Mahadevi Verma

Mahadevi Verma wrote soft, glowing Hindi poems about longing and love. She also ran a school for girls in Allahabad and made sure many young girls got a good education.

People called her the 'modern Meera' because her poems, like Meerabai's songs, felt full of quiet devotion. She wrote about a pet deer, a stubborn puppy and everyday people, and her stories are as warm as a shawl on a winter morning.

Mahadevi Verma was born in 1907 in Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh. She was one of the four pillars of the Chhayavaad school of modern Hindi poetry, along with Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant and Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'.

Her poetry, in collections like 'Nihar', 'Rashmi', 'Neerja', 'Sandhya Geet' and 'Deepshikha', is known for its music, its imagery and its deep emotional charge.

She was also a fine prose writer. Her sketches of people around her, like 'Ateet Ke Chalchitra' and 'Smriti Ki Rekhayen', are considered classics of Hindi literature.

She served for many years as the principal of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth in Allahabad, working steadily for the education of girls. She received the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, in 1982 for her collection 'Yama', and the Padma Vibhushan in 1988.

She is remembered as a poet, a teacher and a champion of women's learning.