit (Past Movies) being prominent among them.[34] She is also considered the pioneer of feminism in India.[35]
Women's advocacy
Varma's career had always revolved around writing, editing, and teaching, significantly contributing to the development of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth in Allahabad.[7] This kind of responsibility was considered a revolutionary step in the field of women's education at the time. She also had been its Principal.[36] In 1923, she took over the women's leading magazine Chand. In the year 1955, Varma established the Literary Parliament in Allahabad with the help of Ilachandra Joshi and eventually took up the editorship of its publication. She laid the foundation for women's poets' conferences in India.[37] Mahadevi was greatly influenced by Buddhism. Under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi, she took up public service and worked in Jhansi alongside the Indian freedom struggle.[38]
In 1937, Mahadevi Varma built a house in the village of Umagarh, Ramgarh, Uttarakhand, 25 km from Nainital. She named it Meera Temple. She started working for the village people and their education. She dedicated herself to women's education and their economic self-sufficiency. Today, this bungalow is known as the Mahadevi Sahitya Museum.[39][40][41] Through sustained efforts, she fostered the courage and determination supporting women's liberation and development.[42]
Her strong condemnation of social stereotypes earned her recognition as a women's rights advocate.[43] She had also been called a social reformer due to her development work and public service towards women and their education.[44] Throughout her creations, there are no visions of pain or anguish anywhere but the indomitable creative fury reflected in the society's desire for change and an innate attachment towards development.[44][45]
In Hindu, Stree Ka Patnitva (The Wifehood of Hindu Women) marriage is compared to slavery. She writes that, without affiliation to any political or financial authority, women are relegated to roles as wives and mothers. Her feminism is often overshadowed by her poetic persona. Through poems like Cha, she explores themes and ideas of female sexuality, while her short stories such as Biblia, discuss the subject of experiences of women's physical and mental abuse.[46]
She spent most of her life in Allahabad (Prayagraj) of Uttar Pradesh. She died in Allahabad on 11 September 1987.[47]
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Works
Varma was a poet as well as a distinguished prose and story writer. An excerpt of her work:
Poetry
Several other poetic collections of Mahadevi Varma are also published, in which selected songs from the above compositions have been compiled.
Prose
List of selected prose works includes[34]
- Shrinkhala ki Kadiyan (1942)
- Smriti ki Rekhaye (1943)
- Sansmaran (1943)
- Sambhasan (1949)
- Path ke Sathi (1956)
- Skandha (1956)
- Ateet Ke Chalchitra (1961)
- Mera Parivar (1972)
- Vivechamanak Gadya (1972)
- Himalaya (1973)
- Meera Aur Meera (1975) : A collection of speeches on Meerabai.[52]
Others
Two compilations of children's poems of Mahadevi Varma are
Critical analysis
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Mahadevi Verma’s poetry has often been interpreted as deeply personal, especially in its exploration of emotional themes such as pain, longing, compassion, and spiritual yearning. While many critics have praised the emotive power and lyrical depth of her work, others have questioned the authenticity or universality of her emotional expression.
One such critic, the moralist Ramchandra Shukla, expressed skepticism about the reality of her poetic anguish. He noted:
Concerning this anguish, she has revealed such sensations of the heart which are extraterrestrial. As for how real these sensations are, nothing definite can be said.
(English translation)[54]
In contrast, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi viewed Verma’s poetry as a collective reflection of human emotion. He argued that her poetic pain was not confined to individual sorrow but symbolized universal experiences:
Poems such as Deep (from Nihar), Madhur Madhur Mere Deepak Jal (from Neerja), and Mome Sa Tan Gal Hai are frequently cited as representative of Verma’s introspective and reflective tone. These works, while sometimes seen as self-centered, also align with the aesthetic and thematic concerns of the Chhayavaad (Shadowism) literary movement.
Literary scholar Satya Prakash Mishra offered a philosophical reading of Verma’s role in redefining Chhayavaad:
Mahadevi not only distanced herself from the earlier mystical and object-centered constructs of Chhayavaad, but also reshaped it through humanistic rationalism. Her poetry marked a shift in sensation and expression, focusing not on mere sentiment or devotion, but on the character, essence, and evolution of Chhayavaad itself.
(English translation)[55]
American novelist and translator David Rubin praised her distinctive poetic voice and technical finesse:
What arrests us in Mahadevi's work is the striking originality of the voice and the technical ingenuity which enabled her to create, through a series of mostly short lyrics across five volumes, a consistently evolving representation of total subjectivity measured against the vastness of cosmic nature. There is little direct human interaction—only metaphorical acts like weeping, walking the road, or playing the Veena.[24]
Writer and critic Prabhakar Shrotriya rejected the notion that Mahadevi Verma should be seen solely as a poet of sorrow and despair. He wrote:
In fact, the core of Mahadevi's creative force is not tears but fire. What appears on the surface is not the ultimate truth; the invisible realm is the true source of her inspiration. Her tears are not of ordinary sadness, but the result of internal storms—of thunder, rebellion, and fierce inner flame.
(English translation)[56]
In the scholarly paper Ethical Literary Criticism of the Pain Emotion in Mahadevi Verma’s Poetry, researcher Li Yalan examined how critics have interpreted Verma’s recurrent focus on suffering. While acknowledging the spiritual and metaphysical tone of her poetry, Li noted that many critics view her portrayal of pain as more symbolic or lyrical than literal. Some also argue that her melancholic tone feels somewhat anachronistic or disconnected from the historical realities of her time.[57]
Despite these debates, Mahadevi Verma remained deeply engaged with the social and political issues of her time. During the Bengal famine of 1973, she published a poetry collection that included the piece Banga Bhu Shanth Vandana.[58] Similarly, in response to the Sino-Indian War, she edited a patriotic poetry collection titled Himalaya.[59]
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Honours and awards
- 1956: Padma Bhushan[60]
- 1979: Sahitya Akademi Fellowship[61]
- 1982: Jnanpith Award for her poetry collection Yāmā.[61]
- 1988: Padma Vibhushan[60][62]
In 1979, the Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen produced a Bengali film on her memoir Woh Chini Bhai,[63] titled Neel Akasher Neechey.[64] On 14 September 1991, the Postal Department of the Government of India issued a doubles stamp of ₹2 honouring her and Jaishankar Prasad.[65]
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Literary contributions
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The emergence of Mahadevi Varma in literature happened at a time when the shape of Khadi Boli was being refined. She introduced Braj bhasha softness to Hindi poetry. She gave a repository of songs with a heartfelt acceptance of Indian philosophy. In this way, she did important work in the three fields of language, literature and philosophy which later influenced an entire generation. She created a unique rhythm and simplicity in the composition and language of her songs, as well as the natural use of symbols and images that draw a picture in the mind of the reader.[66] Her contribution to the prosperity of Chhayavadi poetry is very important. While Jaishankar Prasad gave naturalization to the Chhayavadi poetry, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala embodied the liberation in it and Sumitranandan Pant brought the art of delicateness, but Varma embodied life to the Chhayavadi poetry. The most prominent feature of her poetry is emotionalism and intensity of feeling. A such, lively and tangible manifestation of the subtle expressions of the heart, makes 'Varma' among the best Chhayavadi poets.[67] She is remembered with respect for her speeches in Hindi. Her speeches were full of compassion for the common man and firm in the truth. At the 3rd World Hindi Conference held in Delhi in 1983, she was the chief guest of the closing ceremony.[68]
Apart from the original creations, she was also a creative translator, with works like her translation of Saptaparna (1980). With the help of her cultural consciousness, she has presented 39 selected important pieces of Hindi poetry in her work by establishing the identity of Vedas, Ramayana, Theragatha and the works of Ashwaghosh, Kalidas, Bhavabhuti and Jayadeva. In the beginning, in the 61-page Apna Baat, she gives thorough research on this invaluable heritage of Indian wisdom and literature, which enriches the overall thinking and fine writing of Hindi, not just limited female writing.[69]
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See also
References
Notes
Further reading
External links
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