Mahadevi Varma | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1907-03-26)26 March 1907 |
| Died | 11 September 1987(1987-09-11) (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Poet, essayist and sketch story writer |
| Alma mater | Allahabad University |
| Literary movement | Chhayavaad |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards | 1956 Padma Bhushan 1982 Jnanpith Award 1988 Padma Vibhushan |
| Spouse | Vikas Narayan Singh |
| Signature | |
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 Literature portal | |
Mahadevi Varma (26 March 1907 – 11 September 1987) was anIndianHindi-language poet, essayist and short-story writer. As a prominent figure ofHindi literature, she is regarded as one of the four major pillars[a] of theChhayavadi era.[1]
Between 1930 and 1988, Varma published eight collections of poetry, along with several books, containing her essays, speeches, and other prose work. Her work depicts her experiences before and after the decleration ofIndian independence, as well as her own experience as a social reformer, primarily in the cause ofwomen's liberation.
Varma has been described as the modernMeera.[2] PoetNirālā once called her "Saraswati in the vast temple of Hindi Literature".[b][3]
She developed a soft vocabulary in the Hindi poetry ofKhadi Boli, which previously was considered possible only inBraj Bhasha. She was also well-versed in music, with her songs characterized by a tone that conveyed sharp expressions, in a nuanced andeuphemistic style.[4]
She started her career as a teacher and went on to become the principal ofPrayag Mahila Vidyapeeth. Varma chose to live anascetic life,[5][6] despite beingmarried. She was also a painter and translator. She went onto also receive all the major awards in Hindi literature.
As the most celebrated female writer of the last century, she remains highly revered.[7] Her centenary was celebrated in 2007. In 2018,Google honoured her with aGoogle Doodle.[8]
Varma was born on 26 March 1907[9] in a HinduChitraguptavanshi Kayastha[10][11][12][13][14] family fromFarrukhabad inUttar Pradesh.[15] Her father, Govind Prasad Varma, was a college professor inBhagalpur. Her mother, Hem Rani Devi, was a vegetarian and a religious woman, with a keen interest in music.[9] Varma's mother spent hours recitingRamayana,Gita andVinay Patrika. Her father was a scholar, music lover, atheist, and hunting enthusiast.Sumitranandan Pant andSuryakant Tripathi, known as "Nirālā", were close friends of Mahadevi Varma.[16] It is said that Varma tiedRakhi to Nirālā for 40 years.[17]
Varma was originally admitted to aConvent school, but upon her insistence and objection, she was admitted to Crosthwaite Girls College inPrayagraj (thenAllahabad).[5] According to Varma, she learned the strength of unity while staying in the hostel at Crosthwaite, where students of different religions lived together. At first, she started to write poems discreetly. However, it was her roommate and senior,Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (known in the school for writing poems), who discovered her hidden stash of poems eventually exposing Varma's hidden talent.[18]
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 inKhariboli, 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[19]
She and Subhadra would also send poems to various publications, including weekly magazines, and managed to get some of their poems published. The budding poets also attendedpoetry seminars, where they met eminent Hindi poets and read their poems to the audience. This partnership continued until Subhadra graduated from Crosthwaite.[20]
In her childhood biography,Mere Bachpan Ke Din (My Childhood Days),[21] Varma wrote that she was very fortunate to be born into a liberal family, especially at a time when girls were considered a burden to their families. Her grandfather reportedly had the ambition of making her a scholar, although he insisted that she follow the tradition and marry at the age of 9.[22] Her mother was fluent in bothSanskrit andHindi and was strongly committed to her faith. Varma credits her mother for inspiring her to write poems and take an interest in literature.[23]
Married as a child, Varma was expected to live with her husband after graduating in 1929, but she refused[24] as she found his hunting and meat-eating habits offensive.[25] Her remorseful father offered to convert along with her if she wanted to divorce and remarry (since Hindus could not legally divorce at the time), but she declined, insisting she wanted to remain single.[26] She even tried, unsuccessfully, to convince her husband to remarry.[22] Later, she reportedly considered becoming aBuddhist nun but decided against it, though she studied BuddhistPali andPrakrit texts for her master's degree.[22]
Nihar was her debut collection of poems. She composedNihar in 1930,[27]Rashmi in 1932,[28] andNeerja in 1933.[29] In 1936, a collection of her poems titledSandhya Geet[30] was published. In 1939, four poetry collections were published with their respective artworks under the titleYāmā.[31] Apart from these, she also wrote memoirs and essays, withMera Parivar (My Family),Smriti ki Rekhaye (Sketches from memory),Path ke Sathi (Path's Companions),Shrinkhala ki Kariyan (Series of Links), andAteet ke Chalchitra (Scenes from Past) being prominent among them.
Varma is also considered among the pioneers offeminism in India.[32] Her career had always revolved around writing, editing, and teaching, all of which significantly contributed to the development ofPrayag Mahila Vidyapeeth inAllahabad.[5] This kind of responsibility was considered a revolutionary step in the field of women's education at the time. She also worked as a schoolprincipal.[33] In 1923, she took overChand, the women's leading magazine. 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 poets' conferences in India.[34] Mahadevi was greatly influenced byBuddhism. Under the influence ofMahatma Gandhi, she took up public service and worked in Jhansi in support of the Indian freedom struggle.[35]
In 1937, Mahadevi Varma built a house in the village ofUmagarh,Ramgarh, Uttarakhand, 25 km fromNainital. She named it Meera Temple. She started working for the people of the village 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.[36][37][38] Through sustained efforts, she fostered courage and determination in supporting women's liberation and development.[39]
Her strong condemnation of social stereotypes earned her recognition as a women's rights advocate.[40] She had also been called a social reformer due to her development work and public service towards women and their education.[41] 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.[41][42]
InHindu, 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 likeCha, she explores themes and ideas of female sexuality, while her short stories, such asBiblia, discuss the subject of experiences of women's physical and mental abuse.[43]
She spent most of her life inAllahabad (Prayagraj),Uttar Pradesh. She died in Allahabad on 11 September 1987.[44]
Varma was a poet as well as a distinguished prose and story writer. Her works are as listed below:
Several other poetic collections of Mahadevi Varma have also been published, in which selected songs from the above compositions have been compiled.
List of selected prose works includes
Two compilations of children's poems of Mahadevi Varma are
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Mahadevi Varma'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 of her emotional expression.
One such critic, the moralistRamchandra 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)[52]
In contrast,Hazari Prasad Dwivedi viewed Varma'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 asDeep (from Nihar),Madhur Madhur Mere Deepak Jal (from Neerja), andMome Sa Tan Gal Hai, are frequently cited as representative of Varma's introspective and reflective tone. These works, while sometimes seen as self-centered, also align with the aesthetic and thematic concerns of theChhayavaad (Shadowism) literary movement.
Literary scholarSatya Prakash Mishra offered a philosophical reading of Varma'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)[53]
American novelist and translatorDavid 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 that 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 theVeena.[22]
Writer and critic Prabhakar Shrotriya rejected the notion that Mahadevi Varma 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)[54]
In the scholarly paper Ethical Literary Criticism of the Pain Emotion in Mahadevi Varma's Poetry, researcher Li Yalan examined how critics have interpreted Varma'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 somewhatanachronistic or disconnected from the historical realities of her time.[55]
Despite these debates, Mahadevi Varma remained deeply engaged with the social and political issues of her time. During theBengal famine of 1943, she published a poetry collection that included the pieceBanga Bhu Shanth Vandana.[56] Similarly, in response to theSino-Indian War, she edited a patriotic poetry collection titledHimalaya.[57]
In 1979, the Indian filmmakerMrinal Sen produced a Bengali film on her memoirWoh Chini Bhai (The Chinese Brothers),[60] titledNeel Akasher Neechey.[61] On 14 September 1991, the Postal Department of the Government of India, issued a doubles stamp of₹2 honoring her andJaishankar Prasad.[62]
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The emergence of Mahadevi Varma in literature happened at a time when the shape ofKhadi Boli was being refined. She introducedBraj bhasha softness to Hindi poetry. She developed a repertoire of songs reflecting her heartfelt acceptance of Indian philosophy. By which, she became an influential figure in language, literature, and philosophy, all of which later influenced an entire generation. Varma created a unique rhythm and simplicity within 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.[63] Her contribution to the prosperity of Chhayavadi poetry is significant; whileJaishankar Prasad gave naturalization to theChhayavadi poetry,Suryakant TripathiNirālā embodied the liberation in it andSumitranandan Pant brought the art of delicateness, Varma embodied life in the Chhayavadi poetry. The most prominent features of her poetry areemotionalism and intensity of feeling. A such, lively and tangible manifestation of the subtle expressions of the heart, makes "Varma" among the bestChhayavadi poets.[64] 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 3rdWorld Hindi Conference held in Delhi in 1983, she was the chief guest of the closing ceremony.[65]
Apart from her original creations, she was also a creative translator, with works such as, her translation ofSaptaparna (1980). With the help of her cultural consciousness, she presented 39 selected important pieces of Hindi poetry in her work, by establishing the identity ofVedas,Ramayana,Theragatha and the works ofAshwaghosh,Kalidas,Bhavabhuti, andJayadeva. In the beginning, in the 61-pageApna Baat, she gives thorough research on this invaluable heritage of Indian wisdom and literature, enriching the overall thinking and fine writing of Hindi, not just limited to female writing.[66]
Many of Mahadevi Varma’s work — particularly prose writings — have been translated into English, both in full volumes as well as anthologies.
Translations of Mahadevi Varma’s poetry have appeared in a few editions.Selected Poems: Mahadevi Varma (1987), translated by L.S. Sinha, was among the earliest stand-alone English editions of her poems.[71]David Rubin included substantial selections of her work inThe Return of Sarasvati: Four Hindi Poets (1998) and inOf Love and War: A Chhayavad Anthology (2005).[22][72]Beyond these, a few poems have been translated into various journals. Notable appearances includeThe Illustrated Weekly of India, Hindi Review (the English organ of theNagari Pracharini Sabha),Indian Literature published by theSahitya Akademi, andModern Indian Literature: An Anthology edited byK.M. George.[73][74]
